Chesham Museum

Online exhibition

Waitrose & Partners and Chesham Museum in partnership together

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Messrs Waite, Rose and Taylor opened a small grocery shop in 1904 in Acton, London but by 1908 Mr Taylor had left. Wallace Wyndham Waite and Arthur Rose then formed a PLC that grew and by 1937 Waitrose grocery shops became part of the John Lewis Partnership (this had been formed in 1929).

Mr Waite
The first ever Waitrose store
Mr Rose

Chesham Museum and Chesham Waitrose in partnership

Chesham Museum was formed in 2004 as a community organisation to
help people discover Chesham’s rich and vibrant history. The museum
aims to show people how Chesham fits into the jigsaw of local, national
and international history. It had a premises in Market Square from 2009
to 2017 and Waitrose generously paid visitor entrance fees so the public
didn’t have to!

It is currently a digital museum with outreach work to local schools,
community groups and charities. Waitrose continues to support the
search for new premises and regularly donates prizes for our
competitions and historic trails that are run on a regular basis to raise
awareness of Chesham’s vibrant and historic past.

Have you noticed even our colour schemes match!

Pre 1930 scene of the station goods yard where Waitrose and station car parks are now.
Waitrose & Co building frontage
The first Chesham ultra- modern Waitrose ‘130’ shop opened in 1969 on the High Street. It was a controversial building at the time and still provokes debate today as M & Co.

Store ‘192’ opens in The Backs on 13th June 1989

Wladzia Tanska a cashier who joined Waitrose in 1970 remembers part of the team remaining in ‘130’ keeping the business going right up to closing time on the Saturday night, whilst the remainder of the team plus Partners from other branches worked vigorously to prepare ‘192’ for the opening. “It was a very exciting time, there was a real buzz, we had new uniforms and the new shop was to offer a full assortment”. This photograph shows Wladzia posing as customer for a new deli that opened in 1987 in the High Street store.

Where’s Winifred?

Can you spot the Museum mascot Winifred in this modern car park picture?

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