Union Street is full of shops, but few can boast almost 100 years of serving the local community. The Cabinet Supplies, founded in 1928 by Wolfe Sterne, has done just that, offering everything from hinges and locks to timber and tools, while staying in the same family for four generations.
Wolfe, originally from Wales, famously chose Plymouth over a life in America. His gamble paid off. From the start, he stocked items that others didn’t, including old-style cabinet handles and rarely used screws, items that local dockyard workers still request today, decades after they were last manufactured. Some say Wolfe could recognise the right screw or hinge from its description alone, without needing to see it.
Today, Wolfe’s grandson Dave Sterne runs the shop, with his nephew Chris Braine representing the fourth generation. The store has grown with the times, now including building and decorating tools, electrical essentials, a timber yard, and key cutting, but the personal touch remains. Staff with decades of experience offer advice and guidance, not just products.
Customers often share stories from years past. One regular still recalls buying a set of vintage drawer runners in the 1980s for a cabinet that had belonged to his grandmother, only to return decades later to ask for a matching hinge. Another remembers Wolfe himself patiently helping a young DIY enthusiast figure out exactly how to install a new lock, while the rest of Plymouth’s high street was closing for the day.
Over nearly a century, The Cabinet Supplies has seen Plymouth change around it, from wartime rationing to post-war rebuilding, and the rise of big-box retailers. Yet through it all, the shop has remained a constant for tradespeople, DIYers, and families alike.
For a city full of changing high streets, The Cabinet Supplies proves some businesses aren’t just shops, they’re part of Plymouth’s story. Approaching its centenary, it stands as a testament to knowledge, community, and family enterprise, where even a single screw or hinge can hold decades of memories
Photographs and Video © Wayne Perry / Plymouth Post