Yardley- An English aroma and tradition

At Training Centre Raya London, we are committed to help you master the English language and take it with you wherever you go. The language is not the only thing that the UK gives to the world, they also export their traditional English fragrances world-famous soaps, toiletry products and perfumes made by a company with an honourable tradition of 250 years – Yardley of London. Let’s trace how it was founded and attained the privilege of being a court purveyor to the Crown.

The Cleaver family established the famous company in 1770, the official date displayed on its product labels. There are also records of its earlier activity. However, It has been suggested that all documentation disappeared in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The company is named after its second owner William Yardley, who purchased the firm in 1823 from the bankrupted  Cleavers family. The company became Yardley & Statham when the new owner’s son took on Mr Statham as a partner in the business. At the time, the firm sold famous perfumes, soaps, powders, hair pomades and other high-quality toiletries.

In 1850 the aroma company exhibited their products at The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace, an enormous and very modern exhibition hall for its time, supported by an iron structure, glittering with lots of glass.

The famous Old Brown Windsor soap, which features Windsor Palace on its packaging, was firstly exhibited there. In 1913, Yardley & Co. acquired the rights to Francis Wheatley’s famous painting “Flowersellers” and made it its corporate logo but replaced the yellow primroses in the sellers’ basket with sheaths of lavender. Since the end of the 19th century, English Lavender has been Yardley’s most characteristic scent. Yardley uses the finest sort of lavender in their products, grown in the South of England.

As the company became more and more popular, in 1910 they decided to open a shop on Bond Street. The original shop at 8 Bond Street, but it later moved to 33.

The British model Twiggy- a symbol of English Modernity in the 1960s- became the face of Yardley.

Yardley has changed different owners, the Indian company Wipro was the last one. Yardley has been successful worldwide. The creators of the fragrances of the various series rely on Great Britain’s rich diversity of flowers. The pure perfume notes include lily of the valley, violets, roses, freesia, honeysuckle and last but not least, their signature lavender. Still, over the years, more exotic scents have been added to fragrance blends – magnolia, fig, bergamot, etc.

Yardley has long been associated with the British Royal Family. The company has supplied several British monarchs with toiletries: Prince Edward, Queen Mary, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother and the awaiting coronation-King Charles III. While her stay in London, the famous American star Marilyn Monroe used the company’s signature fragrance – English Lavender.

Dear friends, by creating these articles, we hope to support you in improving your English language. We make learning more exciting and diverse with typical topics and subjects of our host country. We would like to remind you again to go to the English version of our blog via the button on the top right and see our translation.

We would love to hear some of your ideas about what other significant information we could add to our traditional articles.

Author: Iveta Radeva