Robin Day RFH Terrace Chair and Table

The Remarkable Reissue of Robin Day’s Forgotten Royal Festival Hall Terrace Furniture

An iconic collection designed for an iconic building has finally returned.

In 2024, &Tradition, in close collaboration with the Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation, reissued five distinct designs from Robin Day’s legendary furniture collection created for the Royal Festival Hall — some available to purchase for the first time in history.

ATD Retail 2024 RFH Terrace Chair RD4 RFH Terrace Tables RD5 03

The story begins in 1951. When the Royal Festival Hall opened as part of the Festival of Britain, architect Peter Moro enlisted Robin Day to design a comprehensive furniture ensemble for the concert hall, foyers, and public spaces. Day’s collaboration with Clive Latimer had already garnered international recognition after winning the storage category of MoMA’s Low-Cost Furniture Competition, making him the natural choice for this major commission. The resulting collection would define the interiors of one of London’s most culturally significant buildings for decades.

Yet one piece was destined to disappear almost entirely: the RFH Terrace Chair. Originally designed for the restaurant and foyer areas, these deceptively simple chairs sat in multiples on the venue’s terrace. Over the years, they vanished one by one — never entering general production, increasingly difficult to locate. When Paula Day, Robin’s daughter and Chair of the Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation, began searching through archival images, the hunt for physical examples seemed nearly impossible. After an exhaustive search, only a single original chair was found, tightly wrapped and untouched for decades in the Royal Festival Hall’s own archives.

“This is probably the most remarkable reissue we will ever do, in terms of bringing a lost archive design back to life,” Paula Day reflects.

ATD Retail 2025 RFH Terrace Chair RD4

The RFH Terrace Chair (RD4)
A study in post-war resourcefulness and timeless elegance. Made from teak with wooden slats of varying length, the chair’s organic, understated aesthetic emerges from necessity — solid hardwood was scarce in the post-war period, so Day created something both functionally and aesthetically elegant with minimal materials. The slats provide ergonomic support while maintaining an airy visual lightness. Black, high-strength bent steel tube legs form a slightly raised arch that creates a low-profile arm for support and easy movement. An optional cushion in Heritage Papyrus (neutral beige) or Heritage Char (bold dark tone) — both made from 50% recycled, weather-resistant fabric — adds comfort without compromising the chair’s minimal profile. Perfect for compact city balconies or high-traffic hospitality settings.

RFH Terrace Family

The RFH Terrace Table (RD5-6)
Designed as the Terrace Chair’s companion, this outdoor table never reached general production either. Crafted from black powder-coated steel with a compact laminate top, it combines durability with low maintenance — fade resistant, waterproof, and easy to clean. Available in two sizes (75cm or 96cm diameter), the table’s distinguishing feature is its splayed legs reinforced with metal dowels. As Paula Day notes, “The slender legs are key to the aesthetic of the RFH Terrace Table; they give the whole construction a sense of uplift while the supports provide stability.”

The 2024 reissue represents far more than a product launch. It is the successful culmination of meticulous archival research, cross-institutional collaboration, and a commitment to rescuing design history from obscurity. For collectors, design professionals, and those who cherish the restraint and intelligence of mid-century modernism, the return of Robin Day’s Royal Festival Hall collection is a significant moment.

ATD Retail 2026 RFH RD4 RFH RD6

Images and content courtesy of &Tradition.

The Robin and Lucienne Foundation is an independent organisation chaired by Paula Day and run by a Board of Trustees, all of whom donate their time and expertise to further the charity’s objectives. The Foundation is the proprietor of all intellectual property rights in the works of Robin and Lucienne Day. It is committed to managing their designs in such a way as to maintain the integrity of their legacies. The Foundation endorses and licenses only high-quality, authentic productions of Robin and Lucienne Day’s original designs, and all royalties are paid directly to the Foundation to support its work.