The shop is named after Peter Rees Jones (1842–1905), the son of a Carmarthenshire hat manufacturer.

After serving an apprenticeship with a draper in Cardigan, Jones moved to London and established a small shop in Marylebone Lane.

The business flourished, soon expanding to cover most of the block, occupied on a 999-year lease from the Cadogan estate at £6,000 per year, the terms of which have never been increased.

[3] In 2009, Simon Fowler was appointed managing director, overseeing a two-year period of growth where sales and profits reached record levels.

This period also spanned Peter Jones' 100th anniversary of its membership at the John Lewis Partnership, where it is widely recognised to be the birthplace of the democratic employee ownership structure still found in the retailer today.