London Stone, which offers an impressive range of paving, flooring and wall coverings as well as other stone products, is opening a second showroom at the beginning of April at Coolings Garden Centre in Knockholt, Kent.

Steven Walley, the London Stone Managing Director, says the company, with its head offices in Langley, Middlesex, near junction 15 on the M25, has been working hard behind the scenes for the past 18 months on this project and is thrilled to have finally found a suitable site. 

“This development will give our existing clients in South East London, East London and Kent easier access to a London Stone showroom and will increase our presence in the South East,” says Steven. 

London Stone is a stone industry success story. The company was established in December 2005 by Gavin, Steven and Duncan Walley, three brothers from Stoke on Trent with a background in hard landscaping. 

Looking to diversify their landscaping business, which was already using natural stone products, the brothers decided to import natural stone paving themselves. They intended to use it for their own contracts and sell it to other contractors.

Within a month, Gavin and Steven were enduring a 16-hour taxi drive across Rajasthan, India, to meet prospective stone suppliers. They took a chance and ordered 15 containers of riven Indian sandstone paving to launch their new business.

The stone side grew rapidly and the Walley brothers decided to pull out of contracting and focus solely on selling stone. They have invested significantly in machinery in order to develop a bespoke stone cutting operation and in October expanded into stone for interiors.

London Stone is an active member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and Steven says it is also committed to reducing the impact of its activities on the environment.