Sainsbury’s founder was born in Waterloo 180 years ago

History

Wednesday, June 12, marks the 180th anniversary of the birth in Waterloo of John James Sainsbury, the founder of one of Britain’s best-known supermarket chains.

Sainsbury was born on 12 June 1844 at 5 Oakley Street, Lambeth.

Oakley Street is now Baylis Road, and old street numbering plans show that number 5 was at the end of Westminster Bridge Road, on a site now occupied by the Westminster Square housing estate, close to what is now Costa Coffee and the Point. A hotel.

Contemporary business directories list 5 Oakley Street as the premises of Robert Cave, a fishing tackle manufacturer.

Sainsbury learned his trade working for a grocer in The Cut from the age of 14 before setting up the now famous family business in 1869.

According to an official company history published for the centenary in 1969, the 1851 census records the founder’s parents, with two daughters and a son, living in Short Street near The New Cut.

Sainsbury’s was headquartered in Stamford Street between 1890 and 2001 and the company still references local heritage with its range of Stamford Street Value products.

A bust of John James Sainsbury was exhibited at the Stamford Street premises and is now at the Sainsbury Studies Center in London’s Docklands Museum.

After moving to Holborn in 2001, next year the company is due to relocate to Charterhouse Street, close to Smithfield Market.

The company’s local connections are recorded for posterity in the stained glass window at Christ Church Southwark in Blackfriars Road. The Colombo Center in Colombo Street occupies a building that once served as the Sainsbury’s staff canteen.