Home   News   Article

Subscribe Now

Cambridge Classics: a family friendly business that goes the extra mile




Camilla Carter, Laura Yady-Wong and Stuart Carter of Cambridge Classics with some of their staff. Picture: Keith Heppell
Camilla Carter, Laura Yady-Wong and Stuart Carter of Cambridge Classics with some of their staff. Picture: Keith Heppell

Cambridge Classics is a traditional, family-run business in the heart of the city which fits houses with energy-efficient windows and doors.

All front windows and front door, central Cambridge
All front windows and front door, central Cambridge

“We specialise in period properties – Edwardian, Georgian, Victorian – but we do some projects on newer builds as well,” said sales and marketing director Camilla Carter.

“We provide wooden double-glazed windows, so sash windows, casement windows, Norfolk sliders – and doors.

“But we’re not your average door company. We’ve been based in Cambridge for 16 years and we go the extra mile.

“We do all the interior and exterior decorating, we use National Heritage colours, our joiner’s based just outside of Cambridge. Everything is kept nice and local, and it’s important to us to keep Cambridge beautiful.”

Six over six sash window, central Cambridge
Six over six sash window, central Cambridge

Elaborating on the history of the firm, which covers an area within a 20-mile radius of Cambridge, Camilla said: “My dad founded the business, and in April he handed it over to my husband – who’s the managing director – and me.

“My dad still works for the company, my sister works for the company, my brother-in-law works for the company, my brother-in-law’s brother works for the company... we’re quite a close-knit team.”

Camilla and co work with Ridgeons, a building materials supplier in Cambridge, and try whenever possible to source locally.

“We use Ridgeons, we’re great fans of Mackays,” she noted. “We like to use the companies that are on our doorstep, right down to our website provider who’s based in Burwell.”

Entire front of house, windows and doors, in a Cambridgeshire village
Entire front of house, windows and doors, in a Cambridgeshire village

Cambridge Classics has worked on hundreds of properties in Cambridge. Asked to comment on specific standout projects, Camilla replied: “Recent jobs would be many of the terraced houses off Mill Road – we work on lots of those.

“We’re working on a really exciting project for the International Whaling Commission, who are based in Impington. They’ve got this beautiful big building called The Red House and we’re replacing 29 windows in that. It’ll look stunning.”

One of Camilla’s favourite aspects of the job is meeting customers in their homes. “Even if it’s only five or 10 minutes in their house, I like capturing five or 10 minutes of their life – everyone has a story and that’s really lovely,” she said.

“We’re not hard-sell, so we’ll go and quote but we’ll chat. Then we’ll leave a brochure and it’s up to the customers to decide in their own time – that’s really important.”

Asked about future expansion, Camilla replied: “We’d like to learn more about the restoration of sash windows, we’d like to branch out to other areas – perhaps Norfolk. So we do have plans to grow, but obviously everything takes time.”

Cambridge Classics is sponsoring this summer’s Roar festival and will be exhibiting at the inaugural Cambridge Home + Garden Show, sponsored by the Cambridge Independent, which will take place at the Guildhall on September 9.

“We’re really looking forward to that,” said Camilla. “I discovered them via Twitter and was really interested in getting involved because Cambridge has never had anything like this before.

“I met up with Jennifer [Chong], the organiser, in Hot Numbers and we came on board.”

cambridgeclassics.co.uk facebook.com/cambridgeclassics @CambClassics camhomeshow.com



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More