News
Rigby headquarters: 251-year-old London house bets on witnessed craft
John Rigby & Co. has converted a Grade II-listed building into a headquarters where the workshops are the shop window. For makers, distributors and the international clientele of the bespoke trade, the premium segment’s direction of travel is on display in Clapham
John Rigby & Co. has completed its move to 42 Clapham Manor Street, a Grade II-listed London headquarters built around its workshops and open for clients and visitors to watch the gunmakers work. The firm announced the move on 1 October, a year after marking its 250th anniversary, and the building says something about where the premium end of the international trade is placing its bets: on the craft itself, witnessed, as the thing that sells a bespoke gun.
Founded in Dublin in 1775 and building in London since the 19th century, Rigby is a 251-year-old house whose name rests on the .275 rifles that Jim Corbett and generations of stalkers carried. It re-established its London workshop at Pensbury Place more than a decade ago, and its order book outgrew the building.
What has Rigby built in London?
A former ballet school, three and a half years in conversion. The ground floor is given over to specialist workshops arranged so that a visitor can follow a gun through woodworking, metalworking and finishing. The building also houses the Rigby Academy, an engraving studio, a museum and a showroom under vaulted ceilings and exposed oak beams, with the firm’s historic collection on display. At the showroom’s centre, beneath the glass-topped table on which new guns are presented to clients, lies Jim Corbett’s rifle, so that every new build is handed over above the gun that made the firm’s name in India.
Managing director Marc Newton said: “Pensbury Place gave us the home we needed to rebuild Rigby, and it will always mean a great deal to us. At Clapham Manor Street, we’ve been able to create the home we imagined for the next chapter of the company. I wanted the gunmakers to be at the heart of it. Visitors will be able to see the skill and care that goes into our guns, then step into a showroom filled with the stories that brought us here.”
What does the investment signal to the bespoke trade?
Three things. The first is capacity. A listed building converted over three and a half years is a long-horizon commitment to London production, and the Rigby Academy and the engraving studio under the same roof as the benches are capacity in the trade’s own sense of the word: a place to pass on the hand skills on which every bespoke house depends, and the decoration of a gun brought alongside its making.
The second is the sales model. Most houses keep the workshop behind the showroom; Rigby has put the workshop in front of it, so that the client reaches the presentation table by walking past the benches. At the premium end, where a commission is a relationship rather than a transaction, that is a bet that the craft witnessed is worth more than the craft described.
The third is the clientele. A house whose reputation was made by rifles carried in India sells to a clientele that travels, and a headquarters with a museum, an engraving studio and the Corbett rifle beneath the presentation table is a destination for that client as much as a factory. For makers elsewhere the lesson is in the layout; for the distributors and agents who represent the London houses abroad, it is in what a client can now be shown when they come to the city.
What happens next?
The premises are open at 42 Clapham Manor Street, London, and the firm’s announcement, with photography of the workshops and showroom, is on its website. For the international trade the move is a data point in the premium segment’s direction of travel: a maker in its third century has committed to a listed London headquarters with its workshops as the shop window, and the houses, distributors and agents who sell at the same end of the market will be watching how the model performs.
Useful links
John Rigby & Co. – the announcement and photographs of the new headquarters
Frequently asked questions
Where has Rigby moved its headquarters to?
To 42 Clapham Manor Street, London: a Grade II-listed former ballet school converted over three and a half years, replacing the workshop at Pensbury Place where the firm had worked for more than a decade.
What does Rigby’s new headquarters contain?
Ground-floor workshops laid out for visitors to follow a gun through woodworking, metalworking and finishing, together with the Rigby Academy, an engraving studio, a museum and a showroom with Jim Corbett’s rifle beneath the presentation table.
How old is John Rigby & Co.?
The firm was founded in Dublin in 1775 and has built in London since the 19th century. It celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2025, the year before the move.
Related articles
Beretta Holding buys Holland & Holland – a London house under new ownership
Finest shotguns: 11 makers, four nations – the bespoke houses of the global trade compared
Rivolier acquires historic French arms maker Verney-Carron – another heritage maker’s next chapter
