Social media blackout for royal carpets

Axminster Carpets has been awarded a royal seal of approval because it supplies carpets to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, but the terms of the royal contract forbid the company to use pictures of the royal carpets for marketing purposes. This means there are no pictures of them posted on Instagram or other social media sites.

In the company’s head office, there are many framed portraits of Axminster carpets made for expensive hotels and stately homes, but not one of the royal carpets.

Axminster carpets can also be found on the floors of JD Wetherspoon pubs chain. Every Wetherspoon pub had its own individually designed Axminster carpet worth over £20,000. These even have their own social media sites on Twitter and Instagram, where fans of the discount pub chain post images of their favourites. JD Wetherspoon does not have exclusive rights to the designs, so people who like Wetherspoon carpets often place an order for a bespoke carpet designed like the one in their local pub.

Although Axminster has introduced some modern technology, the way the company weaves carpets on looms is very similar to how it made carpets 250 years ago.

Axminster never patented it name, and the word has become a generic title for a style of carpet defined by brilliant hues and fine details. Carpets bought in Wrexham described as Axminster are therefore unlikely to made by Axminster Carpets, but they should still be quality products that uphold the tradition and design associated with the name.