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Beverley Pick

During World War Two Beverley Pick designed posters and displays at Charing Cross Underground Station for the MOI. A member of the Society of Industrial Artists, post-war he produced varied work for commercial and industrial organisations. These included the British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways. Worked with Tim Sharman at Beverley Pick Associates (Shepherd’s Bush) in the 1960s. As well as running his design house he was a director of Sage-CDO, a mini-conglomerate headed by Frank Keil which did everything from shop-fitting to exhibition design and construction to the Regent Street Xmas lights.

Information taken from: London Transport Museum Database, February 2000. Email from Tim Sharman, 2005.

By Second World War Posters

Mass Communications Academic, @MMUBS. British Home Front Propaganda posters as researched for a PhD completed 2004. In 1997, unwittingly wrote the first history of the Keep Calm and Carry On poster, which she now follows with interest.

42 replies on “Beverley Pick”

It was FRED Keil at Sage-CDO. I worked with Beverley from the mid fifties until he retired from Sage-CDO at around 1968-9. He would lend me either his Aston Martin DB3 or his Jaguar XK140 to get around London while we worked on the Christmas decorations. I had a ‘park anywhere’ permit from the police during that period. Try that now !!

I have just found some items in a junk shop, one is a plan of Regent Street Xmas lighting and a plan of how the lights were to be suspended. There is a sketch of an angel with lighting positions and what looks like an original artwork by the artist of the life scale and real image of the lights in situ. This is a very skillful work although unsigned. I wonder if you know if these are of any interest to someone?

Andrea
Just read you comments about the Sketch, Im Beverly only grand son, I could maybe tell you if they are originals
Best regards
Edward

Hi Edward, I hope you don’t mind me coming in on the chat. I saw Andrea’s post a couple of months ago when I was trying to look for links and contacts to my late fathers work (he died 16th Feb), I followed up links to Beverly Pick as my father Henry Stephenson had worked for him in the late 50’s and 60’s. I got particularly excited when I heard Andreas description of the Angels as the Angel decorations were part of one of my dads favourite stories from his time designing Oxford and Regent Street decorations for Beverly Pick, She sent me a copy of the illustration, which indeed does look like my dads style, and matches other drawings and photos in his portfolio. I would love to find out more about his time with Beverly and his design team, as my dad always talked about him and those years with such fondness. I now have the daunting task of sorting out both my parents estate, and would dearly love to find an archive or home for all their work. My mum was an architect , so they worked as a husband and wife design team under the name HeLaS, around the same time.

Hi Edward,
Thank you so much for responding to my post it has been so heartening to receive a reaction first from Madelaine and now from yourself.
I am pleased to see that Madelaine has picked up your message, I have had such lovely communication with her over these fragments from the archives of your grandfathers work which mysteriously landed up in a junk shop in Lincolnshire and I feel as though I have sneaked a peek at another world.
With regard to the sketches, I have two which are undoubtedly original and which Madelaine believes may be her fathers work and I would be happy to send you copies.
I am sure that you and Madelaine will have some interesting communications, please keep me posted!

Kind regards

Andrea

Hi my name is Terry Wilcock and I worked on these drawings at Beverley Pick Associates in the mid to late 60s Great times and place to work. Don Coe was an inspiration and I learnt much about design and model making. Good musician too.

Hi Don, I am just gathering information for a biography about my dad Henry Stephenson, when I came across your comment. Henry was working for Beverley Pick on various commissions including regent street decoration during the period too. I wondered if you were colleagues and remember him? Henry sadly passed last Thursday 16th Feb 2017, but it would be lovely to connect and hear your memories. Best wishes Madelaine Heinemann (mad4yoga@gmail.com or Tel: 07754 183542)

Hi I just came accross your post, researching for my dad Henry Stephenson’s biography, as he just passed over last Thursday 16th Feb. I was searching for images of the Angels he designed for Regent st decorations. when he worked for Beverly Pick . I saw your post and wondered if its my dad work? When I was growing up all my friends though our house was wonderful, as my dad would use our hall to try out his ideas. He had a lovely story about the angels, “there had been a lot of rain, and the drainage wasn’t quite sufficient, so the angels bellies begun to swell, to avert disaster he had to go down regent st in a black cab with a great lance, to release the water. As they drove down regent st, the cabbie said “‘cor lummy , Father Christmas has been busy this year!”. I would love to hear from you, it would be wonderful if you still had them as they would be great to display at Henry’s funeral. Best wishes his daughter Madelaine Heinemann (mad4yoga@gmail.com or Tel: 07754 183 542) xxxxx

