TAC Office Equipment, on New Cross Road, displays a sign reading ‘WE SOLD A CHAIR TO DAMIEN HIRST.’ Image: Google

At some point in the early 1990s a little-known artist called Damien Hirst was shopping on New Cross Road.

He bought a padded swivel chair from TAC Office Equipment, whose premises had been housed at number 375 since 1973.

It’s perhaps no surprise that Hirst went to this particular shop – he had probably walked past it when he was studying fine art across the road at Goldsmiths College in the late 1980s.

Hirst’s new chair was to form part of a sculpture of office furniture enclosed in steel frames (he’s made a few of these installations, including ‘He Tried to Internalise Everything’ and ‘The Acquired Inability to Escape’).

Over ten years later, this (now famous) sculpture was to be exhibited in a gallery in New York, or perhaps Berlin; but first, Hirst wanted a replacement chair.

He went back to TAC Office Equipment, on New Cross Road – this time with his assistant, who did most of the talking.

The chairs, however, were no longer in stock; even worse, they were no longer being manufactured.

TAC Office Equipment was at risk of disappointing a star client, and of standing in the way of art.

The delicate matter fell to Simon Warner, the shop’s assistant manager, who told Londonmultimedianews about the day he had to deal with the famous artist, Damien Hirst.