Purdey guns have always been crafted in London, and originally the workshop and showroom were one and the same; first in Princes Street off Leicester Square (which became ‘Wardour Street’ in 1878), and, from 1826, at 314 ½ Oxford Street – former premises of that ‘king of gunmaking’ Joseph Manton, under whom James Purdey first honed his skills.

We acquired the lease to our first dedicated workshop, 37 North Row, on 1 December 1881. In the 130 years since then, Purdey gunmaking has remained based in west London: moving to Irongate Wharf in 1900, and North Wharf Road after that. In October 1979, we moved into our current home in Hammersmith.

But a workshop is nothing without its workers, and it is these men, often handing down skills from father to son, that truly maintain the Purdey legacy.

Many families have served over generations, none more successfully than the Lawrences. Ernest Charles Lawrence started at Purdey’s as a finisher; such was his skill that the other men soon found their work being sent back, having failed to meet the new quality standard he’d attained.

It was Ernest Charles who formulated the secret mixture, ‘slacum’, with which we still polish our gunstocks today.

Ernest Lawrence’s son, Harry, joined Purdey as an apprentice in 1914. It was he, who, along with the stocker Gus Schackell, and finisher Mickey Miles, crafted the perfect pair of miniature side-by-side guns which now rest on the writing desk in the study of Queen Mary’s dolls’ house in Windsor Castle.

Harry Lawrence’s most famous achievement, though, was his creation of a trio of Purdeys in 1935, each exactly one-sixth the size of King George V’s 12-bore hammer gun, to celebrate the King’s Silver Jubilee. Guns number 25,000-25,002 took almost three years to complete, and their meticulously crafted, 3 ½” long barrels even fired their own special cartridges, commissioned from ICI.

Purdey guns have always been handcrafted in London.
Throughout the nineteenth century, they were manufactured centrally: first in the small shop on what is today known as Wardour Street. Then on Oxford Street, at number 314 (they were sold from 315, next door). And finally from North Row, just one road away, when our shop moved to its Audley House home.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Purdey gunmaking moved west. From 1900 to 1950, our factory could be found on Irongate Wharf, close to Praed Street in Paddington. After a spell on the Great West Road, in a site acquired by the great Harry Lawrence, in 1979 our craftsmen moved to west London Felgate House.