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Beall & Co Cork Merchants

Beall & Co Cork Merchants at 51 Gardner Street, was established by T.H.Beall in 1883. Bealls produced any amount of items like place mats, bath mats and other quirky cork items like cork doll’s furniture and 3-D cork pictures. When it closed in 1983, the shop-front was dismantled and reassembled in Brighton Museum, where you can still see it today.

Do you remember Bealls? What sorts of things did you buy there? Have you still got any of them? If you can share your memories of Bealls, please leave a comment below.

Beall & Co in Gardner Street
Image reproduced with kind permission of The Regency Society and The James Gray Collection
Kevin Bacon of Brighton Museum photographed outside the reconstruction of Beall & Co
Photo by Tony Mould

Comments about this page

  • I used to stock up on corks for my father’s home-made wine phase during the 1970s. Great shop!

    By Martin Scrace (08/03/2013)
  • I remember that shop, very old fashioned but, very interesting. Strange things all made from cork. I have also seen it in the museum, I’m really pleased they have saved it.

    By Anne Newman (09/03/2013)
  • When Beall’s, closed Bob Metson bought their stock and tools to continue the service of relining vintage cork clutch plates until his retirement last year, that service now continues with The Clutch Cork Carvery, Lurgashall, Petworth, so it’s not just a museum piece.

    By Chris Pellett (12/03/2013)
  • I used to go there in the seventies to buy cork stoppers for jars of yoghurt.
    I can’t remember what else I used to buy.
    I saw the shop in the museum today and I noticed they used to sell cork insoles for shoes. I wonder why we had these, maybe to keep our feet warm.
    I also remembered the cork pictures and dolls furniture.
    My granny used to have a stool in her bathroom with a cork seat.

    By Dale (01/09/2022)

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