The K&H Timber Supplier workshops are sited in three Victorian terraced houses. In a haze of sawdust and constant noise the joiners and carpenters produce and repair made to measure sash windows, doors and provide all types of carpentry skills needed for the building trade. Their shop is also a centre for the community where cstomers can buy everything needed for DIY projects, get free advice or an offcut of wood. After arriving in Britain from Northern Cyprus in 1961 carpenter Mustafa Kasim set up K&H Timber Supplier on Lea Bridge Road, London in the 1970’s. Forty-five years later the small timber business is run by his two sons, Hasan and Ahmed and is going from strength to strength. K&H Timber Supplier is situated midway along Lea Bridge Road, between Waltham Forest and Hackney, on one of east London’s ancient and busiest trade and commuter routes.

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Joint oweners of K&H Timber Supplier brothers Hasan and Ahmet Kasim are busy on their phones inside K&H Timber Supplier on Lea Bridge Road, London.
Hasan cuts keys for a customer who waits holding their dog that had recently been castrated.
Ahmet works on paperwork in the crowded office space.
Joiner Kashif Jazab selects wood from the stores as he makes up doors in the workshop.
 
Pieces of wood are often too long to be taken to the upstairs workshops via the narrow Victorian stairwell. To resolve this problem some floorboards have been taken up in the upstairs workshop so wood can be passed up through the ceiling. Before the upper floorboards are lifted there is much shouting and stamping to ensure workers below are not covered in a heavy shower of sawdust.
 
The narrow and battered sawdust covered stairwell that leads to the upstairs workshop from the main store of K&H Timber Supplier.
 
People are seen walking along Lea Bridge Road through the open window of one of the upstairs workshops.
Joiner Kashif Jazab checks wood for straightness and quality as he starts to make up a door frame.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Work orders with measurements are pinned to the wall in the workshop.
Ayhan Jeter, who is considered by Hasan and Ahmet, to be the most skilled and experienced carpenter carefully hand sands wood that is being used to build a door frame.
Covered in sawdust carpenter Ayhan uses a morticing machine.
 
 
Ayhan sweeps up as a mechanic from a local garage collects sawdust from under one of the saws. The sawdust is used to soak up fuel spillages in the garage.  
A local butcher collects and bags up fine sawdust for use on his butcher’s floor to soak up blood.
 
Driver and general worker Cesim Gundaz brings tea in for brothers Ahmet and Hasan who are working in the front shop.
Tea break over Umer Farooq pours away the dregs before loading up the dishwasher as Kashif Jazab cuts wood in the downstairs workshop.
 
Customers Donna Todd and Keith Manning look for the right wood to make a clothes display rack for Donna's children’s clothing business.
Customers watch as joiner Faik Ibik cuts wood boarding to size in the downstairs workshop.
 
 
Driver Cesim Gunduz loads completed doors onto a van as he prepares to deliver them for a customer. Cesim has worked for K&H Timber Supplier for over ten years and says he enjoys his work. Deliveries can be as far as Essex, south London and the City of London.  
Offcuts are removed from the rear of the workshop through a side passage that leads to Lea Bridge Road. Wood that that been cut too small to be used commercially is recycled. Frequently offcuts are also collected by local schools.
Weights are reclaimed from old wooden sash windows that are rotten beyond repair and stored for future use. They need to be paired in weight and size and used depending on size of window.
Before they are finished doors and windows need to be glazed. Jiva Singh is a glass specialist who has worked at K&H Timber Supplier for over twenty years. He has his own workshop on the ground floor and calls himself the ‘glassman’. Sheet glass is delivered twice and week and is hand carried into the store from the lorry parked on the Lea Bridge Road. Jiva works with all types of glass which he hand cuts to size.  
 

Reinforced glass is made up of layers of glass and plastic. The only way to cut it to shape is to score the glass and then pour a flammable liquid into the join. The liquid is then ignited to burn off the plastic in the cut.

 
 
 
 
Bayram Yilmaz followed in his father’s footsteps to become a carpenter. His father taught him the trade making furniture. Bayram has worked at K&H Timber Supplier for five years and most enjoys making doors.
A customer watches as joiner Bayram cuts a piece of wood into a perfect circle using a jig saw.
 
 
 
 
Joiner Faik Ibik blows sawdust off a door as he works to replace the glass panels. Faik also learned his trade from his father adding that the best advice his father gave him was to never put his hand near the blade. To this day he always uses another piece of wood to push the piece he is cutting through the saw blade. He said he has never cut his fingers on a saw. What he enjoys most fitting kitchen cabinets and making sash windows adding that the day he stops enjoying working with wood he will leave the trade.   
 
 
 
 
Machinist Umer Farooq adjusts a saw blade as he prepares to cut wood. Umer's role is to cut wood to size ready for whatever it may be needed for. He also helps customers with their orders and choosing the wood they need and helps to unload deliveries. He says he has worked at K&H Timber Supplier for two years and really enjoys the friendly and polite working environment.
 

Wearing a mask to protect against a haze of fine dust and paint spray carpenter Daniel Chrostowski prepares a door for priming by filing and sanding imperfections in the wood. Daniel is one of many local tradesmen who are frequent customers and often uses the facilities and tools in the K&H Timber workshop as he is considered to be a friend.
 
 
Bayram helps bring the stock in from the front of the shop at the end of the working day. The shop is open six days a week from 09.00 to 18.30. Owner Ahmet will often come into the shop when it’s closed to catch up with paperwork and admin in the peace and quiet as he says he's too busy on a normal working day.
 
 
 
Joint owners of K&H Timber Supplier, brothers Hasan and Ahmet Kasim (centre) stand with workers (left to right) Kashif Jazab, Jiva Singh, Daniel Chrostowski, Umer Farooq, Faik Ibik and Cesim Gundaz in the ground floor workshop on Lea Bridge Road, December 11, 2024.
 
 
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