Take a look around
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Main Reception
Home of warm welcomes. Everyone that visits us comes to the reception area first. You'll also see four machines used in shoe-making and some beautiful works of art – the past and future come together beautifully at Clarks.
Artwork
El Anatsui is widely recognised as foremost contemporary African artist of his generation. This work, "Flag for New World Power" (2004) has been created by sewing together thousands of crushed and flattened liquor bottle tops to form an extensive cloth-like material.
Digital Artwork
Art isn't just there to be admired – we want you to get involved with it too! Created by Squid Soup, "Ghosts" is an evolving text sculpture exploring text-based communication in the digital age. If you're waiting in reception for an interview or meeting, have a play with it! Use the keypad on the table to type in a message and see it appear on the evolving virtual sculpture.
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Reception Hall
You might notice that the floor in our main reception slopes downwards – a legacy from the days when this room was used to wash leathers!
Industrial Stitching Machines
Gone but never forgotten. Here we have three machines from our past. There's a Blake Sole Stitcher from the 1890s. This was used to sew on soles using chain stitch. The Goodyear Rapid Stitcher from 1923 was used for a different type of stitching in a shoe construction called welted (or sandal veldt). And the Fortune Skiver machine from the 1920s was a heavy duty stitching machine.
Cutting Press (1890)
The large machine near the main window is a Hodges Cutting Press from 1890. This was used to cut soles and uppers.
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Product Gallery Hall
From fashion to the arts, Britain leads where others follow. Over the last six decades a handful of names have kept the nation at the heart of global creativity. Including Clarks. We're constantly redefining great shoe design.
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Product Gallery
Opened in 2011, our new product galleries provide a beautiful, open and flexible space that we use for range management and product engagement sessions. Or anytime you want to work in a light, bright and inspiring place, really.
Gallery Artwork – Clarks Marketing
For over a hundred years now, we've been running adverts for our products. You'll see some of them here. There are plenty more in the shoe museum and in our corporate archives.
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Product Gallery Staircase
We're immensely proud of our heritage. On the walls you'll see artworks that remind all of us of our history, our brand, what we've done and some of the famous names we've worked with and been associated with. People like Kirk Douglas, Hardy Amies, Bobby Moore, Helmut Newton, David Bailey, Liam Gallagher, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and David Beckham, to name just a few.
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Anthony
Say hello to "Anthony". In the absence of electricity in Street, "Anthony" was commissioned at the turn of the twentieth century to power the Clarks factories. Made by Cole, Marchant and Morley of Bradford, Yorkshire, "Anthony" delivered two million cubic feet of compressed air each month to the making departments. One mighty workhorse! It also supplied hot water to the canteen, electricity to the village and, in the summer months, it even heated the Greenbank outdoor swimming pool – just over the road from main reception, and still in use today if you fancy a dip.
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Product Testing Lab
Quality and comfort are Clarks hallmarks. That's why our product testing lab remains critical to our design processes. It's where we test our materials and designs for durability, comfort and fit.
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Last-Making Room
The last is a wooden shape that corresponds to the dimensions of the foot, over which a shoe is made. While last-making is an artisan skill that goes back hundreds of years, it's as important as ever to the shoe-making process. From blocks of wood, we create the beautiful lasts that are the starting point for the design of every single shoe.
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Footwear Design Studio
The creative heart of Clarks. Here's where our team of footwear designers bring every single shoe that Clarks produces to life. We're a global team, with designers from Italy, Germany, UK, France, Spain, United States, Japan and India. You'll notice the bits and pieces on the wall just outside the studio. It's the inspiration wall – with everything from toys to history, textiles to typography.
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Marketing
This used to be a factory cutting room. Now it's home to our Marketing masterminds, breathing the voice of our consumers into everything we do here at Clarks.
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Graphic Design Studio
A creative tour de force, our Graphic Designers deliver our award-winning advertising, point of sale materials, window displays and brochures.
Clarks Originals Banner
An iconic sub-brand first introduced in 1950, Clarks Originals is intrinsically linked with music and fashion. From our very first shoe, the Desert Boot, Clarks Originals continue to introduce one iconic style after the other. Today's Originals Twist range continues to appeal to those with their own unique sense of style – updating and evolving our iconic designs. Clarks Originals don't belong to any particular era – each generation rediscovers them and makes them their own.
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Executive Offices
The peaceful haven of our executive offices. But our senior team don't hide away here – you'll see plenty of them out-and-about in the business.
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The Boardroom
The first thing you'll notice is the table covered in leather – we're big on natural materials after all! The boardroom also has state-of-the-art video-conferencing facilities so that we can keep in touch with all our global teams.
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Clarks Art
We've made making shoes an art form, so we've an eye for the beautiful and the interesting.
Keiskamma Cream Tapestry
The Keiskamma Trust promotes health and hope through art, music, HIV/Aids treatment, poverty alleviation projects and education initiatives in the village of Hamburg and its surroundings in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. For Lance Clark, the hopes and ideas of the project struck an instant chord (his Soul of Africa charity is determined to make a difference in Africa through trade not aid), so he was particularly delighted when we purchased this tapestry. The tapestry recalls the rich history of the Eastern Cape and tells the story of the Khoi, San and Xhosa people.
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The 'Cowshed'
The social hub of our building, the 'Cowshed' cafeteria is the perfect place for an informal meeting, a spot of lunch or a refreshing cuppa – or just to watch the news for a bit!
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The 'Cowshed' Balcony
We get our fair share of sunshine here in Somerset, but whatever the weather (almost), the balcony's a great spot for an al-fresco catch up or a coffee.
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Shoe museum
We wear our heart on our sleeve and keep our history close by here at Clarks. In fact, the Clarks shoe museum is here at head office. Well worth a visit if you'd like to understand more about Clarks, our incredible history and our products over the years.
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'Consumers Rule' Graffiti
Consumers are at the heart of everything we do at Clarks – our recent viral marketing campaign on-site at head office acted as a timely reminder and was part of the launch of an internal competition to find the best "consumer first" ideas from anywhere within the business.
