| Established in 1905 with over 100 years of trading and experience in serving the public with beds and mattresses you have no need to look any further for your dream bed. You can order your bed online or call us with any questions you might have regarding your purchase, then complete your order with one of our highly experienced salesman.
If you are looking for a bed or frame which we don't have on our website, please feel free to call us and we will see if we can order it for you at the best possible price.We stock beds and mattresses from : Sealy, Silentnight, Slumberland, Myers, Millbrook, hypnos, pocket spring bed company, and Kaymed along with many many more.
Company News
Keep up to date with BLT Beds and our brands in the BLT Beds blog - blog.bltbeds.co.uk
Company History
In 1905 a young, aspiring salesman, Harold Nichols, left a comfortable position with a large department store in Birmingham. Born in Earlham, outside Norwich he had travelled to Birmingham to learn his trade there and had managed to save £100 pounds from his meagre salary to fulfil his dream; his own shop. Cycling back to Norwich, he happened upon a leasehold in Cambridge, dismounted and purchased it that same day
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The next few years were hard, with him sleeping under the counter and only allowing himself a ‘sixpenny’ ticket to the theatre once a month. He decided to call the shop Belfast Linen rather than the normal Nichols & Sons, as he wanted to associate himself with the finest quality linen warehouses, renowned all over the World at that time. Modern marketing over a century ago.
Picture Shown: 1946 36 St Andrews Street Cambridge After the world war finished large numbers of people queuing for blankets. |
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All shopkeepers used to wait by their front doors to welcome customers inside and when a carriage and four stopped outside and a Lady bought her entire linen cortège from his shop, many envious faces were to be seen from fellow shopkeepers. Where the gentry shopped, others followed and by 1914 he had expanded to two stores, another in Kings Lynn.
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Due to his love of horse riding, he had been in the East Anglian reserves, so was called up for King and Country immediately. The cavalry were quickly seconded to the artillery and he spent all four years of the first World War with the ‘big guns’- leaving his business, with some trepidation, to his youngest Sister, the only one not married. Miraculously, he survived and returned to find his business had flourished under that ‘feminine touch’.
Picture Shown: 1960 Belfast Linen in Ipswich |
He purchased two more shops in Bedford and Oxford and Maddie and her offspring ran parallel Belfast Linen that lasted until 1968 with branches as far as Cardiff.
This Belfast Linen grew to five stores until in 1939 the Second World War disrupted trade. Two sons Douglas and Kenneth fought as Spitfire pilots in that conflict. The business was halted as rationing meant no stock to sell. Harold had the foresight to board up his remaining goods and it was this surplus that enabled the business to resume trading in 1946, when blankets and sheets were impossible to find on the High street.
Picture Shown: 1965 36 to 38 St Andrews Street Cambridge, we expanded next door to offer 3 floors of linens, beds and carpets. |
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Douglas operated the purchasing and Kenneth administered the finance. It was a winning combination and by 1968, when Douglas died, the business had grown to 7 shops, all in East Anglia.Southend saw the birth of Restwell Beds, our own manufacturing company during the fifties and sixties.
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In 1971 the next generation of Nichols’s joined, Peter and Harry, and the business continued to flourish until by 1990 the company was turning over in excess of
£10, 000,000 out of 20 stores.It was during the property boom of the nineties that the company changed direction once again, to become mainly a property company. The era of the ‘linen cupboards’ and ‘specialist furnishings’ having been superseded by out of town ‘hypermarkets’ and eventually ‘internet shopping’.
Picture Shown: 1988 High Street Kings Lynn, Norfolk |
Alexander Nichols now runs BLT beds and this business alone has a grown to in excess of a million pound turnover, well secured by the financial stability of the principles of the old company and built with the same ‘good value’ and ‘best quality’ which has been the backbone of Family fair trading for over 100 years. Purchase with confidence - as the good Lady did in her carriage and four.
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Testimonials
See below for some comments left by our many satisfied customers:
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank you so much for delivering the 4' divan I ordered in a week, I know you did me a favour and I really appreciate it, espeacially as I have visitors arriving this weekend!
Thank you once again for your service."
Mrs R, Gloucs.
"Many thanks for that. Just to let you know, we are very pleased with the bed.
A great firm to deal with!"
Mr G, Notts.
"I recently had to cancel my order with you due to financial reasons.
I was impressed with the help that I received and even more impressed with the swift refund.
Your service is better than any other company I have ever dealt with.
When we are ready to re-order the bed in the new year, it will definitely be with you.
Miss D, Bristol
"Just to say we've received the Flame Rosie - sofa.
The service has been fantastic, the delivery people rang to organise delivery and came on time and were very helpful.
Many thanks for the service - we'll definitely recommend bltbeds!"
Mrs W, Harrogate
"Thank you for your excellent service. Everything went as planned, and we are very pleased with our purchase."
Mrs L, Somerset | |
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