Home     London Cork Merchants: 20th Century A feature article titled ‘Old City Firms’ in The Times, London, 9 November 1927, stated: A notable firm in the cork trade is that of Henry Bucknall and Sons, of Fenchurch Street, late of Crutched Friars. Established about 1750, this business has always been controlled by members of the Bucknall family, and it now occupies an important position as cork growers and manufacturers, with factories in Lisbon, Portugal. Barthés and Roberts, of Savage Gardens, Crutched Friars, is another old firm in the same trade, its origin going back to 1779. An account of Henry Bucknall & Sons gave the history: Henry Bucknall founded the family firm of Henry Bucknall and Sons in London in 1742. Henry was, apparently, always referred to by other members of the family as Henry ‘Cork’. They acted as cork merchants for the forests owned in Portugal and handled by an office in Lisbon, while in New York the family introduced and developed cork within the U.S.A. (1) The Post Office London Trades’ Directory for 1899 listed a variety of firms providing services in the cork trade (2). An entry was given for Henry Bucknall & Sons, Cork Merchants & Importers, 22 Crutched Friars EC. The directory also included: Beal French & Son 51 Crutched Friars EC Cork Cutters & Manufacturers; Cork Merchants & Importers Antony Barthés & Co   1 Savage Gardens EC Cork Merchants & Importers Roberts & Son 1 Savage Gardens EC Cork Merchants & Importers: importers & shippers of foreign corks; manufacturers of bung taps &c. Joseph Knight Pitt 143 Minories E Cork Cutters & Manufacturers Thomas Peet & Son 59 Lant St Borough SE Cork Merchants & Importers Todd & Peet 163 Blackfriars Road SE   Cork Cutters & Manufacturers; Cork Merchants & Importers Beal French & Son had a Royal warrant of appointment. For more about the company see the section: Cork-Cutters by Royal Appointment. By the 1930s, the businesses, listed in the table above, had been absorbed into the company trading under the name Barthes-Roberts Ltd. However, this was in the future. In 1911, No. 1 Savage Gardens was the business address for A Barthes & Co, Roberts & Son, and J.K. Pitt. The business’s front door, with the shop signs inscribed on brass plaques, is shown in the photograph below. 1 Savage Gardens, Aldgate, photograph by Charles Goss, 5 June 1911.     A polished brass plaque mounted on the door is inscribed ‘A Barthes & Co’.     At the left of the door:         the top plaque gives a sign for ‘A Barthes & Co, Cork Merchants’, and         the plaque below gives a sign for ‘Roberts & Son, Cork Merchants’.         Below these two plaques, a small rectangular plaque has the name         J.K. Pitt.     photograph in the collections of the Bishopsgate Institute,     described by The Gentle Author . At the time the photograph was taken, Elizabeth Roberts was the proprietor of both the firms A. Barthés and Co. and Roberts and Son (3). She succeeded her husband, Edward Arthur Roberts, as a cork merchant at 1 Savage Gardens, after he died in 1891 (4). In the 1911 census, Elizabeth Roberts, aged 67, reported her occupation as ‘cork merchant’. She commuted to the City of London from her home named Home Mead, Cobham Terrace in Greenhithe, a village on the south bank of the estuary of the River Thames, east of Dartford in Kent. In August 1916, a news release reported that the business operations located at 1 Savage Gardens had combined to become the company Barthes-Roberts Ltd: (5) Barthes-Roberts Ltd – To take over the businesses of cork merchants carried on at 1 Savage Gardens, E.C. as A. Barthes & Co., Roberts & Son, and J.K. Pitt and certain of the assets of the proprietor of those businesses in connection therewith, and to adopt an agreement with Mrs. E. Roberts. The first are Mrs. E. Roberts, Home Mead, Greenhithe, Mrs. M.V. Bower, C.H. Rundell, F.J. Branscombe, and A.S. Tompsett. In the above notice, Mrs. M.V. Bower was Mildred Violet, the wife of John Gascoigne Bower, and the daughter of Elizabeth Roberts. This suggests that Mildred Violet assisted her mother in the running of the business. The photograph above, dated 1911, shows a lady standing with a firm posture that conveys a capable, efficient