Roger Limbrick and Hull Traders: The "Palace" Textile That Defined 1960s British Op Art Design
In 1966, a British designer named Roger Limbrick created a screen-printed textile called "Palace" for Hull Traders — a bold, geometric composition that placed him at the forefront of the Op Art movement in British textile design. Produced at a moment when British design was influencing the entire world, "Palace" is a piece that captures the energy and ambition of the 1960s with extraordinary clarity. Original examples are rare, and increasingly recognised as important pieces of British design history.
Hull Traders: The Radical Fabric House
Hull Traders was one of the most significant — and least well-known — British textile manufacturers of the 1960s. Founded in London, the company occupied a distinctive position in the British design landscape: more experimental than the establishment houses, more commercially ambitious than the fine art world, Hull Traders commissioned work from designers who were pushing the boundaries of what a printed fabric could be.
Their roster of designers reads like a who's who of 1960s British design. Shirley Craven, their principal designer and co-director, created some of the most striking geometric textiles of the era. Alongside her, designers including Roger Limbrick produced work that drew on the same visual language as Op Art painting — bold geometry, high contrast colour, patterns that created optical movement and energy on the wall.
Hull Traders fabrics were shown at major design exhibitions of the era and stocked by the leading furnishing retailers of the day. They were bought by people who wanted their homes to reflect the most forward-thinking design ideas of the moment — the same people who were buying Arne Jacobsen chairs and listening to the Beatles.
Roger Limbrick and "Palace"
Roger Limbrick was a British textile designer whose work for Hull Traders in the mid-1960s placed him firmly within the Op Art tradition that was, in 1966, one of the most exciting movements in contemporary art and design. Op Art — short for Optical Art — used geometric forms and carefully calculated colour relationships to create illusions of movement, depth and vibration in flat, two-dimensional compositions.
"Palace," created in 1966, is a confident and accomplished example of this approach. The design uses bold geometric forms — arches, curves, repeated architectural shapes — in a composition that creates a genuine sense of visual movement. The screen-printing technique allows for the flat, precisely registered colour fields that give Op Art textiles their characteristic intensity. The result is a pattern that is as visually engaging today as it was nearly sixty years ago.
The name "Palace" is suggestive — there is something monumental and architectural about the composition, a sense of grand geometric order that connects to the era's fascination with modernist architecture and the clean lines of the new Britain that was being built around it.
Screen Printing and the Craft of 1960s British Textiles
"Palace" was produced using screen printing — the dominant technique for high-quality decorative textiles in Britain during the 1960s. Screen printing allowed designers to work with flat, solid areas of colour that could be registered with great precision, producing the sharp edges and clean colour separations that geometric designs like "Palace" required.
Each colour in a screen-printed textile requires a separate screen — a labour-intensive process that speaks to the genuine craft investment in these pieces. Hull Traders, like Heal's and Sanderson, maintained high production standards that are evident in the quality of surviving examples. The colours are rich, the printing is precise, and the fabric itself has the weight and hand of a properly made furnishing textile.
Why Original Hull Traders Textiles Are So Collectable
Original Hull Traders fabrics from the 1960s are increasingly difficult to find in good condition. The company ceased production relatively early, and their fabrics — like all furnishing textiles of the era — were used rather than preserved. Surviving examples in presentable condition are genuinely scarce, and the collector and design history community has been slow to fully recognise their importance — which means that now, while they are still occasionally available, represents an opportunity.
Among serious collectors of British mid-century modern design, Hull Traders occupies a position comparable to Heal's and Sanderson — perhaps even more adventurous than either in the boldness of the work they commissioned. A Roger Limbrick "Palace" panel in good condition is not just a beautiful object. It is a primary piece of evidence for one of the most creatively extraordinary decades in British design history.
The RetroTime Piece
The example we have sourced is a genuine 1966 "Palace" screen-printed textile panel by Roger Limbrick for Hull Traders — framed and ready to hang. The geometric composition is crisp and clear, the colours are vivid and well-preserved, and the overall presentation is of a piece that has been properly cared for.
This is exactly the kind of piece that makes what we do at RetroTime worthwhile — rescued from obscurity, presented properly, and offered to someone who will appreciate what it is.
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If you are looking for specific Hull Traders fabrics, Heal's textiles or other mid-century British textile wall art, get in touch — we are always sourcing new pieces and are happy to help.
RetroTime specialises in genuine vintage British homewares — wall clocks, textile wall art and lighting from the mid-century modern era. Based in Chelmsford, Essex. Free tracked delivery across the UK.