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Early Days
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Early History
Early History
A short history of clearance
Coping with crowds past and present In 1961 the Founder writing in The Gazette had exactly the same opinion and was, in fact ...
Famous department stores from 1707
A brief chronology of a selection of shops
How John Lewis ended up in prison
A new century, same old Mr Lewis
John Lewis and the foundation of the Oxford Street shop, 1864
Orphaned John Lewis was born in 1836 in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. By 1844, at only 8 years old, he was an orphan, ...
John Spedan Lewis; born into the business in 1885
Family business John Spedan Lewis was born on the 22nd September 1885, in Marylebone, London. He began working at his father’s ...
Leckford Abbas
Purchased in 1929
Purchasing Peter Jones in 1905
Growing the business beyond Oxford Street
Spedan gives birth to the Partnership and Peter Jones is its cradle
Partnership Conceived “The Experiment in Industrial Democracy” that Spedan was to introduce into his Chelsea shop had its birth much earlier. In ...
Spedan grasps Peter Jones with two hands, 1920-1929
Bright young graduates and women During the next ten years Spedan continued to re-decorate and redesign the layout of the shop. ...
The 1920 strike at John Lewis
Mr Lewis in hot water once more By the 1920’s the Lewis family was in tumultuous waters. Spedan Lewis and his ...
The bombing of John Lewis, September 1940
Primary target As the economic, political and cultural centre of the United Kingdom, London was certainly the primary target for German ...
The death of Mr John Lewis, 1928
Spedan assumes control of Oxford Street
The First Trust Settlement, 1929
Birth of the Partnership On the 18th April 1929, John Spedan Lewis signed the First Trust Settlement, a document effectively legalising ...
The opening page of the first ever copy of the Gazette
Saturday 16th March 1918
The Partnership Council
A brief outline
The start of the relationship between Peter Jones and John Lewis
John Lewis purchases Peter Jones John Lewis had a thoroughly successful business in Oxford Street and was ready to expand and ...
Trading continues at Oxford Street amidst the rubble
Down, but not out Just three weeks after the bombing, the partly damaged East House was reopened for business. Part of ...
Early Days
Early History
The acquisition of the Selfridge Provincial Stores