History

Thanet's Premier Art Centre

Lovelys was established in 1891 by Mr Edward Lovely with the first shop opening on Margate High Street . Edward Lovely was one of the first to import lengths of picture frame moulding from Germany…a revolutionary step at the time!

In 1912 a shop was purchased next door to expand into selling art materials and in 1925 a further shop opened in Ramsgate. Lovelys stayed open during two world wars despite the Margate shop being bombed. Edward's son Henry, also in the business, was a Master of the Fine Art Trade Guild and is believed to have designed the Trade logo which is  still used to this day! He met many famous artists including L.S.Lowry. Artist Walter Sickert also frequented Lovelys. In the 1950s Henry Lovely was fortunate to be asked to restore a painting attributed to Rubens.

The present Northdown Road shop was purchased in 1951. Henry's son John joined the business after training at the National Gallery. In 1970 the Margate and Ramsgate shops were sold and the Northdown Road site was expanded.

The shop is now run by the fourth generation of the Lovely Family, Caroline.

Today Lovelys continues to offer a bespoke framing service from their own workshop with a picture cleaning and restoration service is also available.