The Timothy Whites logo on this ventilator grille is still in place in 2009

Timothy Whites was a British chain of dispensing chemist and houseware stores.

The origin of Timothy Whites was a ships' chandler and general store in Portsmouth, started in 1848 by Timothy White.^[1] White himself qualified as a pharmacist in 1869.^[2] By 1890 White's was one of four British pharmacists with over ten branches (among these, Boots was by far the largest with 110).^[3] Whites sold hardware as well as what was normally found at a chemist's.^[4] In 1904 he had his company incorporated as Timothy Whites Ltd.^[5]

In 1935 Timothy White merged with Taylors Drug Co. Ltd. to form Timothy Whites & Taylors; this was taken over by Boots Pure Drug Co. in 1968.^[5] The shops themselves were named either simply "Timothy Whites"^[6] or "Timothy Whites & Taylors".^[7] Just before the takeover, there were 614 Timothy Whites shops; as a result of the takeover, pharmaceuticals were sold by Boots alone, and Timothy Whites was limited to 196 shops selling houseware.^[8]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ James B. Jefferys, Retail Trading in Britain 1850–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954), 385. (Here — thanks to some glitch, misrepresented as an unrelated book: George Paaswell, Retaining Walls: Their Design and Construction — at Google Books.)
2. ^ Lesley Richmond, Julie Stevenson, Alison Turton, The Pharmaceutical Industry: A Guide to Historical Records (Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate, 2002; ISBN 0754633527), 383. (Here at Google Books.)
3. ^ Stuart Anderson, Making Medicines: A Brief History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals (London: Pharmaceutical Press, 2005; ISBN 0853695970), 122. (Here at Google Books.)
4. ^ Jefferys 435. (Here at Google Books.)
5. ^ ^{a b} Richmond et al. 383. (Here at Google Books.)
6. ^ Photographic evidence: here, here and here; see Google Image for more.
7. ^ Photographic evidence: here, here and here; again, see Google Image for more.
8. ^ "The Boots Company Ltd" (PDF file), chap. 5 of The Boots Company Limited and Glaxo Group Limited (Now a wholly owned subsidiary of Glaxo Holdings Limited): A report on the proposed mergers (London: Competition Commission, n.d.), 25.