His father was a prosperous corn dealer, who had little interest in rearing his son, leaving William to be raised by an uncle.

Whiteley had the idea that he could create a store as grand as the Crystal Palace where all these goods could be under one roof and it would make him the most important shopkeeper in the world.

Wakefield, once the centre of the Yorkshire woollen trade, was in decline and Whiteley now wanted to be something more than a small town draper.

In 1863 he opened a Fancy Goods shop (drapery) at 31 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, employing two girls to serve and a boy to run errands.

He made a consistent practice of marking all goods in plain figures and of making his shop window attractive, and was satisfied with small profits.

[5] Rival retailers resented Whiteley's encroachment on their territory and in 1876, they staged an angry charivari (public shaming ritual) by demonstrating in the streets and burning a "Guy" dressed in the traditional costume of a draper.

[9] Decades before his successes, Horace's father, George Rayner, was a very close friend of Whiteley and the two of them were acquainted with two sisters from Brighton and would visit them together.

Their relationship with the young ladies resulted in a quarrel and the friendship of George Rayner and Whiteley abruptly ended.