Records of D H Evans and Co Ltd, department store, London, England

Reference and contact details: GB 248 HF 065
Title: Records of D H Evans & Co Ltd, department store, London, England
Dates of Creation: 1854-1983
Extent: 2.56 metres
Held at: Glasgow University Archives Service
Name of Creator: D H Evans & Co Ltd (department store: 1894-1954: London, England)
Language of Material: English
Level of Description: fonds
Published by: Glasgow University Archive Services

77-87 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, G11 6PW

Administrative/Biographical History

Dan Harries Evans was born in South Wales around 1856. He was apprenticed to a draper in Wales before moving to London, England, in 1878 to start up in business on his own account. He rented a small shop at 320 Oxford Street in 1879 for the sale of linen drapery and fancy goods, where he employed two assistants. As the trade grew very quickly Evans was able to lease three adjoining properties in Oxford Street by 1885.

During the latter part of 1892, Dan Harries Evans acquired the leases of shop premises at 290-294 Oxford Street, on the opposite side of Old Cavendish Street. The store was opened to the public in 1893 . The new showrooms comprised silk, costume, mantle, children's clothing, baby linens and ladies' underclothing departments. Profits for 1894 rose considerably over the previous year. In the same year the store employed circa 400 staff. Dan Harries Evans continued to develop the business by the introduction of new lines, such as groceries, general provisions, ironmongery and glassware. This growth required a considerable capital investment and, in April 1894 , Evans announced the creation of a limited liability company, D H Evans & Co Ltd . The new company had a capital of £202,000. Evans retained a majority holding and the remaining shares, offered to staff and customers, were subscribed several times over. Alfred James Newton, chairman of Harrod's Stores Ltd, department store, Knightsbridge, London, was appointed chairman of the new company, assisted by James Bailey, James Boyton, and Richard Burbidge, who were later joined by Edgar Cohen and William Mendel as directors. Evans was appointed managing director, at a salary of £750 per annum, and attended board meetings as an observer.

During the following year the directors consolidated and extended control over the store's site by acquiring 296-306 Oxford Street in 1894/95 and number 308 in 1898. In 1897 , Evans resigned as managing director but remained on the board, and Richard Burbidge assumed an executive role until a successor could be found. Since Burbidge was managing director of Harrod's Stores Ltd it was not surprising that he proposed one of his own managers from Knightsbridge, Ernest Webb, as Evans's replacement. Burbidge was also convinced of the value of advertising and devised a major promotional campaign in December 1898. A few months later he retired from the board in order to concentrate on his growing responsibilities at Harrod's Stores Ltd.

In December 1904, the company acquired the premises and goodwill of James Goodman of 310 Oxford Street. Later, in June 1906, the leasehold property and stock of Arthur Saunders were also purchased and the premises at 3 Chapel Place rebuilt. By mid-1906, plans were in hand for the erection of new buildings to replace the collection of shops on the west side of Old Cavendish Street. By the end of the year, John Murray, architect, had produced designs for a five-storey building at 308-320 Oxford Street. In March 1907, the board announced its intention to finance the expansion by the issue of 40,000 £1 ordinary shares at a £2 premium. The list opened in April and was subscribed twice over. Further share issues were made in 1909 and in 1910. The rebuilt D H Evans store with its façade of Italian marble cost in excess of £131,000. The showrooms extended to the first floor with general drapery on the ground floor and ladies' mantles, jackets, costumes and millinery above. Curtains, rugs, china, glass, novelties and stationery were available in the basement. In 1913, Evans Lease Trust Ltd was created to take advantage of an opportunity to acquire a 999-year lease on the east and west blocks.

In January 1915, D H Evans retired from the business and was succeeded by Ernest Webb's son, William Wallace Webb. By this time the founders' shares had become and obstacle to the raising of sufficient capital. Aware of the need to take advantage of the expected post-war boom, a scheme was devised, in 1918, to convert the founders' shares to ordinary shares by means of a private parliamentary bill. Profits which had been depressed during the war peaked at £169,280 in 1919, a level which was not reached again until 1946. In 1921, Newton, the company's chairman, died and was replaced by Ernest Webb. During 1923, the company acquired the freehold of much of the west block and built showrooms to the rear in Chapel Street. However, by the late 1920s, it had become clear that the company lacked both sufficient capital to fund further expansion and the innovative leadership of its earlier years. Under such circumstances, and, in the light of the long-established personal links between the two firms, when Harrods Ltd (previously Harrod's Stores Ltd) proposed merger in 1928 , its approaches were welcomed. Harrods Ltd acquired the entire ordinary share capital, Woodman Burbidge became chairman and Frank Chitham, a Harrods director, also joined the board. William Webb became managing director and C H Bromhead, who had joined the company the previous year, became general manager.

