About Green & Stone
Green & Stone, supplier of specialist Art Materials and Picture Framing was first established in Chelsea in 1927, and is one of the longest running shops on the popular Kings Road.The shop was originally based within the Chenil Gallery, whose directors were Augustus John and Bernard Shaw.
Green and Stone moved to its current site at 259 Kings Road in 1934, where Mr Alfred Green and his sons Alfie & Peter continued to run the shop primarily as a picture framing business, with what was then, only a small Art Materials section. 259 Kings Road was previously run as a shop for the Womens Suffragette Movement.
Green & Stone, today
Rodney Baldwin, the present owner of Green & Stone, first set foot in the store as trainee manager in 1972 and eventually bought the business from the Greens in 1978 (Peter Green emigrated to Australia with his family in 1965, setting up a framers, Green & Son, in Sydney and worked there until ill health made it impossible for him to work; his son, also called Peter, continues to run the business).
The biggest change however, has been the growth of the Artists Materials section, which has increased in size ten fold, making Green and Stone one of the biggest retailer of Fine Art Materials in Europe.
The shop now stocks an incredible range of artist's materials, ranging from massive wind up Oak Studio Easels, Balanced Palettes to Gold Leaf and Vellum.
For the serious artist, Green & Stone's independent status has meant that it has consistently striven to offer the Finest Materials available today, including, Artist's Oil Colours by Michael Harding, Sennelier, Winsor and Newton and Charvin.
Watercolours by Schmincke and Winsor and Newton. Acrylics by Golden, Liquitex and Daler Rowney.
There is always something for those who want to begin to draw or paint and advice from the staff, mostly artists themselves, about what to buy.
Green and Stone's craft department on the lower ground floor carries a wide range of materials for modelling and card making along with a young childrens section.
But to simply browse even without an artistic agenda is almost always fruitful. The quite incredible variety of goods within the confines of this delightfully woody and old-fashioned store is an inspiration for those without any particular mission; it is a novel source for the present buyer who has drawn a blank everywhere else.
Green & Stone has been described as one of the most friendly and enchanting shops to visit in London.