Hi Madelaine,
I have to say , it is lovely to hear from you. I will dig my pictures out and try to send some photos, I do not think I have any angels but what I do have may mean something to you.
I am sorry to hear of your father’s passing away but trust he had a good life.
Kind Regards
Andrea

Wow Andrea your post had been a while ago, so I wasn’t sure if you’d see my reply. I wanted to post a photo of the Regent street Angels but unfortunately I can’t paste the photo here. This was only 1 of many designs that my dad worked on for Regent street decorations, it still makes me smile to think of our hallway!
I will be clearing through their things over the coming months, do you have any suggestions of archives or institutions that may be interested in work from this period, my mum and dad were architect /interior/designer team HeLaS? xxxx Madelaine

Hi Madelaine,
I have sent you some pictures via your e mail and hope you get them. I don’t know if they are relevant to you but when I found them I was fascinated and thought it terrible that they should have ended up in a junk shop.
Yours is the only response I have had from my post , I had wondered too whether there was an organisation that would be interested but as yet I have not discovered one. I think the items I found may have come from an art student as they were mixed up with lovely interior art studies from the late 60s – 70s by someone called Pat Dick.
I plan to frame most of it at some stage as I feel it should be on show and appreciated.
Its lovely to talk to you and hope I have been some help.
Kind Regards
Andrea

Hello Everyone,
I was most touched to read everyone’s passion to rescue such historical documents. I am Charmian Pick’s Niece and God Daughter and I stumbled upon this site. Beverley Pick was married to my Aunt Charmian and I have always been interested in the Christmas Tree lights he designed. I would really like to see any of the drawings you may have.

Kind regards

Pier Walker

I worked at Beverly pick associates for my first job in 1963. I was a studio junior come tea boy, come messenger.
The offices were at the 5 th and 6 th floor of the sun electric building in Charing Cross road. Don Coe was the studio manager and when Beverly Pick came to the offices Don would park his car and often asked me to join him to park his Aston Martin at the rear of the building, this would involve a trip around the west end a few times.
I have been lucky to make a lifetime occupation designing exhibitions and commercial interiors and will always be gratefull for the experience and knowledge that I learnt from the staff.

Hi Alan, lovely to hear you have done so well from your simple start, my dad was similar he honed many of his skills at Sandersons before he went to Beverly Picks and others. I am going through a lot of my parents work at the moment so lots of memories as well as gaps to fill! My dad worked for Beverly Pick in the 50’s and early 60’s do you have any recollection of him, Henry Stephenson? There were various photos of my dads interiors, displays as well as photos of the Christmas decorations in his portfolio. I am in touch with Brighton University who will be coming to look at the work and books for their archives, so it will be lovely to have as much information as possible.

Hi, I worked with Dave Hanson as a two man graphic design team at Beverley Pick in 1969 I think it was, at Shepherds Bush. Very exciting times. I went on to have my own agency down in the West Country but I learned a great deal during my time in Shepherds Bush. I remember a lovely guy there who had built a cricket game which got played a lot during quiet times.

Hi,
I worked there in 1967 “ish” great times, Don Coe worked there then, great designer and musician/car enthusiast and a a guy Ron Harris ?? Worked on the Regent Street illuminations and (for my sins) WH Wills cigarettes promotions.
We are in Totnes now, are you anywhere close.
Cheers – Terry Wilcock – OLD DOGS R and B Band

Hello Terry. Good to hear from you. Thanks for the kind words. I was with Beverley from the early fifties when he offered a position to Neville Waters. Neville had worked with BP previously and had left him to go into partnership with Len Callow forming Waters & Callow. Len and I had worked together at J.W. Artists in the Strand from the time of my demob in 1951. When Len left JWA I went with him and formed the third of the Waters & Callow outfit.

Neville, Len and I moved from the Strand to Charing Cross Road to start the Beverley Pick Associates. Neville worked on the top floor with BP and Len and I were one floor down, Len in charge of the studio with me as his 2 i/c. In my opinion that period was the best ever in the Beverley Pick era! Names I recall from the Charing Cross Road days were:- Graham ?, Pat Dick, Trevor Mash, Henry Stevenson, ? Wilson, Tom? ….

