Who lived on Drury Lane?
A CERTAIN SUPERMARKET LOOKS RATHER DIFFERENT FROM WHEN JOHN JAMES SAINSBURY OPENED A DAIRY STORE IN THE SHOP BELOW HIS FLAT
WE TAKE it for granted there’s a Sainsbury’s on basically every corner in London.
But long before Jamie Oliver put the Taste the Difference range onto our shelves, Sainsbury’s branches were cropping up all around London.
From its humble beginnings as a small family shop on Drury Lane selling only eggs, butter and milk, the store has become a staple of our British high street.
Sainsbury’s collaborated with the government to develop the concept of rationing during World War Two, and was one of the first self-service stores, where customers could pick items off the shelf instead of being served from behind a counter.
This year is the supermarket’s 150th birthday, and it’s celebrating a long history with a collection of wonderful photographs of old branches.
The Sainsbury Archive was initiated in 1969 under the leadership of John Davan Sainsbury, who is great grandson of the supermarket’s founders, John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury.
When starting out in 1869, the couple shared the quarters above the Drury Lane dairy shop with three other families. Today the Sainsbury’s group has more than 1,000 stores.
Kept at the Museum of London Docklands, it includes thousands of pictures of products, uniforms, recipe cards, advertisements and correspondence to colleagues during wartime.
To share the unique story of Sainsbury’s on its birthday, part of the archive has been digitised so everybody can enjoy it.