AN HISTORIC TEA FIRM

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14836, 29 November 1913, Page 11

AN HISTORIC TEA FIRM

Pepys, in his diary, refers to one Dan Rawlingson, grocer, of Fenchurch street. Dan Rawlingson was the first grocer to sell tea in England, and the firm, now under the name of Davidson, Newman and Co., and transferred to Leadenhall- street, sells the same blends of tea. "The price of tea has altered considerably," the manager said to an "Express" representative. Rawlingson's customers paid 60s a pound for it; now it can be bought for Is. Pepys, who lived in Mincing lane, records taking his first cup of tea on September 25th, 1660. It was considered a great luxury to 'take a dish of tea , in a coffee-house then. It was our tea that* the Americans threw overboard in Boston Harbour in 1773, just before the American Revolution. The . price of black tea was 13s to 20s a pound ;• green tea was 12s to 30s. When Queen Victoria came to the throne it was about 3s 6d per pound." The sign. of three sugar loaves that hung above the small barred window of the original shop is now over the doorway. There are the old canisters and scales, and there is even a broad oak counter, worn with age, oveV which Dan Rawlingson probably sold his first pound of tea.