Our History

History Today

1707 - Open For Business

Fortnum, meet Mason

In 1705 Hugh Mason had a small shop in St James’s Market and a spare room in his house. The Fortnum family had come to London from Oxford as high-class builders in the wake of the Great Fire, helping to establish the St James’s and Mayfair areas as the most fashionable in London. William climbed another rung by taking a post as footman in Queen Anne’s household - and the room at Mr Mason’s.

The Royal Family’s insistence on having new candles every night meant a lot of half-used wax for an enterprising footman to sell on at a profit – so while the Queen’s wages paid the rent, William’s enlightened sideline melted down into enough to start a respectable business. The rest, as they say, is grocery.

1714 - Georgian Era Opens

Queen Anne dies, Georgian era begins

The spirit of the Georgian era shaped our young enterprise. Respect for the classical world’s harmony of form joined with a pioneering spirit of discovery to form a graceful new order that was definitively English.

The explosion in trade was creating a middle class with more disposable income and there was suddenly more than ever to spend it on. International trade expanded at a dramatic rate as new routes were discovered and transport became more reliable, with London at the hub of everything - making it a magnet for the world.

Fortnum & Mason was at the centre of this whirlwind.

1744 - East India Tea Company

Robert Clive arrives in Madras as clerk to East India Company

The British East India Company was effectively an independent imperial power with its own army, policies and governance. Robert Clive was the general who brought India into the British Empire - introducing the British palate to spices and, above all, the world’s best teas. Strong links with the Company (there were several Fortnums on its payroll) meant that from the outset Fortnum’s was in the forefront of innovation and experimentation, a unique emporium for goods sold precisely nowhere else – exactly like today.

1773 - The Boston Tea Party

Boston Tea Party inspires American Independence movement

It is not on record who supplied the tea, but it was probably not us: we have never charged extortionate prices and none of our teas do at all well with salt water. Since Independence, though, our American cousins have been among our 2ost loyal customers.

1794 - The F&M Post Office

The Fortnum & Mason Postal Service

Until the General Post Office came into being, the business of sending and receiving mail was open to anyone - and Fortnum’s grasped the opportunity. It had letterboxes for paid and unpaid letters which were picked up six times a day (this was before stamps, and the recipient usually paid the tab). Soldiers and sailors, already among the company’s best customers, received a discount. The arrangement drew all sorts of traffic to the store to be tempted by the already magnificent window and interior displays. This arrangement lasted until 1839, when the GPO was founded – a year before the Penny Black with its bust of a youthful Victoria.

1815 - Our Waterloo

Waterloo

Having been integral to morale since the Peninsular War, Fortnum & Mason – the foremost establishment in a "nation of shopkeepers" - helped the army march on its stomach to final victory over Napoleon.

Honey, dried fruits, spices and above all preserves were ideal for the campaigning soldier and were advertised as such in The Times. The handsome packaging first helped, then hindered, as everyone at the front caught on to the rare treats contained inside.

1846 - Mr Fortnum's Fortune

Richard Fortnum leaves a fortune to the staff

Fortnum & Mason has always been an enlightened employer, understanding that if shopping here is to remain a unique pleasure, our greatest assets need looking after. Richard's gift of £1,500 (around £500,000 today) is just one in a long list of similar examples: a few years later, staff at Fortnum's were the only members of the new Shopworkers' Trade Union who were unafraid to have their names published in the press, being actively supported by the firm.

1851 - Dickens & Co

Great Exhibition, Charles Dickens and the Great Hamper Revolution

Driven by the passion of Prince Albert, the Great Exhibition of 1851 was London's tribute to the Industrial Revolution. Fortnum & Mason won first prize as importers of dried fruits and dessert goods but their influence on the nation's habits was by then acknowledged to be far greater.

Pre-fabrication was all the rage: the Exhibition's home, Crystal Palace, was manufactured in a factory and then assembled on site, and Fortnum's led a similar trend in ready-to-eat luxury foods such as "poultry and game in aspic, hard-boiled eggs in forcemeat (the famous "Scottish egg"), dry and green turtle, boar's head, truffles, mangoes… all decorated and prepared so as to require no cutting."

Charles Dickens wrote of one Epsom Derby; "Look where I will.... I see Fortnum & Mason. All the hampers fly wide open and the green downs burst into a blossom of lobster salad!" Similar references in Henry James, Wilkie Collins and others – and the preponderance of our hampers at Ascot, the Boat Race, Henley, Wimbledon, Lord's and Twickenham - meant that by the middle of its second century Fortnum's had become the out-of-household name.

1855 - Crimea

Queen Victoria, beef tea and Florence Nightingale

In 1854 the story of the Charge of the Light Brigade gripped the nation. The Crimean was the first war to be covered by on-the-spot reporters, so for once the home front was aware of the soldiers' appalling conditions.

The Queen took a personal interest, sending Fortnum's an order "to dispatch without delay to Miss Nightingale in Scutari a huge consignment of concentrated beef tea" after the scandal of the hospitals had become known in England.

Every ship that sailed for the Crimea carried cases labelled Fortnum & Mason. Many officers wrote begging us to leave it off to discourage pilferers – by now an epidemic, sparked by the sight of our name.

1886 - Young Mr Heinz

Mr Heinz brings Baked Beans to Piccadilly

Since the middle of the century Fortnum & Mason had been the leader in tinned goods – and chief provider of information on how to open the tricky devils with a pocket-knife. This made us the obvious first stop for a young entrepreneur lugging five cases of samples from the USA. Recognising a future staple we took them all, introducing the mighty baked bean to Britain for the first time – one of the more prosaic entries in our ever-expanding list of historic gastronomic firsts.

