store founded 1867 founder frank bentall headquarters kingston upon thames united kingdom number of locations 2 key people leonard edward rowan bentall chairman 1968 78 president 1978 93 parent fenwick website www.bentalls.co.uk bentalls is an english department store chain with branches in kingston upon thames london and bracknell berkshire . the well regarded county department store began as a drapery shop founded by frank bentall in 1867 . the company was formerly listed on the london stock exchange but since 2001 has been owned by the private fenwick group . contents 1 history 2 current operations 3 department store locations 4 in popular culture 5 gallery 6 references 7 external links history edit bentalls was established in 1867 by frank bentall who purchased a drapery shop in kingston upon thames . the principal buildings of the kingston store were completed in 1935 to a design by architect maurice webb son of sir aston webb and inspired by wren s design for hampton court . the fine stonework on the fa ade was the work of eric gill . between 1935 and 1976 it was the uk s largest department store outside central london . it became a grade ii listed building in 2011 . the facade of the original store has been retained as part of the bentall centre shopping development which was opened in 1992 in which the principal bentalls store is now located . the store previously occupied buildings covering the entire site of the development . the company was floated on the london stock exchange in 1946 but the bentall family retained a controlling interest . under the association with frank bentall s grandson rowan bentall who was chairman between 1968 1978 the company expanded and opened further stores in bracknell chatham ealing lakeside royal tunbridge wells tonbridge and worthing . as a result the group s turnover more than doubled from 14.5 million to 35.1 million . 1 the company subsequently opened a store in bristol and closed the stores in chatham and royal tunbridge wells . in 2000 the chain rejected a 27 million offer from its rival allders . in january 2001 bentalls sold their loss making bristol store to rival house of fraser for 16.35 million . 2 in june of that year the family owned rival department store chain fenwick purchased bentalls for 70.8 million . the bentall family s shareholding at the time was 38 % with frank bentall s great grandson edward bentall being the chairman . the company s turnover was 108.2 million . 3 the chain then consisted of six stores in bracknell ealing kingston upon thames lakeside tonbridge and worthing . 4 fenwick subsequently closed the lakeside store and sold the leases of the bentalls sites in ealing tonbridge and worthing to the bournemouth based beales group . however it retained the successful stores in kingston upon thames and bracknell . the bracknell branch which opened in april 1973 is due to be re located and re branded as fenwick in 2016 . current operations edit kingston is one of the largest retail centres in the south west and bentalls itself is popular among many shoppers . in the days approaching christmas bentalls kingston is said to take over 1 million per day . the only department store in bracknell town centre at present is bentalls . however this will change in 2015 with the opening of a marks & spencer store . department store locations edit bracknell due to be re located and re branded as fenwick in 2016 bristol sold to house of fraser in 2001 chatham closed ealing sold to beales in 2001 kingston lakeside closed royal tunbridge wells closed tonbridge sold to beales in 2001 worthing sold to beales in 2001 in popular culture edit singer dusty springfield once worked at bentalls in ealing and singer petula clark gave her first public performance as a child at bentalls in kingston upon thames . bentalls is mentioned by the character chubb in the anthony blunt episode a question of attribution of the stage play single spies by alan bennett . gallery edit a bentalls delivery lorry in kingston upon thames bentalls 1935 facade inspired by hampton court palace references edit http www.independent.co.uk news people obituary rowan bentall 1488052.html http www.theguardian.com business 2001 mar 31 10 http www.theguardian.com business 2001 jun 29 1 http www.thisismoney.co.uk money news article 1552372 fenwick buys bentalls in 16370m deal.html external links edit bentalls department stores fenwick department stores retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bentalls & oldid 742109009 categories department stores of the united kingdombuildings and structures in kingston upon thameshistory of kingston upon thamesvisitor attractions in kingston upon thames 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 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