TRADE & EDUCATION COMMITTEE
The Worshipful Company of Upholders was formed in 1360 to support our craft, maintain
standards and regulate training.
In common with most Liveries our statutory powers to control our trade were lost in the late
19th century and by the middle of the 20th century our links with the crafts were very weak.
Today however the Livery has strong links with some of our ancient crafts and
enthusiastically supports them. We are proud to work with The Association of Master
Upholsterers and Soft Furnishers (AMUSF) and the Guild of Traditional Upholsterers to
develop the crafts of Upholstery and Soft Furnishings. We are also actively building our links
with Undertakers who represent another branch of our craft.
The Livery encourages anyone involved in our crafts to become Liverymen or Freemen at
preferential rates.
Warden to the Trade 2025 – 26 Kirsty Lockwood
Kirsty Lockwood is an upholsterer running her own business on the Welsh Borders working for clients in her local area as well as London, the UK and overseas. Her career has seen her serving as an Officer in the British Army, working for the Royal Household as an upholstery conservator, upholstering on several blockbuster movies including James Bond and Cruella and running her own successful upholstery business.
As Warden to the Trade, Kirsty wishes to reach more members of the upholstery community, helping people understand what the Livery Company can offer the trade, and building connections across the industry. She led the organisation of the inaugural Festival of Upholstery held at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 10-11 October 2025.
The Trade & Education Committee produce a newsletter ‘UPDATE’ providing a snapshot of the
work that we do for the upholstery, soft furnishing and funeral director trades.
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We will not use your email for any other purpose than this newsletter and will not pass on your
details to any other organisation.
The purpose of the Trade and Education Committee is laid out in our Terms of Reference:
- To oversee and maintain links with upholstery, soft furnishings and funeral director trades.
We do this through the granting of awards and bursaries (see below) to students and
members of the trade – which includes upholsterers, soft furnishers and funeral
directors. We also promote and recommend members of the trade suitable to receive
prizes, bursaries or other awards offered by the Company.
We are continually looking for opportunities to develop new nationwide initiatives to
increase awareness of the Livery, ensuring that we reach as much of the industry as
possible. We recognise that while the Livery Company was formed as a City of
London organisation, we are now able to reach much further and seek opportunities
to do this.
Where appropriate, we identify, monitor and promote standards and qualifications
within our trades and we liaise with the various trade associations and training
centres in the support of existing practitioners and students of those trades.
It is important to continue to promote the trades within the City of London and the
various Livery Companies, to maintain our relevance both within the City and wider.
Livery Companies are well respected institutions and can be very successful when
lobbying for change.
We are always seeking companies or individuals within the trade who may be
interested in joining the livery. - To identify, monitor and promote standards and qualifications within those trades.
We provide Liverymen experienced in reupholstery to be judges for the London
Metropolitan University awards and for the National Double Distinction Awards at the
January Furniture Show. We also peer judge the submissions for the Apprentice,
Journeyman and Master certificate awards. We are always seeking to expand our
awards offering to ensure that we recognise all areas of our related trades.
We seek to be represented on boards and committees relevant to issues occurring
within our trades and currently have representation on the Fire Retardancy
Regulations and T Level Education scheme.
At all times we consider Sustainability practices within our trade and seek
opportunities to influence best practice where appropriate. - To liaise with the various trade associations and training centres in the support of existing
practitioners and students of those trades.
We seek to visit as many AMUSF centres as wish to be visited, and with our growing
numbers of Liverymen from outside London, we are able to spread our reach further
across the UK.
Wherever appropriate, we provide copy for trade relevant publications and have
produced our own newsletter ‘Update’ to provide an insight into what the Trade and
Education Committee are working on. We seek to use social media to provide
updates of our work and to promote our trade to the wider public.
In the past year we have created a Trade and Education Committee Liaison Officer to
establish communication with all award and bursary winners to engage them with the
Livery. Recent donations from Livery members have funded a number of dinner
places for past award winners to invite them to a social event. We also work with the
History Society Committee to invite this group to relevant visits.
- To promote the trades within the City of London and the various Livery Companies.
We participate in the annual Wool Fair and Sheep Drive events at the end of
September, showing the members of the public who we are and what we work for
and achieve. This free City event is a lot of fun and we have the opportunity to speak
to a lot of people about the craft of upholstery and the interesting connection to the
funeral director trade.
Where requested, we provide guest speakers at AMUSF training centres to explain
our relevance to the trade and how we support it. We also seek out opportunities to
take part in other events within the city and support other Livery Companies in their
events. - To identify companies or individuals within the trade who may be interested in joining the
livery.
The Worshipful Company of Upholders is what is known as an ‘Open Company’,
meaning that you do not have to be working within the upholstery or funeral director
trades to join. This means that we have a very varied membership adding to the
enjoyment of all of our events. There have been periods in our history where the
‘trade’ was not represented within the Livery, and so we seek to ensure that we invite
enthusiastic and regarded members of the trade to join the Company. - To promote and recommend members of the trade suitable to receive prizes, bursaries or
other awards offered by the Company.
In conjunction with the Charity Committee, we offer the following awards relevant to our
trade:
A) London Met. University award
B) National Double Distinction Award
C) Master Certificate Scheme
D) Bob Foulds Bursaries for attendance on an AMUSF training course
E) Derek Austin Awards for furniture restoration
F) Usher Travel Bursary for Upholstery and Funeral sectors
The Worshipful Company of Upholders of the City of London 