History’s Best (and Barmiest) Beds
Published 9th September 2024
Redwood have been a leading manufacturer in the retail bedding sector since 1993, creating mattresses, pillows and other items for some of Britain’s biggest retail bedding brands. We’re trusted by the biggest and best to provide everything from mattress covers and toppers, to pillows and pillowcases to complete their own retail bedding range.
While our beds may not be famous outside the industry, because our customers put their own brands on our retail bedding, there have been some legendary beds down the years. From Shakespeare to Van Gogh, from Elvis’ hamburger bed to the epic Great Bed of Ware, some of these outstanding sleeping spaces are enough to keep you awake at night!
Let’s take a look at ten of the best, and barmiest, beds in history.
- The Great Bed of Ware – in medieval times, people thought nothing of sharing their bed with family members, or even complete strangers. This led to some huge creations, including the famous Great Bed of Ware. Legend has it that this behemoth of a bed measured no less than 3.38m by 3.26m and allegedly held more than 50 people.
- King Louis XIV’s bed – we all have days when we feel like just staying in bed, and when you are the king of France, you can do just that. King Louis presided over the affairs of state propped up on his pillows, without bothering to get up in the morning.
- John and Yoko’s peace bed – speaking of not getting up, few beds have enjoyed the worldwide publicity of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s honeymoon bed in 1969. The couple stayed in their bed for two weeks at the Amsterdam Hilton to protest against the war in Vietnam.
- Tracey Emin’s bed - contemporary artist, Tracey Emin, turned her four-day bed-based binge into a work of art for the Turner Prize in 1998. The artwork, literally her unmade bed, sparked considerable controversy. However, Emin had the last laugh when the work was sold in 2014 for £2.5million.
- Van Gogh’s bed – an even more famous bed from the art world is the one belonging to Vincent Van Gogh. It features prominently in one of his most famous paintings, The Bedroom, which sold for a staggering $117.2million in 2022.
- James Graham’s Celestial Bed – around the birth of the electric era, Scottish inventor, James Graham, came up with a remarkable bed that he claimed would maximise the chances of conception. Exhibiting the bed at the Adelphi Terrace in London, Graham would charge up to £100 per night to keen couples – a substantial sum in 1780.
- Shakespeare’s bed – many people are amused when they learn that William Shakespeare left his wife his ‘second best bed’ in his will. However, this is not the stinging slight that it first appears. In Elizabethan times, the best bed was reserved for special guests, and so the second best bed would have been the bed they shared together. So it’s actually quite a sweet gesture.
- Charlie, Carrie and Paul’s bed – you might not know their names, but you’ll certainly remember their bed, because thanks to Angela Landsbury’s magic broomstick, a quick twist of the bed knob allowed it to travel almost anywhere, including ‘bobbing along on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea’.
- Elvis’s bed – nicknamed the hamburger bed by his daughter, Graceland was home to a huge, round bed belonging to the King of Rock n Roll. The state of the art sleeper included a TV and stereo amongst a host of other wacky features.
- The self-making bed – this sounds too good to be true, and it probably is. Although a patent was registered in the 1980s for a Heath Robinson contraption that would smooth your sheets each morning, there is no evidence that this brilliant, labour-saving bed was ever actually made.
If you’d like to add outstanding beds and bedding to your retail bedding collection, contact the team at Redwood today. From concept to completion, from test runs to regular bulk orders, we’ve got everything you need to sleep easy about your retail bedding supplies.