As it approached its first centenary, Fortnum's was well established as the premier supplier of exotic edibles to the gentry.

Charles Fortnum, grandson of the original William, had left Royal service in 1788 to concentrate on the business, an event noted on film in The Madness of King George. He was not alone in finding the atmosphere at the palace challenging, but at least life was easier than for a French aristocrat at the time.

Eleven years into the new century the Regency period began, with beaux of all kinds flocking to Fortnum's for snuff and sustenance during the hectic social whirl. Throughout the reigns of George, William and Victoria and into the great period of industrial explosion and imperial expansion, Fortnum & Mason grew in influence and stature every year.

1914 - WW1

WW1

All staff serving in France and Flanders were guaranteed to have kept their jobs on their return – which a surprising number managed. In the meantime, the women of London kept things buzzing along brilliantly - while the usual quantity of tuck found its way to the trenches, where we soon learned that only metal tins were any use against the ever-present gourmet rats.

1922 - Expeditions

Everest and other Expeditions

Fortnum's is the only store to have a department dedicated to “Expeditions”, at a time when huge consignments of home comforts accompanied the English into the heart of Africa and up the Himalayas, right down to such essentials as butter knives and sauce boats. The 1922 Everest expedition, for example, simply couldn't start without 60 tins of quail in foie gras and four dozen bottles of champagne (the appropriately-named Montebello 1915).

The 1933 team, including a young Tensing Norgay, was dismayed to find several of the delicacies replaced by stones - presumably by inquisitive customs officers. Only the Stiltons remained - their covers pierced but the fragrant contents, clearly not to the Nepalese nose, left untouched.

In warmer climes Howard Carter's Tutankhamun expedition used Fortnum's wine boxes to help catalogue the rare antiquities, including a statue of the boy-king as Aten, the Sun - representing tacit approval from yet another monarch.

1925 - New Departments

Extensive refurbishment, new departures & departments

Ladies' fashions, children's clothes, kitchenware and perfumes joined the traditional fare on offer as the company embraced the Jazz Age with gusto.

1930s - NY, Cowes and Maharajas

Give Me Your Hungry...

In response to massive demand for our goods across the pond, in 1931 Fortnum's took a magnificent seven-storey building on Madison Avenue, grander even than its London alma mater - though in the time between conception and execution the Depression had begun to bite, making it a star that burned brightly but all too briefly.

At a rather shorter aeroplane ride from London, the annual Cowes branch operated its own motorboat to ferry goods free of charge to guests at Cowes Week.

King George V's Jubilee in 1935 drew so many princes and potentates from all corners of the Empire that Fortnum & Mason, having long imported the best from all the continents, created a special department to accommodate their dietary requirements. To whom else might one possibly have turned?

1940s - WW2

WW2

A mainstay of the Officers' Mess since before Wellington, Fortnum's opened a special Officers' Department dedicated to providing a respite from bully beef. As well as comestibles it dealt in insect powder, exotic cigarettes and anything else the modern soldier might require, such as an EPNS tip for a bayonet (so much more elegant for spreading Gentlemen's Relish at El Alamein) and the “Spork”, the combination knife-and fork which, naturally, came silver-plated.

Arbiters of decorum even in wartime, the company also patented the ”Fortknee', a short stocking to cover the knees and lower thighs of lady drivers in the services.

1964 - Clock Time

Clock Time

1964 saw a new landmark added to the front of the store – the famous Fortnum's clock, with bells from the same foundry as Big Ben. Every fifteen minutes a selection of airs is played on eighteen bells, and once an hour Messrs F&M themselves appear to check that standards are being upkept.

1999 - F&M Online

Fortnum & Mason goes WWWorldwide

In 1999 Fortnum & Mason went truly global by extending its reach into the digital universe. The first online store launched with just hampers - but there were 50 of them. Soon the range grew to include classic gifts from our Food Hall and by the turn of the millennium the site featured over 800 products.

The entirely new 2007 site expands the list still further and brings the spirit of entertainment and celebration alive on every page.

2004 - F&M Japan

Fortnum & Mason Japan opens

Supplier of delicacies to Fortnum’s for centuries, Japan has long been one of our best export markets. In our first overseas expansion since 1931, we now have branches in two Japanese cities.

Fortnum's The Record Store

Fortnum's the Record Store

In November 1984 Fortnum's made the national news when staff requested they sell the the "Do They Know It's Christmas?" single in Piccadilly. As no-one is in any doubt when it's Christmas at Fortnum's, the company took up the idea with gusto - helping spread the charitable message far beyond its traditional audience.

Opening of the new Fresh Food Floor

The new Fresh Food Floor and Wine Bar, 1707, is now open.

Now Fortnum's Food Hall has expanded onto two floors for the first time, there's a greater variety of fabulous fresh food than ever before. We can’t imagine anyone asking for more.

It features fresh vegetables, fish, poultry, meat, cheese, charcuterie and even flowers. Hot sausage and mustard? Certainly. Cold jelly and custard, on the other hand, is thankfully beyond the new department's remit.

For three centuries Fortnum's has been committed to bringing the world's best food to Piccadilly – often from continents away. Fresh food, though, has always come from as close to these Isles as possible. Respecting this hemisphere's seasons has always seemed obvious to us: we've never really wavered from the path.

We take extraordinary care over the origins of everything we sell. Every sprout, lobster, truckle and rib comes direct from suppliers we know intimately rather than from markets. If we’re not to uphold our own standards, who is?

1700s