Major Refurbishment
at Historic James J Fox London
Refurbishing James J Fox’s historic store
at 19 St James’s street was never going to
be straightforward. The historic building
and the location has meant a three year
project to get final approval for a major
refurbishment project which is now
underway.
This most historic of London’s retail
establishments opened its doors in 1781 as Robert
Lewis supplying tobacco to the gentlemen of
London whose clubs were located in the area. In
1992 the business was acquired by James J Fox
who themselves have a fine history of supplying
Tobacco and cigars to the smokers of Dublin
dating back to 1881 and who opened their first
London store in 1947 in Burlington gardens.
The store can claim some very famous customers
too. Top of the list is always Sir Winston Churchill
and the store has also notes many members of
the British Royal family and many foreign royals
among their customers as well as Oscar Wilde and
many of the British regiment officers mess.
The first stage of the project has involved
redecoration and improved air conditioning in
the basement museum. The museum is a feature
much valued by the stores customers and it is
home to some amazing cigar history from the
extraordinary boxes of cigars which date back to
the Great exhibition of 1851, to the Churchill cigar
archive including the chair he sat in when he
came to the store and his ledger which contains
hand written details of his cigar orders. The
reinvigorated museum space will be available for
hire and it will still be possible to ‘sample’ a cigar.
The museum area will be open for sampling while
work is being completed in the first floor lounge
and will be fully refurbished by the end of July. .
The second phase of the project will be the much
anticipated extension of the first floor sampling
lounge to the whole of the first floor. There will be
seating for 25 in comfortable leather chairs and
Chesterfields together with new toilets. This is
going to be a very welcome additional space for
London’s cigar lovers to enjoy. It is anticipated
that the new lounge will be fully opened by the
end of July.
The final stage will be the completion of work in
the historic store itself. This will be a sympathetic
redecoration with the store being left much as it
has been for many years, just ‘spruced up’!
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