WITH PAST CUSTOMERS INCLUDING THE PRINCE OF WALES, THE SULTAN OF OMAN AND SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL THE HISTORY OF LESTER BOWDEN IS STILL VERY IMPORTANT TO US.

THE EARLY YEARS
Initially door to door by horse and cart and then from his own shop, Arthur Bowden established the tailoring business that has been in Epsom for over 113 Years at the Age of 18 in 1898.

It was a very different town in 1898. Epsom had a chip on its shoulder - many people still thought of the town as a sleepy hollow. But all that was about to change. Beyond the station new roads and houses were being built to accommodate staff from the huge asylums being built at Horton.

In to this hustle and bustle came Arthur Bowden, a journeyman tailor, whose genial personality, together with an eye for style and excellent craftsmanship immediately found favour with the owners of the stables, country houses and livery yards of Epsom and the surrounding countryside.

LESTER BOWDEN
By the turn of the century Arthur had his own shop in Grand Parade and it was over the shop in 1907 that Lester was born. The youngster spent his early years with Arthur, visiting many of the local fine houses and holding the horse while his father measured and fitted the uniforms and liveries that were Bowden's main trade at the time.

These visits, together with many hours spent in the basement workshops of the shop, talking and passing time with tailors and seamstresses, gave Lester a deep understanding and affection for the business that he used to good effect to keep the business afloat during the recession of the late 1920s.

With windows stacked high with empty boxes to create an illusion of stability and new credit terms negotiated with suppliers, Lester set about rebuilding the business from 109 High Street, the premises which Lester Bowden occupied for 70 years. Indeed, the business quietly developed from the small tailor's shop that Lester took over in 1927 to quite substantial premises, encompassing large equestrian, school outfitting, livery, tailoring, hosiery, childrens clothing and shoe departments.

Throughout this period of growth Lester was true to his father's craft and in the basement workshops the cloth cutters, tailors and sewing hands still made to measure the liveries and uniforms for staff of all the surrounding estates, from gamekeepers to footmen, and in later years made to measure suits.

THE WAR YEARS
During the war, Lester held a distinguished service record in the Queen's Own Regiment, while his family continued to run the business for him. After the war the shop expanded rapidly, taking over the dentist surgery above the baby shop next door and, in the mid-sixties, the United Dairies premises. When the store finally acquired an adjacent shoe shop in 1979 it provided the family with an imposing corner-to-corner site.

THE YEARS OF CHANGE
But then two events took place which was to fundamentally change the very traditional world of Lester Bowden. In February 1980 Lester died and shortly afterwards Epsom and Ewell Borough Council made the shock decision to place a 90 per cent compulsory purchase order on Lester Bowden to make way for the Ashley Centre.

The family had two options - take the money and run or protect the future of the business by committing Bowden's to a massive £750,000 rebuilding programme. Unwilling to let a business built up by three generations of Bowdens simply disappear overnight Lester's sons, Richard and Warwick, decided to redevelop.

It was a truly daunting task. The brothers had just one year to re-build their premises behind the listed buildings of 109-113 High Street and vacate 105 and 107, which was to become a tower type development spanning the main entrance to the Ashley Centre. Completing the work on schedule (October 1981) the builders began on Phase Two - a further 6,000 sq ft of space leased from Ashley Avenue Development and a new shop window that stretched 50 yards down the new Mall and into the High Street.

The work was finally completed in May 1984. But 10 years later the Bowden boys were on the move again.

Faced with the council's compulsory purchase order in 1980 the family had looked seriously at the Old Spread Eagle coaching inn as a possible site for their new store. But the property boom of the 80's put the building out of their reach. By the 1990s the bubble had burst and the Spread Eagle stood vacant. The family jumped at the chance and the rest, as they say, is history.

As for the future, Lester Bowden will continue to concentrate on its personal service, interpreting the needs of the market and providing its customers with choice, style and value that only a specialist store can offer.

OUR CUSTOMERS

Horse racing has been part of the Bowdens tradition from the beginning. One of Arthur’s first customers was Arthur Nightingall, winner of three Grand Nationals, who lived at Priam Lodge off Burgh Heath Road. The Nightingall family continued to train horses at Epsom until the 1960s. Another customer, George Duller, was the greatest hurdle specialist among the jockeys of his generation. The firm made breeches for the Wootten family and their apprentices at Treadwell House, including some for Frank Wootten who was champion jockey for several years; and it was in a pair of Bowden breeches that William Bullock came home on the mare Signorinetta, winner of both the Derby and the Oaks. An important part of the family tradition is the tailoring of racing silks - the colours worn by jockeys. In 1932 Bowden supplied these to Tom Walls of Reigate Road, the actor turned racehorse owner, whose horse April the Fifth won that year’s Derby.

The tradition continues - even though today’s ‘silks’ are made of nylon. Bowdens made those worn by Geoff Lewis when he won the 1971 Derby on Mill Reef. These silks are supplied direct to the owner, not the jockey. On one occasion Lester received a telephone call and the voice at the other end announced that he was speaking from Buckingham Palace. Lester detected a practical joke and promptly told the voice to buzz off, or words to that effect: he could be a very forthright man. Unfortunately it turned out to be the Prince of Wales! Despite this challenging beginning, the Prince became a Bowden customer. Other titled patrons were to include Sir Winston Churchill and the Sultan of Oman, who commissioned riding hats equipped with miners’ lamps and small wing mirrors for use by the Oman army in night-time camel patrols. These are a variant on the standard Bowden safety caps for jockeys, which are designed for lightness and resistance to impact.

These customers of note are of course just the tip of the iceberg for the thousands of loyal local customers who continue to shop at Lester Bowden in the historic Old Building. Before Lester Bowden had even been born Charles Dickens in 1863 had already passed through the building for a glass of Brandy. And still to this day our customers are provided with a warm welcome at the door.