Croydon’s oldest furniture shop has vowed to stay in the borough as initial plans for the redevelopment of it’s iconic store have been revealed.

House of Reeves was opened more than 150 years ago and has been in the Reeves family for five generations, since 1867.

It is based in Reeves Corner which is named after the store and was taken over by brothers Graham and Tony Reeves in 1995.

Their father, Maurice died last month, aged 88 years old, after a short battle with pneumonia.

‘We will stay in Croydon’

But plans to redevelop the site will not see the historic business leave the borough, vows Trevor.

Proposals are being put forward by developers Skillcrown and include 32 new homes in a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments and maisonettes.

But Trevor says that plans are not yet set in stone yet and the company does not have plans to move away from Croydon.

“Skillcrown came to use with a development plan so we said we’ll see what we can do,” said Mr Reeves.

“It is still very much a discussion.”

In 2011 one of the company’s buildings, also in Reeves Corners was burnt down. It became one of the most recognisable images of the 2011 riots.

The company moved down to one site and since the fire the second site has been empty.

Mr Reeves said moving the store there could be an option for the future of the business.

The company is in discussions with the Whitgift Foundation with which it jointly owns the site about redeveloping it.

He added: “We are still profitable because of all the efforts of the five generations. We are trying to fight our corner and do better than other people in  the furniture industry locally.”

The company was started 152 years ago by Trevor and Graham’s great great grandfather.

Trevor has one daughter and Graham has two who could end up taking on the company in time.

What are the plans?

Kevin Clark, land and business development director at Skillcrown, said the company has entered into a planning performance agreement with the council and expects a full application will be submitted in the next four months.

He said the plans would include refurbishing the listed building with new build apartments facing the dual carriage way side of the site.

At the moment the split is expected to be four houses with the rest flats, but this could change before final plans are put forward.

The building is locally listed and Mr Clark added that the developers are keen to come up with a design that is sympathetic to the history of the building.

UPDATE: The headline of this story had previously suggested House of Reeves had vowed to stay in the borough "despite closure". This was incorrect and there is no suggestion that House of Reeves will be closing.