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Registration number:

Company name: Chiesmans Ltd
Dates in business: 1921-1976

Type of business: Department store retailer

Type of company: Private limited liability company 1921-1957

Type of company: Public limited liability company 1957-1976

• High Street, Lewisham, Kent, England

Company history

Chiesmans Ltd, drapers, Lewisham, was incorporated as a private limited company in 1921. The business was founded in 1884 as a partnership between two brothers Frank and Harry Chiesman who opened a drapery shop on the High Street, Lewisham. When the business became a private limited company in 192, the name of the company was changed from Chiesman Brothers to Chiesmans Ltd The directors (and shareholders) of this new company were Frank and Harry Chiesman, and their sons Stuart, Russel and Harold Chiesman, who had entered the business after the end of the First World War. All three of the younger generation had worked in retail before entering the family business: Stewart specialised in fashions and staff management; Russell in furnishings and transport; and Harold in advertising and publicity.

In 1921 the rebuilding a o more modern store, on the same site, was begun, and extensions and alterations continued in the 30s. Chiesmans Ltd had acquired premises on both sides of the High Street and in 1939 work was completed on a bridge acrosss the high Street which connected both stores at first floor level. The business was expanded in 1933 when Chiesmans Ltd bought a second store in Maidstone, and again in 1947 a store in Canterbury was added, but had top be resold when it proved unprofitable. In 1957 a fourth store in Gravend was purchased. In 1957 Chiesmans Ltd became a PublicLimited Compsany, although most of the shares were kept within the Chiesman family. In the following two years the company acquired stores in Tunbridge Wells, the Isle of Wight, Ilford, Upton Park and Rochester. The Lewisham store was extended again in 1960, with the addition of a self-service restaurant and fabric hall. The company was bought by House of Fraser Plc in 1972 who still trade from the Lewisham store (2009)

Access points: Retail trade - Department stores