Thread: "Allen 37 Strand"--what is it?

Wow. You guys are better than good--you're magic!

I need to clean mine up too!

Originally Posted by Croaker

Here you go: from

Victorian London - Directories - Dickens's Dictionary of London, by Charles Dickens, Jr., 1879 - "TRA-TYB"

Tradesmen.—Many visitors to London, amidst the wilderness of excellent shops for which the metropolis has so high a reputation, must often experience considerable difficulty in making a convenient and judicious selection No doubt a classified list of some of the principal firms should frequently be of great and obvious utility. The responsibility, however, of undertaking to compile such a list is, it will be readily seen, not one that the Editor of this work would safely or wisely undertake. It has, however, been thought that a list of the tradesmen of Her Majesty the Queen and of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales might in some measure answer the required purpose. Application was therefore made to the Lord Chamberlains office, and to the Controller of their Royal Highnesses households, and by the courtesy of the respective office we are enabled to append the following complete lists:
The list headed A, contains the tradesmen of Her Majesty and of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales distinguished respectively by an asterisk and a dagger. The list headed B, contains those trades-men of H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, whose names do not occur in list A.
TRUNKMAKERS - +Allen, J.W., 37, Strand. - +Bengough, F., 20, Glasshouse-st. - +George & Co., 20, Long Acre.

He was a "Trunkmaker". Hmm, sounds like he also had some nice personalized Sheffield razors for sale too. Maybe the razor was part of a travel set?

I have got to get one of those books.

Originally Posted by Croaker

The marking V (Crown) R RW Thornhill London is listed in Goins' only as "Before 1890". All I could find.

Victoria ruled from 1837 to 1901.

Originally Posted by John Crowley

Victoria ruled from 1837 to 1901.

Thank you for that useful information!

Originally Posted by Ockham's razor

I need to clean mine up too!

Yours looks older by the shape of the blade, to me. Time to go to the hardware store and get the restoration started! It should clean up nicely, and shave too.

I found an ivory scaled Allen and tried to dig up what I could. Attached is a PDF of a timeline of the "Allen" Brand. It looks like they were only at 37 Strand for the late part of the 1800's. All I could find were ads in various catalogs.

jw allen.pdf

Note the dressing case at the very bottom of the file w/ the two razors... I would kill to find one of those still around!

Nice job of research! Thanks for the great ad reproductions. Imagine, bags with SQUARE openings....and 500 other items. Since enlisted men or NCO's would hardly frequent an establishment like Allens, unless they were quartermasters purchasing for their units, I think any razor sold there would qualify as an officers razor. We are all hereby promoted! I loved that Russian leather toiletry kit, too.