Industries

Marks and Spencers opens 1894

Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer open the first of their ‘Penny Bazaars’, at Cheetham Hill, Manchester. Marks arrived in Britain from Poland, penniless, illiterate and did not speak English. Spencer befriended him and lent him £5, which he used to start selling from market stalls. Their stores sold a range of household goods ‘don’t ask…

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Henry Charles Harrod 1849

In 1849, Henry Charles Harrod, a tea dealer of Eastcheap, takes over a grocery shop at 8 Brompton Road, London, that later becomes Harrods department store.

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London Daily News 1850

The London Daily News is published on 21st January 1850. It is the first cheap newspaper to be produced on the streets of London and so news becomes more accessible to the working class and poor citizens of London. It is established by the architect Joseph Paxton and the paper’s first editor is Charles Dickens.

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