Old Photograph Woolworths Shop Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of the Woolworths Shop on the High Street in Paisley by Glasgow, Scotland. The British branch of the F. W. Woolworth Company, which had been founded in Pennsylvania, F W Woolworth & Co, Ltd was founded by Frank Woolworth in Liverpool, England on 5 November 1909. Frank Woolworth had ancestry in Woolley, Cambridgeshire. Frank claimed he had traced his ancestry through the Founding Fathers of the district to a small farm in middle England. When Frank eventually travelled to England in 1890, he docked in Liverpool and travelled by train to Stoke on Trent for the purchase of china and glassware for Woolworth's ranges, but also noted his love of England in his diary and his aspirations for bringing the Woolworth name to England. During the buying trip, Woolworth met a young clerk, William Lawrence Stephenson, who was recommended to him by John Wanamaker. Wanamaker had established a large chain of department stores across the United States and was one of Woolworth's heroes. Stephenson was invited to London to meet Woolworth again, and was offered the job as director of the new company, which he accepted.



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