Series: Album of House of Bewlay Tobacconist Shops

Description

An album containing 76 prints showing exteriors and interiors of 36 pipe and tobacco shops operated under the House of Bewlay name. Coverage is national, though the majority of the shops were in London.

Bewlay and Company were a tobacconists and pipe-making firm who established a chain of shops across England from the mid-19th century onwards. The business claimed to have been started from a shop at 49 West Strand, London, in 1780, but in truth the founder Thomas Bewlay was born in 1794, though it is possible that he bought a pre-existing business.

These prints were taken after 1955, when the shops were rebranded as House of Bewlay by the parent company Salmon and Gluckstein (itself a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco), who acquired the business in 1937. The chain of shops was eventually closed in the 1980s.

The musician David Bowie used the ‘Bewlay’ name in a 1971 song called ‘The Bewlay Brothers’, later revealing that his inspiration for the name had come from these shops.

Content

This is part of the Collection: SHC01 Photographs of shops and shop fronts

This Series contains the following materials:

Photograph (Print): 76

Rights

Source: Historic England Archive