The Hawson family were pillars of the mercantile community in Pickering for generations, with trade roots tracking back to at least the early 1820s. Originally operating as independent shopkeepers and hoteliers around the central Market Place, the family consolidated their retail power under the name Hawson Brothers during the mid-Victorian era. They transformed their flagship Pickering store into an elegant emporium named Paris House, a deliberate nod to French high fashion meant to assure rural Yorkshire shoppers that they were purchasing the absolute latest continental styles.
The business was an incredibly successful regional enterprise. Their drapery, millinery, and mercery trade grew to such a scale that the brothers expanded well beyond Pickering, acquiring premium commercial real estate at 61 Newboro’ Street in the flourishing coastal resort of Scarborough. Historical land registries from 1892 reveal that the firm's financial success allowed the brothers to cross over from high street shopkeepers to wealthy country landowners, holding a permanent agricultural estate in the parish of Thorganby along the River Derwent.
Here we’ve taken the wording from an advertisement in the Malton Messenger of 1885 and created a reverse glass mirrored sign designed with fonts and decoration appropriate to the period.
The Hawson family were pillars of the mercantile community in Pickering for generations, with trade roots tracking back to at least the early 1820s. Originally operating as independent shopkeepers and hoteliers around the central Market Place, the family consolidated their retail power under the name Hawson Brothers during the mid-Victorian era. They transformed their flagship Pickering store into an elegant emporium named Paris House, a deliberate nod to French high fashion meant to assure rural Yorkshire shoppers that they were purchasing the absolute latest continental styles.
The business was an incredibly successful regional enterprise. Their drapery, millinery, and mercery trade grew to such a scale that the brothers expanded well beyond Pickering, acquiring premium commercial real estate at 61 Newboro’ Street in the flourishing coastal resort of Scarborough. Historical land registries from 1892 reveal that the firm's financial success allowed the brothers to cross over from high street shopkeepers to wealthy country landowners, holding a permanent agricultural estate in the parish of Thorganby along the River Derwent.
Here we’ve taken the wording from an advertisement in the Malton Messenger of 1885 and created a reverse glass mirrored sign designed with fonts and decoration appropriate to the period.
