Thank you to Keith who provided this: Richard Grice was listed as a grocer and wine merchant at 15 Gloucester Road, SW in 1899.
106 and 108 High Street, Clapham was occupied by The Auxilary Stores Ltd in 1901
Does anybody know anything about this label?
3 Comments
20 July, 2021
at 8:06 am
Richard Grice listed as a grocer and wine merchant at 15 Gloucester Road, SW in 1899.
106 and 108 High Street, Clapham occupied by The Auxilary Stores Ltd in 1901
20 July, 2021
at 5:51 pm
That’s a heck of a hook for a blog post! Glad Keith was able to provide answers and that I am able to bow say, yes, I do know something about that label.
21 July, 2021
at 6:41 pm
From the Pall Mall Gazette. 12 May 1897
……”The question has been asked why Mr James Bailey and the other two directors of Harrods Stores, who are promoting The Auxiliary Stores (Limited), secured the well-known business until recently belonging to Messrs. Richard Grice and Son, of High-street, Clapham, S.W., and did not secure at the same time the much older established grocery and wine business at 15, Gloucester-road, South Kensington, S.W., of Mr Richard Grice, the senior partner in the Clapham firm. The large price of £42,500, plus £6,390 for stock-in-trade, to be paid by the company for the Clapham business might, it is thought, have included also the Gloucester-road business and yet has left something for the promoters, “who are selling at a profit.” As matters stand, if the hopes of the promoters as expressed in the prospectus are fulfilled, there will be a friendly working arrangement between Richard Grice and Son, of Clapham, and Harrod’s Stores, while between Harrod’s Stores in the Brompton-road and Mr Richard Grice of Gloucester-road, Brompton, there will be, as hitherto, active competition. It may, perhaps, be the case that Mr Grice, who took much interest in Mr Bailey’s hotel when it was started, was not disposed to sell his Gloucester-road business to directors of Harrod’s Stores or, more probably, Mr Bailey, as a director of Spiers and Pond (Limited), to which company he sold his hotel, did not think it well to set up a branch store in alliance with Harrod’s Stores so close to the hotel and its wine business belonging to Spiers and Pond.”