In 1855, Herbert Ingram and Company folded and Ward and Lock, with some help from their business partners Thomas Dixon Galpin and George William Petter, bought some of Ingram's "publications, including the copyrights, wood-blocks, stereotype plates and engravings [that] were put up for sale.

"[3] Perhaps, the most important book from the Ingram catalogue was Webster's Dictionary of the English Language, which Ward and Lock started reissuing with great success.

By 1861, Ward and Lock had achieved enough success to be able to afford more staff and move into a new office at Amen Corner on Paternoster Row.

Ward and Lock continued to publish books at popular prices and started to issue atlases.

Some of the authors the company published included Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Charles Reade and George Augustus Sala.

By buying the works published by Moxon and Beeton, Ward, Lock and Tyler expanded their connections with many famous poets and authors of the time.

To cope with the demand of cheap reprints and prize books, the firm set up their own binding works on the top floor of Warwick House.

In 1885, Ward and Lock purchased WH Smith's popular "Select Library of Fiction" series.

Then, in 1893, it was converted into a limited company with the title of Ward Lock and Bowden Ltd."[9] In the 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual (published in November) Arthur Conan Doyle's first detective novel, A Study in Scarlet, was published, introducing the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and chronicler Dr. Watson.

Ward Lock and Bowden's business in New York and Melbourne were doing well and in the mid-1890s, the company opened an office in Toronto, Canada; however, this was closed in 1919.

Responding to the growth in railway lines and love for travel, Ward Lock and Bowden introduced their series of guides books to the British Isles in 1896.

They also continued to publish crime and detective stories, with books by authors like E. Phillips Oppenheim, Edgar Wallace and Leslie Charteris.

Around this time, Ward, Lock also published Mary Grant Bruce's highly successful Billabong series of books, starting with A Little Bush Maid in 1911.

Warwick House was bombed twice during World War II, the second time, the building was almost completely destroyed.

The firm temporarily relocated to Unilever House on the Embankment, before moving into an office in Salisbury Square.