Weston Town Council with John Lewis department store will be putting up a plaque dedicated to John Lewis who owned property in Weston-super-Mare.
The Blue Plaque will go onto the gate pillar of 72 Bristol Rd Lower, Weston-super-Mare BS23 2PY unveiled Friday 28th July 2.00pm.
John Lewis came from a Shepton Mallet family of bakers and milliners. Through sheer hard work and entrepreneurial zeal he rose to become one of the nation’s favourite retail traders and his name, together with those of later associates Messrs Waite and Rose, still adorn the front of many large stores and supermarkets from London’s prestigious Oxford Street to provincial cities and towns.
In 1843, when John was seven his father died leaving him, five sisters and their 46-year old mother in challenging circumstances.
Whilst John Lewis moved to London to begin making his fortune the sisters, under their widowed aunt’s care, were by 1861 living in High Street Weston-super-Mare where they ran a ‘fancy’ stationery and dress making establishment. Living ‘above the shop’ was then normal practice. A decade later they were still in High Street – at number 27.
John Lewis’s business endevours in London were beginning to reap rewards allowing his first freehold purchase to be made – a house in Weston-super-Mare for his sisters’ early retirement. The detached house at the junction of Arundell Road and Bristol Road lower came with a substantial garden (since developed) and magnificent views over the bay.
Cllr John Crockford-Hawley said “John Lewis is a household retail name and yet few people will know of his personal family links with Weston-super-Mare and our own High Street. As the world of shopping continues to change it’s fitting that we commemorate the Lewis contribution to our local story with this Blue Plaque”.
The Blue Plaque will go onto the gate pillar of 72 Bristol Rd Lower, Weston-super-Mare BS23 2PY unveiled Friday 28th July 2.00pm.