History
The history of Sykes & Sons begins in Leeds in 1808, in the musical world of late Georgian England and with William Sykes, whose business would establish a family association with the pianoforte extending across more than two centuries.
What began in Leeds grew with the nineteenth century.
William's sons entered the business, music rooms and workshops followed, and the Sykes name became established beyond the city in Halifax, Bradford and Dewsbury. The house dealt in instruments by some of the most distinguished piano makers of the period, from Broadwood & Sons, Collard & Collard and Tomkinson in Britain to Ibach and C. Bechstein in Germany, while its activities extended through tuning, regulation, teaching, printed music, recital and the wider musical life of the towns in which it traded.
It was a business shaped by the extraordinary ascendancy of the pianoforte. During the nineteenth century, the instrument moved to the centre of musical life in Britain, and around it flourished a culture of makers and merchants, tuners and teachers, workshops and music rooms. Sykes & Sons grew within that world, from William's early business in Leeds to the Harp and Piano Forte Rooms, Sykes's Music Saloon, and later the Albany Music Rooms in Halifax.
The twentieth century altered that world profoundly. War interrupted established trade, British piano manufacture began its long contraction, and the great provincial music houses gradually disappeared from towns and cities across the country. The Sykes businesses became smaller with the industry around them, their activities consolidated and, in time, the old music rooms closed.
Today, Sykes & Sons works from its workshop in Stockport, on a smaller and more specialised scale than the music houses which once carried the name across Yorkshire.
Leeds, 1808
When William Sykes began his business, Leeds was still recognisably a Georgian town, though already entering the period of growth which would transform it into one of Victorian Britain's great industrial cities.
Prosperity brought with it a flourishing appetite for music, and the pianoforte, still a comparatively young instrument at the beginning of the century, was beginning the remarkable ascent which would eventually place it in drawing rooms and schools, churches and concert halls throughout the country.
William's business grew within this changing city. By 1817 he was dealing in music at Burley Bar and, within a few years, occupied premises at both 16 and 18. As his sons entered the business, Sykes & Son appeared at 72 Briggate in the 1820s, followed by William Sykes & Sons. By the 1830s William Sykes junior was established at Boar Lane as a tuner and regulator, while the family business continued to develop around the sale of music and musical instruments.
By the middle of the century, Sykes's Harp and Piano Forte Rooms occupied 30 Boar Lane and 9 Commercial Buildings, offering new and second-hand pianofortes by Broadwood, Collard and Tomkinson. John Sykes undertook tuning from the same premises, while 30 Boar Lane also became known as Sykes's Music Saloon, an evocative name for rooms which brought together instruments, printed music, tuition and performance, supported by the tuning, regulation and repair taking place behind them.
By then, the business William had begun had become something broader than a music seller with a tuning practice. It belonged to the musical fabric of a city whose own importance was growing rapidly and to an industry entering the most remarkable period in its history.
As the pianoforte flourished, the Sykes name travelled with it.
The Albany Music Rooms
In 1883, James H. Sykes opened the Albany Music Rooms on Commercial Street, Halifax. Their opening was marked by a pianoforte recital, a fitting beginning for an establishment in which the sale of pianos and other instruments sat alongside music, teaching, performance and the technical work upon which a serious piano business depended.
The Albany Music Rooms belonged to a broader Sykes presence which by then extended beyond Leeds into Halifax, Bradford and Dewsbury. Different establishments carried variations of the family name, but together they reflected the scale the business had reached during the great Victorian flourishing of the pianoforte.
The instruments passing through the rooms included those of John Broadwood & Sons and Collard & Collard, alongside distinguished Continental makers including Ibach and C. Bechstein. These were among the important piano houses of their age, British and German instruments standing together in a market which had become increasingly international.
By the closing years of the nineteenth century, the pianoforte had become one of the defining objects of British musical life.
Around it flourished manufacturers and dealers, tuners and teachers, publishers and performers, and the music rooms brought much of that world together beneath one roof.
What William Sykes had begun in Georgian Leeds had grown, within the course of the century, into a family piano business extending across Yorkshire.
A Changing World
The world which had sustained those music rooms did not disappear at once, but the twentieth century brought changes of a different order from anything the business had encountered before.
The First World War interrupted long-established commercial relationships with Continental manufacturers and brought an abrupt break in the international piano trade which had flourished before it. The years which followed brought economic upheaval of their own, while recorded music and broadcasting gradually changed the place the piano occupied within the home.
British piano manufacture, once an industry of remarkable scale and variety, entered a long contraction. The provincial music house changed with it. The combination of extensive showrooms, printed music, teaching, recital, instrument sales and technical service which had prospered during the nineteenth century became increasingly difficult to sustain as the musical and commercial world around it moved on.
For the Sykes businesses, the response was consolidation. A presence which had once extended across Yorkshire became progressively smaller as premises closed and activities contracted. A second world war brought further disruption, and the decades which followed saw many of the manufacturers, dealers and workshops which had formed the old British piano trade disappear.
The house had grown with the age of the pianoforte, and its fortunes could not be entirely separated from it. As that age receded, Sykes became smaller with the world around it until, in time, the old music rooms closed for the last time.
Sykes & Sons Today
Today, Sykes & Sons operates as an independent, specialist workshop under Macauley Alexander Theodore Sykes.
We specialise in the restoration, preparation and supply of fine pianos. Our work is intentionally concentrated, with instruments selected individually and restoration commissions accepted in limited numbers each year.
Over time, Sykes & Sons has earned the confidence of private clients, professional musicians, teachers and institutions, as well as other piano firms which entrust instruments and specialist work to our workshop. Many of these relationships have grown through recommendation and over many years, and we regard that confidence as one of the most meaningful measures of our work.
Our independence allows us to remain selective. We are not bound to particular manufacturers, nor by the need to maintain a large inventory or accept every commission presented to us. The pianos we offer are here because we believe in them; the work we undertake is work we believe worthwhile; and the advice we give is guided by what we consider right for the instrument and its owner.
Those relationships are an important part of Sykes & Sons. Pianos have a remarkable way of remaining in families, accompanying musical careers, filling homes and serving schools, churches and other institutions for generations. Our work consequently brings us into the company of people who care deeply about them, and into a wider community of musicians, teachers, technicians and friends whose knowledge and generosity continue to enrich the workshop.
The scale of Sykes & Sons follows naturally from this way of working. It allows us to know our instruments well, to remain close to our clients and to give significant work the time it deserves. We have never sought to offer the greatest number of pianos. We would rather be certain of those to which we put our name.
The great music rooms of the nineteenth century belonged to another age. Sykes & Sons today takes a different form, but the things which matter to us are remarkably familiar: fine pianos, exacting work, and the musicians and communities for whom the instrument continues to matter.