Civil Service Supply Association was a department store on the

Strand, London Strand (or the Strand) is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster, Central London. It runs just over from Trafalgar Square eastwards to Temple Bar, where the road becomes Fleet Street in the City of London, and is part of the A4 ...

. Founded in the 1860s on Victoria Street, the shop moved to the Strand in the following decade, remaining open until 1982.

History

In 1864, a group of clerks in the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

joined together to buy a half chest of tea. Their first transaction resulted in them saving 9 pence to the pound, and they decided to extend their purchasing to coffee, sugar and other grocery products.''

The London Encyclopaedia ''The London Encyclopaedia'', first published in 1983, is a 1100-page historical reference work on the United Kingdom's capital city, London. The encyclopaedia covers the Greater London area. Development The first edition of the encyclopaedia wa ...

'' Edited by

Ben Weinreb Benjamin Weinreb (1912–1999) was a British bookseller and expert on the history of London who in 1968 sold his entire stock to the University of Texas.co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

with forty members. The co-operative was so successful that by April the scheme had been opened up to all civil servants and the name changed to the Civil Service Supply Association. Civil servants could purchase tickets for 2 shillings and sixpence, which would entitle them to purchase goods at the store or from firms associated with the association. Their first premises were on Victoria Street, but by 1877 they had moved to 425

Strand Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline *Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa *Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * Strand Street, ...

, a building designed by architects Lockwood & Mawson. In 1927, the co-operative was incorporated as a private company, becoming a fully fledged department store and severing its links with the Civil Service. The building was completely rebuilt at this time in the

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. The store remained open until 1982 when it was closed following a severe fire.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 51.5097, -0.1237, display=title Defunct department stores of the United Kingdom Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1865 Co-operatives in England Shops in London