There are times in your life when the passage of time, it smack you inna head. All things are fleeting, sunrise, sunset, cat's in the cradle, down to a sunless sea, etc. And so, with this in mind, I salute Shadbolt International, manufacturer and purveyor of finest quality veneered doors. Why, you may ask, am I doing this? Because in 2007 this small piece of the North London landscape closed down and moved to Braintree, along with a little bit of my personal history.
For anyone who traveled along the North Circular Road on the way toward Walthamstow Stadium back then, the Shadbolt factory had been a landmark for years, and each week the good folks working there displayed a sample veneer from their most commodious range, as you can see from the picture below.
Each Friday, when my friends and I got together for a regular evening's gaming, we would begin with a small ritual. One of our number would pass Shadbolt's on his way to my flat. On arrival, with great gravitas, he would announce the name of the Veneer Of The Week.
Some times it was East Indian Satinwood. Australian Silky Oak. Wenge. Even the rare Macassar Ebony. That ever-changing panel outside their factory was part of our shared experience, just as it was for the millions of people passing up and down the A406. Even years later, when we'd all moved away, if one of us passed Shadbolt's on the way somewhere, we were duty-bound to inform the others. Text messages would arrive and simply say "Veneer of the Week is Sen", and we'd nod and smile knowingly, connected by our appreciation of high quality wood surfacing.
But the factory is gone now, and that roadside panel exists only in virtual form, displayed here against the information superhighway instead of a London A-road. This week it was Straight Grain Smoked Pear, in case you were wondering.
So Shadbolt's lives on, in our memories. The Guardian covered it here. Veneer Of The Week has its own Facebook page. And if you want a sense of what this shared moment of North London industrial surreality was like, then this video will take you there.
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