Arthur Bowden: Epsom Tailor

In 1898, Arthur Bowden, a young man of eighteen, moved to Epsom.

Working initially from door to door by horse and trap he established the tailoring business which celebrated its centenary two years ago. Arthur had timed his arrival well. Epsom was changing and growing. The old farms were being sold off for development as new streets sprung up to the north of the town, many of them accommodating staff for the huge new asylums at Horton. But it was not here that Arthur hoped to do business. On the other side of town, where the land sloped upwards to the Downs, there were still many grand old houses, and it was these that he visited as a journeyman tailor. The servants who ran these establishments were fitted out with uniforms and liveries which needed frequent replacing. And every year, the town was overwhelmed as crowds of up to half a million swept through the High Street on their way to the world’s greatest horse race. For someone who understood horses, and the people who worked with them, it was a place of opportunity.

By 1905 Arthur had built up enough trade to consider opening a shop. Epsom’s business life was increasing, and speculative builders had just put up a row of shops on a prime site leading from the station towards the town. It was called Grand Parade, and Arthur moved into no. 10, living above the shop. Two years later his son Lester was born here. In 1914 young Lester watched wide-eyed as row after row of soldiers marched down Station Road towards their new barracks at Woodcote Park. They were serving in a brigade of university and public schools men who had volunteered to serve in the Royal Fusiliers, and within a short time Arthur Bowden was their regimental tailor. He had to supply uniforms, complete and correct in every detail, within 36 hours; the cost was £25. At the same time he was made the sole local agent for Burberrys, the overcoat people. The Royal Fusiliers had been good customers, and like many Epsom tradesmen Arthur was sorry to see them move on in 1915. The uniforms on which he had worked so carefully, like their wearers, did not last long in the Flanders mud.

Peace brought new opportunities. By 1919, Arthur had a second shop at no. 11; he was able to advertise a special delivery of boys’ standard suits for school wear. Next year the firm moved across the road to nos. 29 and 31, and it was in the workroom basement of this new shop that 16 year old Lester picked up a deep understanding and affection for the business - and for the tailors and seamstresses who worked in these cramped conditions. In 1927 he took over the business. This was going in at the deep end, because the Great Depression was a hard time for small businesses to keep going. For a while the windows of the shop were filled with stacks of empty boxes, keeping up an illusion of trade to maintain credit. In 1929 another blow struck - Epsom Town Station closed in favour of the present Epsom Station further into the town. Passing trade dwindled in Upper High Street (as Station Road had now become). Lester followed his customers and moved to 109 High Street, just opposite the Post Office.

In World War II, Lester joined the Queens Own Regiment and acquired a distinguished record of service. Meanwhile in Epsom the family continued to mind the business. After the war came a time of brisk expansion. The rooms upstairs, formerly a dentist’s surgery, were brought into the shop; so was Cragg & Lewis, the baby shop next door; finally the United Dairies shop on the other side was incorporated into the premises.  In the 50s, when off-the-peg suits were beginning to challenge the traditional market for gentleman’s wear, Bowdens opened a new shop at 1 High Street, called Epsom Men’s Shop. Another venture, Shirts 2000, was to bring the business into the Swinging Sixties - and Bowdens planned to launch Moonshot, their own brand of aftershave lotion. It looked as if a family firm could flourish in a competitive modern environment. But in 1980 two shocks were to change everything. Lester died: and a compulsory purchase order was placed in the shop, as part of the development of the new Ashley Centre.

Lester had left two sons, Warwick and Richard, who had to face the implications of the Ashley Centre redevelopment. They could sell out, or they could commit the business to a £750,000 rebuilding programme. They chose to carry on with the family tradition. Soon they had vacated nos. 105 and 107, which were to be demolished to provide the new gateway to the shopping centre. The old premises, 109/113, had to be converted to intensive use despite being a listed building. Work was finished within the year, and Bowdens began to expand again, leasing space from the new shopping centre to provide a single shop window, fifty yards long, which would link the development with the High Street. In May 1984 the work was complete. But Bowdens did not stay long in their newly improved premises. The wave of commercial development which had begun with the Ashley Centre continued with the conversion of the old Spread Eagle pub and its yard into another retail development. But by this time the wave had spent its force. The Spread Eagle Walk stood vacant, and space in the main building was offered at a competitive rate. Bowdens was on the move again.

Horse racing has been part of the Bowdens tradition from the beginning. One of Arthur’s first customers was Arthur Nightingall, winner of three Grand Nationals, who lived at Priam Lodge off Burgh Heath Road. The Nightingall family continued to train horses at Epsom until the 1960s. Another customer, George Duller, was the greatest hurdle specialist among the jockeys of his generation. The firm made breeches for the Wootten family and their apprentices at Treadwell House, including some for Frank Wootten who was champion jockey for several years; and it was in a pair of Bowden breeches that William Bullock came home on the mare Signorinetta, winner of both the Derby and the Oaks. An important part of the family tradition is the tailoring of racing silks - the colours worn by jockeys. In 1932 Bowden supplied these to Tom Walls of Reigate Road, the actor turned racehorse owner, whose horse April the Fifth won that year’s Derby.

The tradition continues - even though today’s ‘silks’ are made of nylon. Bowdens made those worn by Geoff Lewis when he won the 1971 Derby on Mill Reef. These silks are supplied direct to the owner, not the jockey. On one occasion Lester received a telephone call and the voice at the other end announced that he was speaking from Buckingham Palace. Lester detected a practical joke and promptly told the voice to buzz off, or words to that effect: he could be a very forthright man. Unfortunately it turned out to be the Prince of Wales! Despite this challenging beginning, the Prince became a Bowden customer. Other titled patrons were to include the Sultan of Oman, who commissioned riding hats equipped with miners’ lamps and small wing mirrors for use by the Oman army in night-time camel patrols. These are a variant on the standard Bowden safety caps for jockeys, which are designed for lightness and resistance to impact.

Information supplied by Bourne Hall Museum, Ewell. Independents’ Day – 3 July – will celebrate the diversity of independent shops that Epsom has to offer.