The Harrison Ovens Story
Authentic craftsmanship, hand-built by a perfectionist
Daniel Thumwood is an engineer and welder with a creative edge. A love of food, fascination with cooking over charcoal, and his general inventiveness are what led to him wanting to see if it were even possible to create an oven like this.
There was nothing like it around - and still isn’t. That first oven took Daniel three years of creative and technical development. Almost as soon as it was finished, it began to gather professional and consumer interest globally. The Harrison was born.
One of the striking things about the Harrison is how since that first oven, Daniel has evolved its beautiful, robustly stylish look from its functionality.
“Function comes first – aesthetic is what then comes from that.”
Daniel Thumwood, founder & designer
All around the workshop are hand-drawn designs and measurements scribbled on workbenches that tell the story of how the Harrison grew out of Daniel’s head and hands.
Originally based in South West London, the Harrison workshop is now established near the coast in Kent. Daniel’s father, George (also an engineer, creator and partner in the Harrison business) has his workshop next door. Upstairs is the design studio and a working kitchen with a stainless steel Harrison ‘S’. Downstairs is the workshop where each Harrison is individually built by hand.
From there - on a workbench top that is the door of a disused, huge metal safe - Dan constructs each oven from the inside out, using 64 British components. In Dan’s hands, each oven is individually invested with integrity. The ovens are built to be cooked with inside or outdoors - indoor installation only means ensuring there is enough extraction.
In a world of mass production and high-speed living, our skills go back to a time of authentic, step-by-step methods.
When the Harrison arrives with each customer, it begins to develop a character in tune with that of its chef. Cooking with a Harrison Oven is, ultimately, an experience you share with it. That comes, in part, from the earthy connection of seeing and feeling live embers on the oven’s floor.
It is in the pleasure of creating dishes with the flavour and texture of being cooked over solid fuel. It is the knowledge that, with a Harrison, you have an oven of authentic craftsmanship, built individually by a perfectionist with the highest values of quality.
With a Harrison, you have an oven that has been built with functionality in mind, crafted individually by a perfectionist, and engineered to the highest standards possible.