The coffee table with a view inside
Most coffee tables show you their top. A glass-topped G Plan 8040 also shows you the support beneath it. From a seat, the curved wooden members become part of the view through the table, alongside the floor and anything placed on the glass.
The model is often advertised as an Astro. G Plan’s own retrospective distinguishes the circular 8040 from the later oval 8050 and from a separate five-legged Astro introduced in 1970. It attributes all three designs to V. B. Wilkins.1
For the familiar round and oval tables, the useful starting point is therefore the shape and model number. The nickname alone covers too much territory.
The base becomes the view
On the 8040, a wooden border outlines the circular glass, above a curved, crossing support. The 8050 stretches the top into an oval. That change gives the table a direction: a long edge can run alongside a sofa, whereas the circle presents a similar approach from around the room.1
The transparent centre makes the relationship between top and base unusually legible. The border describes the usable surface; the wood below gives that surface a footing. An opaque top would conceal much of the second element from someone sitting nearby.
This is furniture that rewards an ordinary seated viewpoint. Its construction becomes something to look at without requiring the whole table to be tipped over.
A table in a bigger room set
The High Wycombe Furniture Archive records an 8040 in a photographed G Plan living-room arrangement. Its description names Wilkins and refers to the 1965 GF11 material; it also records versions in teak or tola. The seating in that scene has its own designer and chronology.3
The room-set context matters. G Plan built a domestic furnishing programme, with showrooms demonstrating how furniture could sit together. Its company history connects the 1960s to Scandinavian influence and the later Fresco range.2
A small table could participate in that wider room without becoming a miniature sideboard. Glass introduced a different surface and let the surrounding furnishings remain visible through the centre.
What the nickname leaves out
A popular name is convenient in conversation and less precise in a listing. “Astro” can lead to a round top, an oval one or the separate five-legged design. The distinction is useful before getting into dates, finishes or the story attached to an individual example.
Once the forms are separated, the common tables become easier to enjoy on their own terms. The circle gathers a seating arrangement around a centre; the oval follows its length. Both offer the same small pleasure: a supporting structure that remains in the picture even after the table has taken its place beside the sofa.