IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/B/205
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: SPARKS, WHITE AND COMPANY LIMITED
Date(s): [1830]-1942
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 10 production units.
Name of creator(s): Sparks, White and Co Ltd | wholesale druggists and distillers' chemists
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The firm appears to have commenced in the late 18th or early 19th century, for there are references in a directory of 1811 to "Sparks and Sons, distillers, 134 St John Street", and in a directory of 1818 to "Sparkes and Evans, wholesale druggists, 14 St Peter's Hill". From 1823 to 1831 the firm is listed as "Thomas Sparks and Son, 134 St John St.", being described variously as "merchants" (1823-4), "druggists" (1826) and "distillers' chemists" (1831). From 1836 to 1858 the firm is listed as "Sparks and Company, distillers' chemists", at 134 St John Street, and from 1860 to 1948 as "Sparks, White and Company, distillers' chemists", or "wholesale druggists and distillers' chemists", at various addresses: 134 St John Street (1860-7), 62 St John Street (to 1909), and Albion Mills, East Tenter Street, E1 (1911-48). The firm became a limited liability company, Sparks, White and Company Limited, around 1907, and disappears from the directories after 1948, when it was acquired by another druggists, Brome and Schimmer.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of Sparks, White and Company Limited, wholesale druggists and distillers' chemists, comprising an index to a bought ledger c 1830; sales ledger 1859-62 and 1874-81; bought journals and sales day books 1834-61; general accounts 1836-7 and 1850-7; fruit department account book 1910-1942; letter books 1847-1855; and a business diary 1838.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.
Conditions governing access:
Available for general access.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The records were deposited in Guildhall Library by Mr Philip Schimmer in February 1990 and catalogued in 1991 by a member of Guildhall Library staff. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note:
Date(s) of descriptions: January to May 2011.