Henry Lester of Chemists

Remember Lester’s the Chemist? This was the man who started it all. He qualified at the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1872 as a chemist and druggist and set up shop at 1 Bridge Street, Nuneaton that year. Henry was the son of Theodore and Mary Lester of Attleborough and was born in 1846. The business traded successfully for many years and will be fondly remembered by many old timers today for its unique character. A new shop was built in 1929 in the Market Place. The goodwill and premises were eventually sold to Boots the Chemist in September 1963.  The Lester family lived in a house in Newdigate Square where Debenhams store is now.

An old lady related to me an anecdote when she went in to Lesters one Saturday morning to buy some perfume for a night out on the town in the 1930’s. She said a bottle of “Evening in Paris” please, and the counter assistant quipped “more like a damp afternoon in Stockingford round here luv! “