Newman Brothers Coffin Furniture Factory

Newman Brothers at The Coffin Works is a funerary museum in the Newman Brothers Coffin Furniture Factory building in Birmingham, England. It opened in October 2014 after a fifteen-year campaign to save the building and raise the funds to transform it into a heritage attraction. Located in Fleet Street in the Jewellery Quarter conservation area, the building is Grade II* listed, and the Newman Brothers manufactured coffin furniture at the factory between 1894 until 1998.HistoryThe building was designed by Roger Harley in 1892. Construction of the building was completed two years later in 1894.The Newman Brothers, brass founders and metal coffin fittings manufacturers, moved into the works in 1894. The company was set up by Alfred Newman and his two sons: Horace and George During its time at the factory, the company produced some of the finest coffin furniture in the world that was used in the funerals for Sir Winston Churchill, Joseph Chamberlain and Diana, Princess of Wales. The owners and managers would have entered the building through the front entrance of the building whilst the poorer workforce would enter via the gated cart entrance. In the 1960s, the original single-storey range was demolished and replaced with a two storey brick building containing managerial, electroplating, warehousing and barrelling facilities. At its peak, the firm employed 100 people. In the 1950s, the company was exporting products internationally to West Africa, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, the Caribbean, Canada and Malta.