London's
14 oldest stores
One
of the joys of shopping in London today comes from discovering any
number of traditional stores that have remained little changed since
they were founded hundreds of years ago. These are some of the
oldest…
Winston Churchill,
Charles Chaplin, and Admiral Lord Nelson, among other luminaries,
have donned Lock headwear. Let’s not forget Firmin & Sons,
which doesn’t retain an old store but survives as probably the
third oldest business in London after the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
(1570) and the London Gazette (1665). It made belts, buttons,
uniforms, and insignia; the company supplied buttons to every British
monarch, officially, since 1796.
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Taken from National
Geographic London Book of Lists: The City’s Best, Worst, Oldest,
Greatest, and Quirkiest (National Geographic Books; ISBN
978-1-4262-1382-3; $19.95) by Tim Jepson and Larry Porges.
Picture: GETTY
1689 - Ede &
Ravenscroft (93 Chancery Lane, WC2, tel 020 7405 3906,
edeandravenscroft.co.uk). The oldest tailor, wig-, and robe-maker in
London (and probably the world) began in the Aldwych area of the
city. It was soon supplying robes to William and Mary and has
continued to serve the monarchy, as well as the legal, clerical,
municipal, and academic professions.
Picture: GETTY
1698 - The “Widow
Bourne” established London’s oldest wine business, Berry Brothers
& Rudd (3 St. James’s St., SW1, tel 0800 280 2440, bbr.com),
more than three centuries ago. Eight generations later, it’s still
in the same family, at the same address. During its long history, it
first supplied the royal family in 1830 as well as the wine for the
Titanic.
Picture: GETTY
1706 - In 1706,
Thomas Twining bought Tom’s Coffee House at 216 Strand. The
location, between the City and Westminster, was ideal for picking up
business from wealthy Londoners displaced west by the Great Fire.
Twinings & Co (tel 020 7353 3511, twinings.co.uk) still sells tea
and coffee from the same address.
Picture: GETTY
1707 - William
Fortnum was a footman at the court of Queen Anne and had a sideline
selling partly burned candles from the royal candelabra. Using the
money he amassed, he set up a grocery store with his landlord, Hugh
Mason. The fine food emporium Fortnum & Mason (181 Piccadilly,
London, W1, tel 0845 300 1707, fortnumandmason.com) remains on the
same site to this day.
Picture: GETTY
1730 - Does any
store smell better than Floris (89 Jermyn St., SW1, tel 020 7747
3600, florislondon.com), a perfumer still at the site on which it was
founded in 1730 by Spaniard Juan Famenias Floris? Much of the store’s
beautiful interior dates from 1851, when the counter and wooden
display cases were brought from the Great Exhibition of that year.
Picture: ALAMY
1750 - Swaine Adeney
Brigg (7 Piccadilly Arcade, St. James’s, SW1, tel 020 7409 7277,
swaineadeney.co.uk) still makes the exquisite leather goods for which
it first became famous, along with hats and umbrellas.
Picture: GETTY
1760 - Hamleys
(188-196 Regent St., W1, tel 0871 704 1977, hamleys.com) is the
world’s oldest toy store, but it has moved several times since its
first incarnation — a store known as Noah’s Ark founded in 1760
by William Hamley at 231 High Holborn, WC1, which was destroyed by
fire in 1901.
Picture: GETTY
1787 - James J. Fox,
or Robert Lewis as it then was (19 St. James’s St., SW1, tel 020
7930 3787, jjfox.co.uk), provided possibly the most famous cigars in
the world—those smoked by Sir Winston Churchill—and is the
world’s oldest cigar merchant. It has a museum (closed Sun., free),
with cigar memorabilia dating back to the firm’s foundation.
Picture: ALAMY
1790 - D. R. Harris
& Co. (29 St. James’s St., W1, tel 020 7930 3915,
drharris.co.uk) began as Harris’s Apothecary, established by
surgeon Henry Harris to sell lavender water, cologne, and English
flower perfumes to the fashionable set of St. James’s. It is still
there, a few doors down from the original address, and still sells
shaving products, aftershaves, colognes, and skincare items from
beautiful old premises.
Picture: ALAMY
1797 - Hatchard’s
(187 Piccadilly, W1, tel 020 7439 9921, hatchards.co.uk) is the
United Kingdom’s oldest bookstore and still trades from Piccadilly,
where the company was founded. Most of the great British authors of
the recent and distant past have visited the store, which often has
an extensive collection of signed copies for sale.
Picture: GETTY
1797 - Paxton &
Whitfield (93 Jermyn St., London, SW1, 020 7930 0259,
paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk) smells almost as good as its nearby
neighbor, Floris, but in a different way, for this is a purveyor of
fine cheeses. The company has its roots in the county of Suffolk and
operated a market stall at Aldwych before moving to this site in
1797.
Picture: ALAMY
1806 - Henry Poole &
Co. (15 Savile Row, W1, 020 7734 5985, henrypoole.com) is
acknowledged as both the first tailor shop to set up on Savile Row
(in 1846) and as the place where the dinner jacket, or tuxedo, was
invented.
Picture: GETTY
1830 - There can be
only one place for umbrellas, canes, and walking sticks in London:
the historic premises of James Smith & Sons (53 New Oxford St.,
WC1, tel 020 7836 4731, james-smith.co.uk), which have remained
almost unaltered for more than 140 years—though the business is
older still.
--
Taken from National
Geographic London Book of Lists: The City’s Best, Worst, Oldest,
Greatest, and Quirkiest (National Geographic Books; ISBN
978-1-4262-1382-3; $19.95) by Tim Jepson and Larry Porges.
Picture: ALAMY
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