It was the eponymous Mr Poole who first opened a Savile Row entrance to his palatial tailor’s shop on the Row in 1846 where he would serve claret and cigars to friends such as the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), Baron Meyer de Rothschild and Prince Louis Napoleon (the future Emperor Napoleon III). Customers of Henry Poole walk in the footsteps of kings, prime ministers, presidents and gentlemen of note from the worlds of politics, property, finance and publishing. What do Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, J. Pierpont Morgan, General de Gaulle, William Randolph Hearst and Emperor Hirohito have in common other than their appearance in the historic ledgers preserved in the Henry Poole & Co archive? Today, Henry Poole & Co is one of few tailors on Savile Row dedicated only to the craft of hand-making bespoke suits. Each customer is measured by hand, his pattern is cut by hand and his suit is constructed by many hands with a minimum of 54-hours’ work and an average three months to perfect, all on the premises at 15 Savile Row. In addition to City suits and formal dress such as the dinner jacket that Poole’s cut first for Edward VII when Prince of Wales in 1865, Henry Poole & Co is the only Savile Row tailor to have a Livery Department and has held the British monarch’s Royal Warrant successively since Queen Victoria granted its first in 1869. Poole also tailors the velvet Court Dress designed by Henry Poole’s father James in 1837 on the accession of Queen Victoria. In April 2012 Henry Poole & Co were proud to be awarded The Queen’s Award for Enterprise: an honour conferred on Her Majesty’s birthday and in the Diamond Jubilee year. This award is Britain’s highest accolade for business and is granted by the Queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister, for excellence in international trade.