Beverley went into partnership with Fred Keil of City Display Organisation at Shepard’s Bush after we had bought Frederic Sage and the company name was changed to Sage-CDO. We all moved lock, stock and barrel to the West London address and BPA was absorbed.

The only two memorable jobs I was involved with at Sage-CDO were supervising the construction of the interior for the Sudanese Pavilion at the New York World Fair in 1964 and designing the Rank Odeon disco. in Scarborough!

My time with Sage-CDO ended in 1967. Beverley retired before I did! I still design and am President of The Society of Architectural Illustrators.

Hi Don, great to hear back from you, I learned much from you at BP and put my design awareness to good use, my first “sales” job was with Concord Rotaflex working with many of the West End architects. I joined Herman Miller in 76 which was an exciting period of change in the office environment. Moved around a bit from 80 onwards as was the done thing in those days. Now living in Devon and playing in a blues/R and B band (on facebook – Old Dogs R& B Band. When things return to sort of normal we will be out playing again. Do you still play? The banjo if my memory serves me right ? I seem to remember you had a Fraser Nash and remember you helping me with my MG Midget. Happy days and good memories. I remember Robin Tarsnane who went to work for the BBC on set design, used to see his name on the TV credits. Anyway stay well and I am sure we will exchange views from time to time – your friend – Terry Wilcock

Hi Piers hi Don, l’m in UK for another couple of weeks. I’d love to invite you to see Henry and Lilian’s stuff. You may have ideas about who would like the work etc. Don and l had begun to make a plan but everything got s bit messy after Xmas. Sooo . If you’re interested mad4yoga@gmail.com. Please mark the subject clearly so it doesn’t end up in my junk mail!

Best wishes . Loving all the comments xx

Lovely idea Madelaine – I should like to meet you both but Heather and I have been in serious lock down since mid March and I’m reluctant to take a chance. I’ll email you and will continue to monitor this site and watch out for further improvement of the situation.
Best wishes to you and yours.

Well my intention is to continue clearing and hopefully find a better way to store the work and copies. So hopefully when l’m back next Autumn then ? We have each others phone number. Unfortunately events are moving more quickly than l can keep up with ATM. So everything is on a wing ATM. Glad you are keeping well. Xx

Hi Terry Totnes, that’s a funny coincidence. I don’t know if you worked with my dad Henry Stephenson while at Beverly Picks? but Henry’s nephew Nigal Stephenson lived in Totnes with his family , partner Rachael and Daughter Lea. Sadly both Nigal and Tullulah died about 17 year’s ago but Rachael still lives there Station terrace, with her partner and Lea when she’s in Devon. I guess you might know them , both artists and musicians with a lot of connections to Darlington?

Hello again. I’ve just had a call from Brian Fitzmaurice. Brian was with BPA in the early days and he reminded me of some events which we shared way back. Particularly Game Soup and Garlic salt. !!?? . What a memory! Perhaps Brian will join this blog?

Hi all,

I hope you don’t mind me joining the conversation – my name is Tom Keil and I am Fred Keil’s grandson.

Don – I was particularly interested in some of your memories from working with/at Sage-CDO. Especially the New York World Fair in 1964 and the Rank Odeon disco that you mentioned above. There seems to be so little information on Sage-CDO available online and my grandfather passed away nearly 10 years ago without ever having talked about those days in great detail – and so any information or anecdotes you might have would be very warmly received.

Very happy to send over an email address if that would be easier.

Best,
Tom

Dear Tom (and drbexl to save on bandwidth!)

Wonderful to hear from you regarding FK – Fred Keil – and your connection with the main subject of this delightful blog, Beverley Pick.

I shall be more than happy to “tell all” about the Sage/CDO era. and have many tales about the community who scuttled about the corridors and workshops at Shephards Bush. There are two distinct periods of my nearly twenty years with Beverley and they are mostly with the early times at Charing Cross road. There, as Beverley Pick Associates, it was a settled and productive period which slowly became less so after the Sage/CDO partnership was created.

Tom. Please email me. drbexl. Please advise if you feel that I’m going “Off topic” Thank you.
Regards
Don

Don – great to hear from you and many thanks for responding so quickly. What would be the best email address to use for you?

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