Cavendish House

The shop was later renamed Cavendish House and carried drapery, silks, haberdashery, millinery, hosiery, lace and family mourning goods.

[1] By 1823, Clark & Debenham had opened a small drapery business at 3 Promenade Rooms, Cheltenham, selling a selection of silks, muslins, shawls, gloves, lace and fancy goods.

By 1872, the store occupied a very large site, stretching from the Promenade to Regent Street, with showrooms offering more than twenty departments and extensive workrooms to the rear.

By 1883, George Hewitt was the sole owner of the Cheltenham business, Frank and William Debenham having withdrawn to manage the London store as a separate concern.

In 1903, Brunswick House, a silk mercery business established in 1851 by William Thomson Smith at 3 Promenade Villas, Cheltenham[3] was purchased on favourable terms.

[1] In July 1928, the company was taken over by Standard Industrial Trust, Broad Street Place, London, which also owned Morgan Squire Ltd, department store, Leicester, England.

[6] In 1957, the company opened a branch store in Oxford Street, London, but it proved impossible to manage effectively from a distance and the venture was closed within three months.

In 1961, a controlling interest in both Cavendish House Co Ltd and Morgan Squire Ltd was acquired by Swears & Wells Ltd (1926), a London-based company specialising in the development and sale of retail space.

The following year, the Cavendish House Co Ltd shares again changed hands passing to JJ Allen Ltd, department store group based in Bournemouth, England.