LONDON’S CHAIR KING.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 319, 19 December 1929, Page 2

LONDON’S CHAIR KING.

A STRANGE BUSINESS. There is a man in London who can claim to have given more rest to the public than any other man in England (remarks a writer in the “Sunday Chronicle”). His name in M. W. Shanley, and he is the benevolent old gentleman who Is London’s “ Chair King ” the man who owns all the little green chairs intriguingly placed in twos beneath almost every tree in the London parks. Mr Shanley’s story is as romantic as his little green chairs beneath the trees. His business was commenced by his father over 80 years ago. In Paris one day his father noticed how seating accommodation was arranged along the

boulevards and in the parks and con- < ceived the idea of introducing a similar scheme to London. He suggested to a French firm that it should try the experiment. It was unable to carry on, however, and asked Mr Shanley to take over the chairs. That was the beginning, and the business has steadily developed until to-day the present Mr Shanley owns well over 150,000 chairs. He sends them all over th ecountry. hour thousand i went down to Ryde for the use of I the Schnieder Cup crowds. All | through the winter theer is a staff of men engaged in a hut in Hyde Park painting them for the following summer.