The Artichoke team is made up of exceptional, committed designers, craftspeople and project managers. With a team of over 50, we operate from our workshop and offices in Cheddar, Somerset.
We all design, build and manage with two purposes in mind: to help our clients live the lives they dream of in the houses of their dreams, and to have a positive and lasting impact on the interiors of fine English homes.
Our overriding purpose is to create Britain’s future heritage.
This purpose attracts great craftsmen and designers to our company and inspires them to do their very best work here.
Image by Country Life
Bruce founded Artichoke nearly 30 years ago having studied at the London School of Furniture. He remains the creative force behind the company, overseeing the direction of every project we design. A highly experienced kitchen and furniture designer, interior architect, cabinet maker and fitter, Bruce takes a keen interest in the domestic layouts of country and town houses and in how their architecture can be manipulated to improve how rooms function for our clients. Bruce is particularly interested in the joinery designs of Sir Edwin Lutyens as well as Edwardian and Georgian joinery detail. In 2018, Bruce was elected as a member of The Carpenters’ Company, a City of London Livery Company, set up in 1477 to safeguard the welfare of those working in the profession. Bruce will use his position as a liveryman to support, promote and encourage woodworking crafts. He will also work to create clear pathways for young people into craft-based businesses like ours. Hear more about Bruce in a podcast interview with Somerset Stories.
Our people may reach us from myriad directions but, whether we are designers, makers or managers of people and processes, we share many traits. We are fastidious in our concern for accuracy and detail. We are passionate about the traditions we maintain and the impact of our work on our clients and their houses.
We are committed not only to making a difference in our clients’ lives, but also in adding to the sum of Britain’s architectural heritage by designing and making architectural joinery and fitted furniture for generations to enjoy.
The people in our team come from an amazing range of backgrounds. Often their first careers, whether in law, science or the prison service never satisfied a simple but profound urge to make beautiful things. In some, the proclivity to craft and to create never found an outlet because mainstream British education often pays insufficient service to the design and making of things – traditional things in particular. Thus there is no clear, publicised pathway to work of the kind we do. So, typically, people beat a circuitous route to our door. This is something we are working to change with well structured apprenticeships and a training programme for young people in and around Somerset.