Woodman Burbidge was aware of the problems of trading in two buildings and determined to consolidate the business in a new west block. By 1935, a large island site, bounded by Oxford Street, Old Cavendish Street, Henrietta Street and Chapel Place, had been acquired and demolition of the rear portion had begun. Meanwhile, John Spedan Lewis, founder of the John Lewis Partnership, had made an offer of £848,500 for the east block. This was accepted and the building was gradually vacated. During October to December 1934, Louis Blanc, architect, discussed his design for the new store with the board, who commented on every aspect of the plans from the floor layouts and escalator locations to the façade details. The building was to cost over £600,000 and the entire sum was loaned by Harrods.

The rear portion of the new building was opened in February 1936 and departments were gradually moved from the front site. Despite the building works trade increased during 1935 and 1936. The building, with a 140-foot frontage on Oxford Street, was opened in February 1937 . It comprised eight and one-quarter acres of selling space on eight floors, more than twice the accommodation offered by the west and east blocks combined.

In March 1937, the capital of the company was increased to £1,200,000 by the creation of 680,000 ordinary £1 shares. Trade was brisk during 1938 and 1939 but the outbreak of war heralded a period of shortage and control. Turnover in 1941 was the lowest since 1917/18. William Webb died 1944 and Woodman Burbidge in 1945. In June 1945, Sir Richard Burbidge succeeded the latter as director and chairman. Despite the persistence of controls, particularly the restraints on gross profit margins, sales soared after the war with net profits reaching £288,668 in 1948. In December 1948 , the company acquired the drapery business of J F Rockhey Ltd, Torquay, Devon, England, and Newton Abbott, Devon, England, for the purchase price of £259,556. The stores continued to trade as a separate entity under their own name. During these years D H Evans & Co Ltd began to cut back its linen department in order to specialise on ladies' and children's clothing.

In February 1954 , the entire preference share capital of the company was also acquired by Harrods and converted to ordinary shares, and D H Evans & Co Ltd became a wholly-owned subsidiary. The following year central buying was introduced for the fabric departments of all Harrods group stores. In 1954 , Harrods Ltd, the store's owner, was acquired by House of Fraser Ltd , department store retailers, Glasgow, Scotland. The store traded successfully during the following decades and, in 1979, a new furniture department was created on the fifth floor to augment sales of fashion goods. In February 1980, a branch store was opened in a new shopping centre in Wood Green in north London, comprising 60,000 square feet of sales space on two floors. Between 1982 and 1984 the Oxford Street store was extensively refurbished with the opening of a lifestyle department, redesigning of the ground and lower ground floors, and refitting of the first and second floors. In 1985, the store was again refurbished. In 1987, the store was renamed House of Fraser and continued to trade under this name in 2003.

Source: Moss, Michael and Turton, Alison, A Legend of Retailing. House of Fraser, London, 1989

Scope and Content

The House of Fraser collections are in the process of being re-catalogued. Under the new system Dickins & Jones Ltd will be catalogued as HF 65. However, in 2003, the collection is still catalogued as HF 11 and the scope and content below reflects the old catalogue from c1989.

Minute books, board meetings 1894-1968
Minute books, general meetings 1920-1967
Agenda books 1910-1959
Articles of association 1903-1954
Directors' report and accounts 1896-1948
Half yearly and yearly results 1928-1955
Profit and loss accounts 1928-1946
Private ledgers 1929-1970
Private books of weekly figures 1897-1942
Private salary books 1934-1960
Buyers and managers salary book 1937-1948
1940s album of "Summer Frocks"
Material relating to D H Evans & Co Founders' Shares Co Ltd 1890s-1929
Trust deeds for securing debenture stock, 1895-1910
Register of mortgages and bonds, 1895-1935
Particulars of lease book, 1915
Secretary's note book, 1920s
Guardbooks containing advertisements, 1928-1940
Guardbooks containing press releases, 1959-1965
Fashion catalogue, 1966-1970
Title deeds relating to store properties, 1854-1902
Guilding plans, 1936-1968
Catalogues, 1937-1941
Scrapbooks, 1927-1938
Press cuttings, 1949-1960s
Newspaper advertisements, 1899-1983
Photographs, 1902-1974

System of Arrangement

The arrangement of the material was made by the company's archivist. The material will be re-catalogued in accordance with a function based classification scheme.

Custodial History

The collection has been housed with the House of Fraser Archive at the University of Glasgow since 1979 and is currently listed as HF 11. It will be re-listed as HF 65 in the near future.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

On permanent loan from House of Fraser plc

Appraisal, Destruction, Scheduling

This material has been appraised in line with standard GB 248 procedures

Accruals

None expected

Access Conditions

Open

Copyright/Reproduction

Applications for permission to quote should be sent to the Archivist.

Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of documents

Existence of Copies

No known copies

This material is original

Finding Aids

Digital file level list available in searchroom

Manual file level list available at the National Registers of Archives in Edinburgh (NRA(S)) and London (NRA 19964)

Related Units of Description

GB 248 HF 1: Records of House of Fraser Ltd

GB 2350: Harrods Company Archive, London

Publication Note

Moss, Michael and Turton, Alison , A Legend of Retailing. House of Fraser, London, 1989

Archivist's Note

Fonds level description compiled by Wiebke Redlich, Archive Assistant (Hub), 13 May 2003.