The history of John Lewis Newcastle

The world’s oldest department store?

Still known to many of its customers as Bainbridge, this much-loved Newcastle institution dates back to 1838.

Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge was just 21 when in 1838 he went into partnership with William Alder Dunn and opened a draper’s and fashion in Market Street, Newcastle. The youngest of seven, he was apprenticed for five years to William Kidd of Newcastle to learn the drapery trade. After experience in London, he returned to go into business with Dunn.

From the beginning they stressed that all prices were fixed - a novelty in 1838. They prided themselves on offering a wide assortment and good value.

Sales were for ready money only, and stocks were replenished by sea from London. Despite success the partners fell out and went their separate ways.

Many of the assistants lived in a hostel near the shop and, despite strict rules, the Bainbridge staff were treated better than most. Above all there was the Albert House Benevolent Society founded in 1870 to help former and present employees who had fallen on hard times.

It was funded by subscriptions from the assistants that were matched by the company. Help was available to all, whether they had subscribed or not, and the only criterion was that of need.

Emerson Bainbridge died in 1892 and control of the business passed to his sons. In 1897 the business was turned into a private limited company and during the following years new technology was embraced, including gas engine powered pneumatic cash tubes.

In 1923 Bainbridge opened a `marble-lined` food hall, which offered such delicacies as speciality sausages, galantines and haggis. There was also a thriving trade in unusual services, like the production of trade union banners.

Centenary celebrations in 1938 were market by special promotions and the publication of a booklet `A Century of Service`. This title became the shop’s logo and was incorporated into transport liveries.

The Depression hit the Northeast badly and throughout the two decades a significant part of the shop’s trade depended upon agents who operated in less prosperous areas, collecting payments in weekly instalments. As a system it meant that people on low incomes could continue to buy from the shop and it kept the Bainbridge name and reputation known in areas where otherwise it might have faded away.

At the end of the war, George V M Bainbridge, the great-grandson of the founder, was eager to revive the business and set up the `Bainbridge Renaissance` project. However, financial resources were short and by 1952 it had become clear that if the business was to continue to expand, it needed to ally itself with a larger organisation.

That year an offer from the John Lewis Partnership was accepted and in 1953 Bainbridge formally joined the Partnership.

In 1976 the store was resited in a major new shopping centre in Eldon Square. In 2002 further refurbishment took place, and in the same year Partners at Bainbridge decided to join most of the other department stores in the John Lewis group and take the name of the founder.

Whatever the locals call it, John Lewis Newcastle continues to prove a magnet for customers from all over the Northeast.

For more information on the history of the John Lewis Partnership visit The Memory Store.

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