INTRODUCTION
Petticoat Lane is home to a fashion and clothing market. It consists of two main streets Middlesex Street and Wentworth Street but also adjoining streets – notably Goulston Street - and includes a Sunday street market.
There is a history in Petticoat Lane and its surrounding area of textiles, dyeing, weaving, clothes manufacturing and distribution and the sale of cut-price clothing that goes back over 400 years. That history had been driven by the waves of immigration to the area in which communities have forged a living through fabrics and tailoring and – often with low incomes – have been obliged to recycle cloths. But these communities have also utilized their skills, specialisms and introduced their culture and style, so that newly made garments and fabrics can have great distinction.
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Petticoat Lane’s long-established role in London’s garment trade, also includes stalls and shops selling up-to-the-minute fashion and shoes at a fraction of West End prices. This is largely because much work is still undertaken in the home as a family enterprise – either manufacturing or trading.
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High-end fashion and designer clothes have been made and bought and sold here wholesale and retail. In the surrounding areas are warehouse, factories, buyers for designers, fashion houses and large fashion stores, which all feed into the world of Petticoat Lane.
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Below, we explore some local clothing enterprises from the past, although many other textiles and fashion businesses still thrive in Petticoat Lane.
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BENNY DEE'S - 74-80 MIDDLESEX STREET
Benny Dee was a wholesale clothing buyer and distributor that sold a range of discounted underwear and outerwear for men and women; but specialised in women’s underwear. Brands that were sold included Marks & Spencer, Berlei, Gossard, Triumph, and Warners. Benny Dee's sold mostly Wholesale but a limited selection of lines was available to the public for retail on Sundays.
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On Sundays in the 1970s and '80s there were long ques to get into Benny Dee's and at busy times it could take as much as an hour to get in. Limited numbers of the buying public were allowed in Benny Dee's at a given time. Samples of items that were available would be on display upstairs and sales assistants, who were mostly women, would take orders and then get assistance retrieving stock from downstairs. Customers would still buy large numbers of stock, even when buying retail on Sunday.
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Sports and leisure wear sometimes sold alongside the main stock, such as jeans, t-shirts and sweatshirts from a range of brands such as Calvin Klein.
Copyright Clara Ely & Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives
FASHION STREET WAREHOUSE
In 1905, brothers Abraham and Wolff Davis leased a site which included most of the southern side of Fashion Street. The Davis brothers built what became known as the Fashion Street Arcade. The arcade was also known as the ‘Moorish Market’ in reference to its architecture.
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By the 1970s the building had become largely a clothes factory, and part was rented by Afro-Caribbean businessmen who ran companies that made high-end clothes for multiple designers and high-fashion houses. Skilled, Afro-Caribbean seamstresses and dressmakers who had been working for numerous designers and clothing manufacturers in the area from the 1940s worked here.
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These skilled works were in high demand to work at factories such as these, as they were able to make high quality garments fast with little direction.
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Over many decades there were many different businesses on Fashion Street that supported the fashion and clothing industry both retail and wholesale for the local community, London and beyond. These businesses were run by people who came from all over the world. This included Indian and Bangladeshi Sari centres, Jewish clothes manufacturers, German milliners, Irish tailors as well as Afro-Caribbean dress makers and many more.
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A small percentage of these designer garments were sold in Petticoat Lane, in agreement with the fashion houses that made the orders for the clothes to be made. This agreement ensured that the garments made near Petticoat Lane were seen on the most fashionable and trendsetting groups in London.
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The name of the street is curious. It was originally named Fossan Street after the developers Thomas and Lewis Fossan who acquired the land and laid out the street in the 1650s. But, by the 1740s, its name had changed to Fashion Street which anticipated - by 200 years or so - the aspirations of the occupants of the street.​​​​​​​
Hear Manjinder talking about the camaraderie of workers in factories around the area below​​​​​
PHIL AND CYBIL'S SKIRT STALL
Phil and Cybil’s stall, which stood on the corner of Wentworth Street and Middlesex Street, sold skirts. As well as being shopkeepers, they were tailors and manufactures of goods and could make all garments, although they specialised in skirts.
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Phil and Cybil would research the latest styles of skirts on the catwalks and fashion houses and then produce on trend skirts available to customers. They would also make skirts to order for their regular customers.
Listen to Manjinder talking about her father's clothing factory in the area
HOUNDSDITCH WAREHOUSE - 133 HOUNDSDITCH
Houndsditch Warehouse Company was a department store on the at the junction of Stoney Lane and Houndsditch in Aldgate, close to Petticoat Lane Market. It was opened in 1924 and acquired by the Great Universal Stores in 1957. The department store was 5 stories tall and had a basement.
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The warehouse sold a large range of goods to purchase that included furniture, electrical goods, fashion, footwear, clothing, kitchen goods, garden furniture, tools, toys etc. Similarly to Petticoat Lane good – including fashionable clothing - were sold at greatly reduced prices and often people bought in bulk.
In 1986, the Houndsditch Warehouse closed down and was demolished to make way for office blocks.
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The Houndsditch Warehouse were one of the first stores in the United Kingdom to accept credit cards for retail purchases and one of the first department stores to advertise on national radio. Below you can listen to the 1980s radio advert that ran on stations such as LBC and Capital Radio. ​
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LEATHER MARKET
The Petticoat Lane leather market was housed in a carpark on Sundays where the Travelodge City hotel is today.
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Jeans, leather, furs and other skinned garments and coats were sold on a Sunday cut price. The garments would be sourced from warehouses and factories on Commercial Street, Brick Lane and Aldgate. You could buy sheep skin coats, alpaca, nubuck, suede, cow, goat, and even alligator skin.
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Some stall holders would also have a service were people could order bespoke leather-wear. The stallholders would take customers measurements and a deposit, and the goods would be available the following week.
Copyright Clara Ely & Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives
MRS WELFORD'S STALL
Mrs Welford’s hair and beauty stall was on Goulston Street near the public baths and operated from the late 1960s to the 1980s. Mrs Welford would stock hair products and makeup for all hair and skin types; but was a specialist in the sale of Afro-Caribbean hair and beauty products. Afro-Caribbean hair and beauty products were scarce in the 1960s and were thought of as specialist goods. Mrs Welford was a buyer and distributor of these products and would supply hairdressers, beauticians and make-up artists across London.
For much of its lifetime, the stall was the only place in the East End that sold a large range of makeup and hair products for the Afro-Caribbean community.
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CUTLER STREET JEWELLERY MARKET
On Cutler Street, near Petticoat Lane and the 18th century warehouses of the former East India Company, was a small Sunday street market specialising in the sale of small and valuable items – jewellery, silver and gold objects, old coins and watches.
Some traders did not have stalls but simply wore long overcoats with the precious items that were for sale pinned to the interiors, snuggling against the coloured lining. If approached, the trader would simply open his coat to display his wares.
The market was a place where untraceable stolen goods could be sold with some safety. It was busy only very early in the morning, was hasty in its affairs, and was mostly all over by lunchtime. One weekend in the early 1980s, it closed; never to open again.
Researched and written by Dani