Moquette – Fabric for Public Transport

Moquette is a tough woollen fabric used for upholstery on public transportation worldwide. The name comes from the French word for carpet. The material typically comprises 85% wool and 15% nylon and is created using the weaving method known as jacquard. The woollen pile has excellent thermal characteristics, keeping you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

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The seats of London Underground’s Tube trains, particularly, are renowned for having Moquette upholstery. There were about ten moquette manufacturers in the UK during the decades of the numerous railway companies. The number of passengers drastically decreased as a result of the nationalisation of the railways after World War II and the Beeching cuts in the early 1960s. By the middle of the 1960s, there were two suppliers, with Courtaulds being one of them. The other company is based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and sells fabrics.

Sources

Moquette project | London Transport Museum. (n.d.). London Transport Museum. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/projects/moquette-project

Moquette – Wikipedia. (n.d.). Moquette – Wikipedia. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moquette

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