Kirwin & Simpson
A history of keeping our promises
Kirwin & Simpson is a family business which has been providing a first class design, installation and repair service to the UK entertainment industry for over 70 years. The company was founded in 1945 and since then has built a reputation for taking extra care to ensure that clients’ quality and design requirements are met and exceeded. The company is now proud to count virtually all London’s West End theatres among its clients, as well as a large and diverse client base from the cinema industry and other sectors throughout the UK and Europe.
Our ability to supply and maintain high quality auditorium seating to the most stringent requirements and respond quickly and positively to urgent briefs means companies from fields as diverse as entertainment, education and transport can count on us to get results. Our clients know that we can handle most of their foreseeable requirements, which is why we continue to have long-standing relationships with so many important venues and organisations. We believe this is one of the main reasons for the company’s enduring success.
…and still learning…
Since our earliest beginnings, over 70 years ago, we have continually strived to improve our products and our service, and we’re still learning from experience. This underpins our ability to devise and provide solutions to the problems encountered by architects and designers specifying new auditoria, or managers trying to minimise disruption to busy production schedules.
Founded in 1945, Kirwin & Simpson is a very successful fourth generation family business, providing 1st class auditorium seating. However, Kirwin & Simpson started from much humbler beginnings. Towards the end of the Second World War, founder Bernard Simpson was running a factory which had been commandeered for the war effort, making parachutes. During a lunchtime conversation with the local cinema manager it came to light that the seats in the cinema were in a terrible state and due to the rationing there wasn’t any fabric available to repair them. Bernard mentioned that with a bit of enterprise the small parachute cut offs could be sewn together and used to upholster the chairs. From that conversation Kirwin & Simpson has grown into the premier UK Theatre Seating Supplier and is now venturing into the United States.
