company industry retail genre department store founded 1882 founder john james fenwick headquarters newcastle upon tyne united kingdom number of locations 11 key people mark fenwick chairman owner fenwick family subsidiaries bentalls williams & griffin website www.fenwick.co.uk fenwick is an independent chain of department stores in the united kingdom . it was founded in 1882 by john james fenwick in newcastle upon tyne and today consists of 11 branches . as of 2012 the chain is still owned by the fenwick family and the company is chaired by mark fenwick . the company is reported to be valued at 452million . 1 contents 1 history 2 current operations 2.1 fenwick newcastle 3 pronunciation of name 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit fenwick store in market street leicester the store s founder john james fenwick was born in richmond north yorkshire in 1846 . 2 the original store opened in newcastle upon tyne in 1882 and sold only mantles silk goods dresses fabrics and trimmings and did not broaden into a department store until john s eldest son fred fenwick joined the business in 1890 . 3 fred had trained in retail in paris and is said to have been inspired by le bon march which is regarded as one of the first ever department stores . fenwick has since expanded its operations . in 1888 it opened a store in sunderland but it closed within the year . 4 in 1891 it opened a branch in bond street london . 5 this store was later doubled in size in 1980 . the company bought the joseph johnson store in leicester in 1962 . this store was subsequently rebranded as fenwick . fenwick was the anchor department store for the 1976 opening of brent cross shopping centre in london which was the first large enclosed shopping centre in the uk . 6 outlets in windsor and york followed in 1980 and 1984 respectively but offer only a limited range of departments specialising in clothing fashion accessories and cosmetic . the ricemans store in canterbury was acquired in 1986 and rebranded fenwick in 2003 . the tunbridge wells store opened in 1992 . fenwick acquired in 2001 the bentalls group of department stores for 70.8 million with stores in bracknell ealing kingston upon thames lakeside tonbridge and worthing . 7 the lakeside store was closed and three branches in ealing tonbridge and worthing were subsequently sold to j e beale with fenwick retaining only the stores in kingston upon thames and bracknell . in 2007 febwick purchased williams & griffin an independent department store in colchester essex ; this continued to trade under the williams & griffin name until a 2016 refurbishment after which it will adopt the fenwick identity . 8 current operations edit main entrance to the newcastle store on northumberland street . fenwick has its headquarters at the original fenwick department store in the centre of newcastle upon tyne and currently when operates 11 outlets across england . fenwick newcastle edit the newcastle store is the original store in the chain . the store has expanded since its launch in 1882 and now consists of several interconnected buildings with entrances onto northumberland street eldon square monument metro station and blackett street . it specialises in a wide range of luxury products . the 2008 sunday times rich list specified that fenwick newcastle was the single most profitable branch of any department store chain in the united kingdom with assets totalling in excess of 330 million . citation needed the store is known locally for its extravagant christmas window display filled with detailed sets and sophisticated moving figures which has appeared since 1971 . the themes are taken mainly from fairy tales and children s stories . the figures move and are accompanied by music . 9 pronunciation of name edit the pronunciation of fenwick is fennick with a silent w . see also edit list of department stores of the united kingdom references edit wearmouth rachel . mike ashley is north east s richest after 500m boost in fortune . the chronicle ncj media ltd . retrieved 29 april 2012 . http www.richmondshiremuseum.org.uk exhibits.html fenwick a history . victoria county history pdf . retrieved 4 december 2014 . anne pimlott baker fenwick family per . 1882 1979 oxford dictionary of national biography oxford university press 2004 accessed 29 april 2011 brent cross history . fenwick buys bentalls in 70m deal . this is money . retrieved 4 december 2014 . the retail bulletin 2016 09 01 butcher joanne 2 november 2011 . kids flock to fenwick christmas window display . the evening chronicle . retrieved 29 april 2012 . external links edit media related to fenwick department store at wikimedia commons fenwick official website bentalls official website williams & griffin official website v t e department stores of the united kingdom beales boswells of oxford british home stores w j daniel & co. debenhams fenwick fortnum & mason harrods harvey nichols hatchers hoopers house of fraser jarrolds john lewis liberty marks & spencer morleys selfridges coordinates 54 58 30 n 1 36 46 w 54.97495 n 1.61283 w 54.97495 ; 1.61283 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title fenwick department store & oldid 737380991 categories department stores of the united kingdomcompanies based in newcastle upon tynedepartment store buildings in the united kingdombuildings and structures in newcastle upon tynehidden categories use british english from august 2015use dmy dates from december 2014vague or ambiguous time from march 2016all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from march 2016commons category with page title same as on wikidatacoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages polski edit links this page was last modified on 2 september 2016 at 11 37 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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