J. Darch & Sons - Folding Yardstick

Credit LineCollection of Museum London, 2007

Object number2007.013.006

Label TextJane Darch (1834-1903 )and her sons operated their harness and saddle-making business on Talbot Street across from Covent Garden Market from the mid-1850s. This location ensured the business was easily accessible to farmers, who came to London to sell their produce. They formed a large part of Darch & Sons client base. Jane Darch was a schoolteacher who became that Victorian rarity, a successful and visionary woman entrepreneur. After marrying into a London family of established saddlers and harness makers, she became the leading force behind the expansion of their enterprise. Seeing the potential of the market neighbourhood, she bought land and located the family business on Talbot Street opposite the Covent Garden Market before the mid-1850s. After her husband’s premature death in 1867, she became the official head of the saddlery, as well as influential voice in London’s temperance movement. In 1877, she hired London’s leading architect, William Robinson, to design a shop and residence at 377-379 Talbot Street. Under her leadership the family business so prospered that by 1903 the Darches built London’s first “skyscraper” directly north of their Talbot Street premises; at a height of six story’s, the harness and trunk factory was then London’s tallest building. Jane died in 1903, just before the skyscraper reached its ambitious height, though her sons, William F. and J. Kay, carried on the business after her death. Her obituary spoke eloquently of both her character and her talent: “She was possessed of extraordinary business ability and integrity and by her carefulness and astuteness she built up what is probably the largest harness business in the West.” (100 Fascinating Londoners, p. 33)

NameYardstick