It’s not every day that a business that has been in existence for over 500 years puts up the shutters for the last time. But that is just what has happened in the heart of London’s theatreland. The rope-making and chandlery business of Arthur Beale (né John Buckingham) has been at the heart of St. Giles since Henry VII sat on the throne. No matter that the modest sign outside the store at 194 Shaftesbury Avenue proclaims, “established for 400 years”. It’s been saying that for as long as anyone can remember, and they never brought the wording up to date.
Sadly, this business that has been rooted to the spot for half a millennium is closing, to retreat to that most modern of shopfronts, the interweb.
John Buckingham set up his rope-making business around 1500 and the company traded under the same family name until 1890 when a 15-year-old office boy by the name of Arthur Beale joined the company. He must have been a special kind of office boy because, within just a few years, it was his name that was painted on the fascia.
The rope business found new outlets in the 19th century with the increasing popularity of mountaineering. In 1964 the Alpine Club of Great Britain set out to test various ropes following several unfortunate accidents. It transpired that the top three contenders were all made by Buckingham & Sons of St. Giles. The Alpine Club Rope became popular throughout the world and was used in all the early Everest expeditions and by Shackleton for his polar adventures.
From the early 1920s, the yachting part of the business boomed and Arthur Beale was one of the founder members who set up the original London Boat Show. In 2014 the business was taken over by Alasdair Flint, a keen sailor.
The rookery
In the 18th century and well into the 19th, the area around the business, known as Seven Dials, became one of the most notorious slums and haunts of thieves in Western Europe. In the parlance of the day, a slum such as this was known as a rookery.
“…where misery clings to misery for little warmth, and want and disease lie down side-by-side, and groan together” —John Keats
In his Sketches by Box, Charles Dickens warns:
The stranger who finds himself in the Dials for the first time…at the entrance of Seven obscure passages, uncertain which to take, will see enough around him to keep his curiosity awake for no inconsiderable time…
Seven Dials is so-called because of the confluence of seven streets, just down the road from Arthur Beale’s emporium. It remained a symbol of urban poverty into the early 20th century when Agatha Christie set The Seven Dials Mystery there in 1929.
Now, as a northern outpost of the fashionable Covent Garden shopping area, it couldn’t be more chic. Gone are the ropes, the tackle and the gritty bits. And gone is the poverty and the inhospitable surroundings. It is one of the most fashionable areas of the West End, with rents and business rates to match. So, perhaps, it’s no wonder that even a 500-year-old business has to leave to seek new pastures.
All images Mike Evans (Leica Q2)
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I am sure that in many circles this would be considered evolution, as the modern era steam rollers the analogue age, and prewar age before it.
Not all things are for the better though, and I suspect that some modern achievements, are not to the better of our wonderful race.
I’m sad to see it go as I have bought a number of things from them over the years, clothing and equipment. I must try and get there before they finally close their doors so I can try on one of their sweaters, always easier than internet shopping.
Reading the heading in my email for a moment I thought that is a Leica shop that is closing after 500 years, struth.
I’ve heard the expression they selling used Leica film cameras is now money for old rope. But fortunately this is no Leica store!
This reminds me of a couple of things:
I read of the closure in the paper, and commented to my wife that I had made a purchase from that shop (I used to pass each day on the way to work) as I was fascinated to see a chandlers in such a location, and I had no idea of the history till the article on the paper.
I am also reminded of a talk given at the local camera club by the Gandolfi Brothers many years age, maybe the early eighties, and meeting two charming and modest gentlemen that were a couple of artisan craftsman that simple enjoyed making the best cameras (and tripods).
I can add that I have encountered a couple of such deals where I paid what I could and was offered the opportunity to visit when further funds were available, in one case when I purchased a Leica R3 and 35mm Summicron, the other case involved trips during my lunch hour, spread over quite a few months, with a handfull of notes, till the debt was paid. Those were the days when such things were possible, even without the post dated cheques.
