Clarke & Clarke

Clarke and Clarke is one of the six interior brands of Sanderson Design Group, which bought its operating company Globaltex Limited in 2016 in a deal valuing it at up to 42.5 million pounds. At the time of that sale it had its headquarters in Haslingden with a design studio at Mobberley, and distributed to more than eighty countries.

We have left a founding year off this page on purpose. The brand's own about page says it was founded in 2009; the corporate finance adviser on the 2016 sale says Lee and Emma Clarke founded the business in 1999, and Globaltex Limited was incorporated in December 1999. Two dates, both published, so we give neither as fact.

What is not in doubt is where the cloth is made. Clarke and Clarke printed fabrics come off the group's own presses at Standfast and Barracks in Lancaster, the first factory in the United Kingdom to install Durst digital inkjet printing, and its wallpapers are printed at the group's Anstey factory, which holds FSC certification. The brand also runs designer collaborations including Breegan Jane and Emma J Shipley, and produces William Morris ranges.

It is a house we suggest when someone wants a proper printed cotton at a sensible price, and it coordinates neatly with the Morris and Sanderson books beside it in the pattern-book room.