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A Glimpse into the History of the John Lewis Partnership

Doubtless some of you have shopped at Robert Sayle or John Lewis or Waitrose over the years or have at least seen them when shopping in town. After teaching at Melbourn Village College, I worked at Robert Sayle in Cambridge for some years and am, at present working on an online archive of the Robert Sayle Memory Store. We are trying to find out as much as we can about the Store and the Man who opened the first Drapery Store on the site in 1840. It was as a result of the archive that Terry and I were invited to attend the official opening by the Chairman of the Partnership, Sir Charlie Mayfield, of the new Heritage Centre for the Partnership.

The Titanic design, no. S761, printed in 1910 at Stead McAlpin, the printing works for the John Lewis Partnership. It was supplied to Stern & Walther and purchased by Stonard in large enough quantities to supply the state rooms on board the ill-fated liner.

As all the original fabric went to the bottom of the Atlantic with the ship it is possible that the printer’s sample length is all that remains of the initial print run.

All John Lewis Partnership fabrics were printed at Stead McAlpin works, some by hand block.

This will house and display all the business archives of the whole Partnership, including the Department Stores, Waitrose and all the other areas of the business including the weaving and printing of fabrics and making duvets, pillows etc. Previously, this archive had been held in the warehouse in Stevenage and at the factories in the north; hardly seen by anyone, whereas, now, not only will Partners be able to visit but also members of the public.

It proved to be a fascinating afternoon in Cookham, at the Odney Club, one of the John Lewis Partnership’s Estates. The estate is based around the Lullebrook, a tributary of the Thames and on one side are the Manor House and the other houses in which Partners can stay for a while it also houses the Bernard Miller Centre where Conferences and Partners are trained in such things as the use of all the white goods which are sold in the Stores.

On the opposite side of the water was the Grove Farm and Odney Pottery and it is this area which has been transformed into the new Heritage Centre.

It is an amazing building which has been sympathetically adapted and added to, to make the fantastic building it is now. The outside is cedar clad and etched in a design of Charles Voysey, one of the fabric designers, samples of whose work is on show inside the building along with hundreds of other fabric samples. These are joined by all the paper archives as well as all sorts of other items including hats which had belonged to Queen Victoria, the Royal Charter crest, taken from Caley’s in Windsor, a sample piece of fabric printed for the Titanic. One of the original pottery kilns has been kept together with some of the pots also, blocks for hand printing fabrics, paper and plastic bags of all the variety of designs used since the Partnership began

Once the official opening ceremony had been performed, champagne and canapés were served and much chat took place as almost everyone there had at one stage worked for the John Lewis Partnership. We look forward to being able to access the archives and perhaps to host a Partnership wide online archive for the future generations to explore. Marjorie Shaw