Just as lockdown measures begin to ease, London’s most famous chandler is forced to quit it premises. After 150 years at 194 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, the doyen of yacht chandlers Arhur Beale is shutting the shop and continuing to trade online. “Sadly the impact of Covid-19 means the company can no longer warrant paying the rents that a Central London shop demands so we have no choice but to leave and move on to pastures new,” the shop announced.
New owners: Hugh Taylor & James Keef
“We were left in a very precarious financial state as a result of the pandemic and were unsure if we were going to survive at all. Luckily, we have found two enthusiastic investors to inject some much needed capital and management expertise into the business. Hugh Taylor and James Keef have taken over the business – Alasdair Flint, who bought and has run the outlet since 2014, will continue to be a shareholder and Director of the Company.
“We have leased a new warehouse in Buckinghamshire and will continue selling all of our products online. In addition to this, our clothing range will be expanding over the coming weeks, so do keep an eye on our website for more news on that. We hope to have some form of London presence again by Christmas.
“Hugh & James are lifelong friends and keen sailors. Hugh has a commercial background in both marketing and wine. At the end of last year he sold his ecommerce wine business (slurp.co.uk) and has been looking for a new challenge – resurrecting Arthur Beale certainly meets that criteria! James, after an International Finance Career in Reuters, settled in Sweden where he still lives and (when he is not sailing the Baltic) still works as a Consultant.”
Alasdair Flint, second from left, and his team in a pre-pandemic-pick-up-a-penguin-mood
Arthur Beale’s roots as a chandler can be traced back 500 years to when John Buckingham opened a rope-making business at 12 Middle Row in the west end parish of St Giles in the fields. At the time the fields were growing flax which was used for hemp rope, and sails, so the raw materials were on the doorstep, as it were. The shop later moved to Broad Street, now the top of Shaftesbury Avenue.
“A lot of people think it’s bizarre that there’s a yacht chandler in London but 500 years ago the Thames was pretty important from a nautical perspective,” said Hugh Taylor.
It was in 1890 that Arthur Beale joined the company as an office boy and the shop was re-named after him in the early 1900s. It was used for expeditions to the south by Ernest Shackleton and to Everest by Sir Edmund Hilary.
Many who know the shop will miss its cheerful and romantic window displays, which have become more rare in recent decades as chandlers close in the face of cheaper online competition. But it also often had just the right bit of kit, and sailors heading to boatyards and moorings for the weekend could often find what they wanted together with the knowledgeable service that makes such shops so invaluable. The company’s social media had dozens of comments lamenting its lapse from that point of view, as well as the locals who have for so many years enjoyed the salty allure of its sea clobber and the glinting brass of its antiquarian Aladdin’s Cave appeal.
The shop can be contacted via email to Hugh, using: hugh@arthurbeale.co.uk