Lord John was a British men's fashion retailer, which opened its first store at 43

Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a Pedestrian zone, pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion ...

, London, at the corner with Ganton Street, in 1963. The first Lord John boutique was opened by the brothers Warren, Harold and David Gold in Carnaby Street in 1963, and the choice of name led to litigation from John Stephen who already owned several fashion shops in the street. In 1967, the store had a three-storey high giant psychedelic mural on the outside of the building, painted by the then largely unknown pop-art collective Doug Binder, Dudley Edwards and David Vaughan (BEV). Lord John was very popular with mods, and regular customers included the pop groups The Small Faces,

The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

, and

Brian Jones Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English musician and founder of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, he went on to sing backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones r ...

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

. It appeared on the cover of the 1967 album ''This Is My Scene'' by the Alan Tew orchestra, and was also seen in the 1969 horror film '' The Haunted House of Horror''. Lord John had eight shops by 1970, and grew to about 30 in the early 1970s, before being acquired by the retail group Raybeck. The company sponsored a chess tournament, the Lord John Cup, in 1977.

Lady at Lord John industrial dispute

In 1983 there was an industrial dispute at the Lady at Lord John branch in Liverpool. Audrey White, the manager of the store, complained of

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

experienced by four members of her staff by an area manager. When senior management tried to sack her, White found that although she had little support amongst other workers at the store, other workers in Liverpool and further afield supported by setting up picket lines outside the store in Liverpool and other company stores in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. After five weeks the company backed down and White was reinstated. The TUC credit this strike as playing a significant part in the campaign for workplace equality legislation such as the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005. The film, '' Business as Usual'' featured

Glenda Jackson Glenda May Jackson (9 May 1936 – 15 June 2023) was an English actress and politician. Over the course of her distinguished career she received List of awards and nominations received by Glenda Jackson, numerous accolades including two Academy ...

playing the role of Audrey White, who was credited as co-writing the film with Lezli-An Barrett.

End of the line

It was sold to

Next NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

in the mid-1980s, when they became Next stores.

References

Clothing retailers of the United Kingdom Shops in London Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in London Retail companies established in 1963 Sexual harassment in the United Kingdom 1963 establishments in England 1960s in England {{coord, 51.513, -0.138, display=title