Library Special Collections: Jenners Archives

Abstract

• Self-described as ‘the most fashionable shopping centre in Scotland’ and commonly known as the ‘Harrods of the North,’ the luxury retail store Jenners was founded as a drapery business in 1838. Its founders Charles Jenner and Charles Kennington became known as ‘Kennington & Jenner’. Kennington retired in 1861 and in 1874 the store became Charles Jenner and Co. Jenner then retired in 1881 and left the store to his junior partner James Kennedy. Kennedy and his descendants, the Douglas-Miller family, took charge of the business in 1881. Fire destroyed the original buildings in 1892 and in 1893 the Scottish architect William Hamilton Beattie was appointed to design the new store which subsequently opened in 1895. Jenners held a Royal Warrant since 1911. In 2005 the Douglas-Miller family sold the business, the oldest independent department store in Scotland, to House of Fraser, but the name was retained. Mike Ashley, owner of House of Fraser, closed Jenners in December 2020 ahead of the second Coronavirus-19 lockdown and after failing to reach a tenancy agreement with the building’s owner, Anders Holch Povlsen, who bought the building in 2017. Under Holch Povlsen, the store is undergoing a four-year restorationto return it to its former glory and 10,000 m2 of disused rooms above the department store are tobe made into a hotel. The NMS collection of Jenners related material (primarily advertisements) comprises of 18 volumes of scrapbooks and 4 boxes of documents, donated by Mr Dick in 1976. Other sites that hold archives on Jenners are: Historic Environment Scotland, The National Library of Scotland, National Records of Scotland and Edinburgh City Archives.