business person. A possible identity is Mildred Violet Bower, however this is only a speculation. The Commercial Directory compiled for the Post Office London Directory, 1920, had an entry for Barthes-Roberts Ltd, cork merchants, 3, 5, & 7 Leman Street E1, in the Whitechapel district of East London (6). In 1930, Barthes-Roberts Ltd took over Beal French & Son, Thomas Peet & Son, and Todd & Peet (7). The company headquarters became 59 Lant Street in Southwark, where Thomas Peet & Son had been based. The trade card for Barthes-Roberts Ltd, displayed below, gives an interesting record of the business’s origins. Trade Card mounted in a glass paper weight, about 1930s.     Barthes-Roberts Ltd     founded 1779, proprietors of     Beal French & Son, Thomas Peet & Son, and Todd & Peet.     Cork Merchants, Brewers & Bottlers, Sundriesmen.     59 Lant Street, Borough, London SE1.         Item listed for sale on eBay viewed February 2023. Barthes-Roberts Ltd thrived at 59 Lant Street into the 1970s. To cater to their customers they stocked a variety of specialty wine accessories and bar tools. A shopping guide printed in The Times, London, 17 August 1976 described: Barthes-Roberts Ltd, an old-established firm of cork and wine merchants’, brewers’ and bottlers’ sundriesmen. Their catalogue is replete with useful things like corking machines, cork extractors, screws, decanting baskets, velinchers, nosing glasses, bung borers and bar casks. The address is 59 Lant Street SE1. On 24 November 1980, the London Gazette (page 16305) published a notice that Barthes-Roberts Limited had held an Extraordinary General Meeting where a resolution was passed: ‘That the Company cannot by reason of its liabilities continue its business, and it is advisable to wind up the Company, and accordingly that the Company be wound up voluntarily’. Notes Notes on the Roberts family. (1) Sarah Cavendish (née Anita Sarah Bucknall), ‘Bucknall Family History & Connections with Portugal & Cork’, The British Historical Society of Portugal, 2003 (pdf file ). (2) A page from the Post Office London Directory, 1899, pdf file (Historical Directories, University of Leicester special collections online ). (3) The Times, London, 4 March 1911, reported:         A Lady Attacked in a Train An elderly lady named Mrs. Roberts, of Home Mead, Greenhithe, was yesterday the victim of a violent attack while travelling on a train to Charing Cross, on the South-Eastern and Chatham Railway. . . . . Mrs. Roberts was well known at the station, being a season-ticket holder and a frequent traveller on the line. She is connected, as sole proprietor, with the firms of A. Barthés and Co. and Roberts and Son, cork merchants, of 1 Savage Gardens, E.C. She had not travelled up from Greenhithe by the train, but got in at Cannon Street, after having paid a visit to her offices. She was taken to the Charing Cross Hospital suffering from several bad cuts about the head and face and from shock. . . . The motive of the attack was apparently robbery. (4) Probate record: Edward Arthur Roberts of Woodlands House, Greenhithe, Kent, and of 1 Savage Gardens, London, cork merchant, died 19 December 1891 at Woodlands House; probate London 15 January 1892 to Elizabeth Roberts, widow (gov.uk). (5) The Oil & Colour Trades Journal, 26 August 1916 (page 696), Google eBook . (6) The Post Office London Directory, 1920 (Internet Archive ). Also, Leman Street Directory 1921 , parish of St George-in-the-East online history. (7) History note about Barthes-Roberts Ltd in Leman Street Directory 1921 . This source gives the reference: ‘A Short History of 150 Years Trading: Barthes-Roberts Ltd’, The Record, 1930. More work is needed to find this article – it was not found in a quick look in the online archive of The Record , of the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU), Library of the University of Warwick. Another search of this archive may be needed to find the reference. Another option: a newspaper The Record, founded in 1828, continued to 1948 when it was incorporated with the Church of England Newspaper (Wikipedia ). This newspaper is in the British Library online catalogue (system number: 013915699). Text Copyright © WhistlerHistory 2023.