30/11/2023

Following the success of the award-winning Armstrong kitchen collection, the British brassware and sanitaryware manufacturer Perrin & Rowe has taken this design DNA into the bathroom.  Combining an industrial aesthetic with a designer’s eye for balance and proportion, Armstrong offers a luxurious take on a pared-back design trend, with distinctive knurled handles and raised levers paying homage to our industrial past.

Perrin & Rowe’s foundry in Wolverhampton is just a short walk from the former site of the Stafford Road Railway Works. From 1858, it produced over 800 steam engines for the Great Western Railway. Most were designed by two brothers, Joseph and George Armstrong.  Intended as durable workhorses, their locomotives still stir the emotions today. Perrin & Rowe’s Armstrong bathroom collection has been inspired by these brothers, transforming the purely functional into a model of timeless elegance.

Beautifully proportioned with restrained detailing, the Armstrong bathroom collection is one of the most comprehensive ranges Perrin & Rowe has ever launched.  For basins, there is a single lever mixer and a dual lever mixer, both available as wall-mounted or deck-mounted.  There is a complete Shower Set with hand-shower and overhead rose.  Accessories include robe hooks, a paper holder, a towel bar or towel ring, and a matching built-in soap dispenser for a cohesive design. The standout piece is perhaps the freestanding bath-shower mixer. It takes 4-5 hours of skilled polishing to bring this glorious bathroom centrepiece to final perfection.

As with all Perrin & Rowe brassware, the collection is designed by the in-house design team at Rainham in East London. Tap bodies are forged at the Perrin & Rowe foundry in the Black Country using the highest quality brass, poured by hand at 1700° Fahrenheit into moulds.  After machining, specialist polishers develop the deep, lustrous finish. It’s a time-consuming and painstaking task.

Armstrong can be specified in Chrome, Nickel or Pewter or a choice of special finishes; 24-carat Gold, Polished Brass, Satin Brass, and English Bronze. Perrin & Rowe’s two brass finishes are unlacquered, so will develop a unique patina over time, enhancing the beauty of the surface.  For a true industrial look, English Bronze offers a darker metallic finish that brings out the detail of the knurled handles.

In discussions at House of Rohl’s London showroom, interior designers expressed a strong interest in a range of luxury bathroom brassware with an industrial edge. The Armstrong bathroom collection has been created to match this demand. Previewed at ISH in Frankfurt and Design Week in London, the initial reaction to the bathroom collection was as positive as it had been for the kitchen collection, some 2½ years earlier. It has already been shortlisted for an international design award by the Society of British & International Interior Designers (SBID). Armstrong is now available in the UK and most EMEAA markets.

For more information, high resolution images or samples for photography, please contact [email protected] or call 01962 977950.