International Tea Company Stores, High Street, Epsom

EPSOM BUSINESSES 1911

This is one of the properties on the North Side of the East End of the High Street. These were all demolished by the start of World War 11 to enable the road to be widened – for more details see Epsom Heritage Page 5. The new properties were built in a completely different position so unlike the rest of this project it has been decided that it is pointless attempting to give a ‘Current Occupier’ as this would not be applicable.

A further complication is that the buildings were not numbered at the time and have therefore been presented under the owner’s name and as far as possible in sequential order from west to east in line with the 1911 Census and photographic evidence.

International Tea Company Stores, High Street, Epsom (Site Of)
Occupier in 1911	International Tea Company Stores Grocers
Details of 1911 Proprietor	International Tea Stores Logo The International Tea Stores (formerly the International Tea Company Stores, founded in 1878) were an extensive chain, with over 200 shops by 1890 – in the forefront of supermarkets really, owned by a firm called Kearley & Tonge (tea importers and jam manufacturers). The chain went through several incarnations, ending up as part of the Somerfield supermarket group which, in turn, was consumed by the Co-op in 2009. Hudson Ewbanke Kearley (1856-1934) originally worked for Tetley Tea and then established his own grocery stores. He later became Chairman of the Port of London Authority and Minister for Food Control in the First World War. He became Baron Devonport in 1910 and Viscount Devonport in 1917. Hilaire Belloc wrote of him thus: The grocer Hudson Kearley, he When purchasing his barony Considered first, we understand, The title of Lord Sugarsand, Or then again he might have been Lord Underweight of Margarine: But being of the nobler sort He took the title Devonport. International Tea Stores International Stores, extreme left Images courtesy of Bourne Hall Museum.

International Tea Company Stores,
High Street, Epsom
(Site Of)

Occupier in 1911

International Tea Company Stores
Grocers

Details of 1911 Proprietor

International Tea Stores Logo

The International Tea Stores (formerly the International Tea Company Stores, founded in 1878) were an extensive chain, with over 200 shops by 1890 – in the forefront of supermarkets really, owned by a firm called Kearley & Tonge (tea importers and jam manufacturers). The chain went through several incarnations, ending up as part of the Somerfield supermarket group which, in turn, was consumed by the Co-op in 2009. Hudson Ewbanke Kearley (1856-1934) originally worked for Tetley Tea and then established his own grocery stores. He later became Chairman of the Port of London Authority and Minister for Food Control in the First World War. He became Baron Devonport in 1910 and Viscount Devonport in 1917. Hilaire Belloc wrote of him thus:

The grocer Hudson Kearley, he
When purchasing his barony
Considered first, we understand,
The title of Lord Sugarsand,
Or then again he might have been
Lord Underweight of Margarine:
But being of the nobler sort
He took the title Devonport.