1860s origins John Lewis opened a drapery shop at 132
Oxford Street, London, in 1864. Born in
Shepton Mallet in
Somerset in 1836, he had been apprenticed at 14 to a linen draper in
Wells. He came to London in 1856 and worked as a salesman for Peter Robinson, an Oxford Street draper, rising to be his silk buyer. In 1864, he declined Robinson's offer of a partnership, and rented his own premises on the north side of Oxford Street, on part of the site now occupied by the department store which bears his name. There he sold silk and woollen cloth and
haberdashery. His retailing philosophy was to buy good quality merchandise and sell it at a modest 'mark up'. Although he carried a wide range of merchandise, he was less concerned about displaying it and never advertised it. His skill lay in
sourcing the goods he sold, and most mornings he would go to the
City of London, accompanied by a man with a
hand barrow. Later he would make trips to Paris to buy silks. Lewis spurned holidays and games and devoted himself entirely to the business, which was successful. He invested the money he made from it in residential and small retail properties, many of which he never visited. He expanded the Oxford Street business by renting neighbouring properties on Oxford Street and then along
Holles Street, and gradually moved into other classes of merchandise: first the new area of ready-made women's apparel, and later children's wear and furniture. He never held 'sales', saying that he was intent on building a sound, permanent business. In 1884, aged 48, Lewis married Eliza Baker, a schoolmistress with a university education, who was 18 years his junior. They set up home in a mansion on the edge of
Hampstead Heath, for which Lewis made up the name Spedan Tower after his aunt, Ann Speed, and when Eliza bore a son in 1885, he was called
John Spedan Lewis. A second son, Oswald Lewis, was born in 1887. After
Westminster School, both sons joined Lewis in the business, and he gave each of them a quarter share of it on their twenty-first birthdays. In 1906, Lewis bought a controlling interest in the
Sloane Square–based business
Peter Jones Limited, named after the eponymous founder
Peter Rees Jones who had died the previous year. Lewis walked from
Oxford Street with the £20,000 purchase price in banknotes.
1920s The early 1920s were not successful for Peter Jones. Dividends on preference shares, many of which were held by employees, were not paid. In 1924, there was a reconciliation between John Lewis and Spedan Lewis. Trade at Oxford Street had fared better, and John Lewis made a cash injection into the Sloane Square business. was honoured until August 2022, when it was replaced with a general commitment to providing competitive value on its own-label merchandise. In 2024, the slogan returned and the customer price promise was refined once more. By 1926, Lewis senior was 90, Spedan was impatient to gain control of John Lewis in Oxford Street so that he could implement his radical ideas there, and Oswald again wanted out. Without telling their father, Spedan took out a bank loan and bought out Oswald's inheritance. After going around the world, Oswald embarked on a political career, becoming
Conservative Party MP for
Colchester in 1929, and holding the seat until 1945. Spedan Lewis became the sole owner in the Oxford Street business after John Lewis died aged 92 in 1928. In 1929, Spedan Lewis signed a
deed of settlement, which transferred shares in John Lewis & Co. Limited and Peter Jones Limited to trustees. The profits of the combined business would be distributed to its employees, either as cash or as fixed-interest stock in the new company: John Lewis Partnership Limited.
1940s and the Second World War The biggest acquisition came in 1940 when John Lewis paid £30,000 for Selfridge Provincial Stores Limited, which owned 16 shops:
John Barnes in
Hampstead, Blinkhorn & Son in
Gloucester and
Stroud,
Bon Marché in
Brixton, Buckleys in
Harrogate, A H Bull in
Reading,
Caleys in
Windsor,
Cole Brothers in
Sheffield, Holdrons in
Peckham, Jones Brothers in
Holloway,
George Henry Lee in
Liverpool,
Pratts in
Streatham, Quin & Axten in Brixton,
Robert Sayle in
Cambridge, Thomsons in
Peterborough and Trewin Brothers in
Watford, substantially increasing the size of the business. The Second World War took its toll, and several stores were damaged by bombing, notably the 'west house' of John Lewis in Oxford Street (on the west side of Holles Street), which was lost completely in September 1940.
1950s In 1950, Spedan Lewis executed a second
deed of settlement, which passed ownership of John Lewis to trustees to hold for the benefit of those who worked in the business. He continued to manage it as if he were still the owner, saying in 1957 that it was necessary to concentrate management in one pair of hands. Spedan Lewis also retained for himself the right to choose his successor when he retired on his 70th birthday in 1955. He had originally intended that Michael Watkins, his right-hand man for many years, would succeed him as chairman, but Watkins died in 1950. Spedan asked his son, Edward Lewis, if he would fill the role, but he declined. Spedan appointed a loyal, long-serving lieutenant,
Bernard Miller, but expressed the hope that in due course Edward would succeed Miller as chairman. In the event, Miller was succeeded by Peter Lewis, the son of Oswald Lewis.
2000s To accommodate national advertising, in 2002, the company began the process of renaming department stores not branded as John Lewis (Tyrrell & Green, Heelas, etc.) with the nationally recognisable name.
Peter Jones in London remains the sole exception to this policy. The company experimented with smaller format stores, adding 12 At Home shops and 2 Convenience-driven stores, alongside 3 more full-line department stores (Leeds, Stratford, Birmingham). John Lewis faced a series of strikes in 2012 and 2013 by cleaners, who had been outsourced, regarding pay. The group made its first-ever half-year operating loss of £26 million in the first half of 2019. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, 16 loss-making John Lewis stores were closed. In December 2020, John Lewis appointed
Rita Clifton as deputy chairman. In June 2025, the company appointed Anna Braithwaite as its chief commercial officer, effective from 1 October 2025. == Corporate affairs ==