The company came to widespread national public attention in August 2011, when one of its two adjacent buildings was destroyed in an arson attack during the 2011 England riots.

Images of the furniture store on fire, with firefighters unable to tackle the blaze because police could not protect them, became symbolic of the violence that spread across the country during several days of rioting and looting.

[7] The properties on the northern side of Reeves Corner lay within the Church Street Conservation Area, and included a striking Edwardian Arts and Crafts building.

This was one of Croydon's "four crosses", boundary markers that defined the limits of the town, and within which the inhabitants enjoyed privileges including a degree of self-government and a form of free tenure of property.

[9] Another plaque was erected by the Croydon Society in 2001 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the pioneering Surrey Iron Railway (a horse-drawn plateway), of which the Pitlake terminus was close by.

[10] One of the company's properties (to the north of Reeves Corner thoroughfare) was razed to the ground by an arson attack on 8 August 2011 during the 2011 England riots.

Time magazine reported that the destruction of House of Reeves came to symbolize the violence that spread across England during the three days of rioting.

[11] On 13 August Gordon Thompson, aged 33, was arrested in Surrey Street after he was recognised from his picture on the front page of the Croydon Advertiser.