On 1 January 1883, James Purdey & Sons relocated to Audley House, 57-58 South Audley Street, Mayfair.
The building, designed by architect William Lambert and completed by B.E. Nightingale, was fast acknowledged as the most prestigious gun shop in the country. Land and Water called it a ‘Palace amongst Gun Manufactories’ – for originally, guns were stocked, finished and engraved on the premises.
Looking down into a ‘well’ in the Long Room, James Purdey the Younger could follow the progress of the craftsmen below. In photographs of the time, piles of wooden ‘blanks’ can be seen alongside it, waiting to be turned into stocks.