I also read it in the news and decided to make a little story. But I couldn’t use any of the published photographs so had to jump on the Tube and take my own shots.
Another piece of your history moves on, I sincerely hope they survive and someone of Mac followers can give us update on new home. Thinking about all the great crime writers on any continent what a multi year project or camera club treasure hunt to locate the scenes of the crimes and photo them.
I shopped at Arthur Beale’s (when it was first established, the Thames came nearly up to its front door ..but not since Bazalgette built the Embankment..) and a quirky place it was, too, but now, sadly, with very little proper stock on the premises.
Sad to see it go – rather like Captain OM Watts on Albemarle Street, he of the Nautical Almanac; that went a few years ago, although there’s now a (different) chandlery – mainly online – with the name ‘Captain Watts’.
I used to teach photography sound the corner in Earlham Street back in, er, 1974(?) ..and bought second hand cameras and lenses at David Brunning’s – a real gent – in New Oxford Street, whose shop was above what used to be the (now defunct) Museum Street underground station. I was after a Plaubel quarter-plate camera there, but it was a bit too expensive for me, so David said “well, just pay me what you can now, and give two or three post-dated cheques”. You don’t get deals like that nowadays. I bought a wooden Gandolfi tripod there ..and then I went to visit the Gandolfi brothers in Peckham to see how they made their gleaming wooden cameras: essentially, sitting in the shed behind the house for a few months, till the demand – and price – rose as high as it could, and then they’d make another one. I think the waiting list was two years.
(Which reminds me, that when I first went to try a Noctilux at Leica HQ I asked “what’s the weight?” “..Oh, about two years, sir”.)
Sheekey’s is now part of the Ivy – or rather ‘Caprice’ – empire. A “car model shop”..? That wouldn’t have been Bassett-Lowke’s model train shop, would it?
You could be right, though I remember two model stores, one on Charing Cross Rd, and the other in an alley close to Sheekey’s. I can’t say the trains interested me, but Pocher model cars certainly did. There was also a restaurant called Beotty’s on St Martin’s Lane that had a “sticky” cart that got depleted at least once a week, followed by trips to the White Swan on New Row.
The mourning is the loss of entities with character. Maybe I’m getting old but I’m not sure whether newer generations have a real appreciation for lasting character in the way we might describe it.
I knew both the model shops. The one in the alley between Charing Cross Road and St Martin’s Lane, near Leicester Square Underground, is still there as far as I know. I admit I haven’t passed it for a year or two. I also used Beotty’s occasionally before I retired but I am not sure if it is still there. One of my all-time favourite restaurants, Rules in Maiden Lane is not too far away. It was established in 1798 and claims to be London’s oldest restaurant. I imagine many local Macfilos readers will know it and its reputation for fine English food. There aren’t many left… and I hope it doesn’t go the way of the ropemaker.
I worked in the area of Seven Dials back in the early 80’s and it was full of slightly quirky establishments, Beale’s being one of them. Sheekey’s for Dover Sole and oysters. A car model shop, whose name I can’t remember, camera shops and numerous pubs frequented by the advertising industry that thrived in the area. The area had real character and on return trips to London appears now to be an area that might be called “Disney Covent Garden”…
I remember one of those quirky camera shops specialised in Exakta during the 1980s. As my (now late) wife had a Varex 2b at the time, it was almost as dagerous as the previous rookeries …
The oldest shop in Dublin was a Cutlers business which lasted for about 325 years (the last two hundred in the same location) It was converted into a pub with the name of the owner of the cutlery business, Thomas Read, but, in the nature of such things, it then became the Ivy and currently it is the Oak. I hope that Arthur Beale’s shop does not end up as a pub, but it looks to be too small for Wetherspoons.
I must ask my younger daughter, who sails, about ropes and yachting. Although largely made from artificial materials these days, Britain does still seem to have a rope-making industry eg Marlow Ropes in Hailsham, East Sussex.
William
Marlow Ropes…a stone throw from where I live…