Penhaligon's

William Henry Penhaligon and Jeavons (1870–1902)

In 1870, William Henry Penhaligon (1837–1902) opened a barbershop^: 251 at The Hamman, 76 Jermyn Street, in London—"hammam" is a generic word meaning "bathhouse", but The Hammam was a specific, large and luxurious bathhouse built under David Urquhart's direction with plans designed by Somers Clarke.

At that time, barbers often created basic toilet waters and hair tonics to use at the barber chair such as lavender waters and citrus splashes. Penhaligon's barbershop offered several of these, and the fragrances of these early toilet waters have been recreated, modernized, and reissued as commercial products by the company over the years, including Eau de Verveine, Eau Sans Pareil, Esprit de Lavande, Esprit du Roi, and Extract of Limes. His first commercial fine fragrance was Hamman Bouquet (1872), which he marketed as specifically inspired by the bathouse in which he worked.

In 1880, he and a hairdresser named Jeavons formed Penhaligon & Jeavons, and in 1887 William Penhaligon's son, Walter, joined the company. They created two more fragrances, English Fern (1890) and Blenheim Bouquet (1890), the latter commissioned by Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. In 1891, they opened a second barbershop behind the first, at 33 St James's Street.

In April 1902, William Penhaligon died and Walter became a partner in the company. Three weeks after William Penhaligon died, Mr. Jeavons also died, which left Walter Penhaligon the sole proprietor of the company which was renamed Penhaligon's. In January 1903, the Penhaligon and Jeavons company received their first royal warrant, from Queen Alexandra, with the right to use the Royal Arms.

Walter Penhaligon (1902–1921)

Walter was educated in North London and in Germany. After finishing his formal education, his father placed him for training with Julius Brauner, a hairdresser on Southhampton Row, for two years. Afterward, Walter faced health problems and so he lived in his father's native town of Penzance to recover before beginning work in the laboratory, manufacturing perfume for Penhaligon and Jeavons. Under his leadership, the company exported its perfumes to agents in Europe, the British colonies, South America, India, and China.

A 1909 London newspaper identified Walter Penhaligon as 'one of the leading West End hairdressers' and a master of a guild for hairdressers, who spoke out against the dangerous practice of using petrol and carbon tetrachloride as a dry shampoo. He also created several fragrances: Elisabethan Rose (1910), Cornubia (1910), whose name is a Latinised form of the Old English word for his father's homeland of Cornwall, and Douro Eau de Portugal (1911), which originally—like Blenheim Bouquet (1902) before it—was a private commission and not available for sale to the public. Its creation was commissioned by Percy Croft for his personal use. The House of Croft is one of the oldest port wine shippers, and Percy Croft was a member of that family and worked as a London director for the company.

But by 1918, Walter's health was failing and his son Leonard began leading Penhaligon's. In 1921, Walter Penhaligon died.

Leonard Penhaligon (1921–1962)

Penhaligon's barbershop attracted prominent customers from politics and finance. During Walter Penhaligon's time, the banker Alfred de Rothschild was reported to have used the same Penhaligon barber for many years and to have left him £3,000 in his will. In 1927, a Mr. Penhaligon told the Liverpool Evening Express that Joseph Chamberlain had been a customer in his father's time, that Lord Birkenhead was then a customer, and that David Lloyd George, who had once come regularly to the shop, had for the last few years been attended at his headquarters by the firm's chief assistant. In 1946, a newspaper reported that George Ernest Parry, a barber with Penhaligon's since 1890, would be making a house call from the Bury Street shop to Winston Churchill, and that Parry had also cut the hair of other Prime Ministers including Lord Salisbury, Arthur Balfour, Lloyd George and Neville Chamberlain.

In the late 1920s, the business moved to Bury Street. The original buildings were destroyed in The Blitz in 1941, but the store on Bury Street remained untouched.

In December 1955, Penhaligon's Ltd. received their second royal warrant, from Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with the right to display the Duke of Edinburgh's Arms.

Truefitt & Hill (1962–1975)

In late 1962, Penhaligon's merged with Truefitt & Hill, a similar nearby business.

The brand slowly fell into obscurity.

Sheila Pickles and Franco Zeffirelli (1975–1987)

The two elderly perfumers who still produced Penhaligon's fragrances retired. Franco Zeffirelli suggested to Sheila Pickles that she buy the brand. She did so, with financial backing from Zeffirelli, buying the Penhaligon's brand in 1975 when its revenue was down to £6,000. The elderly perfumers taught her the blending, and she attended a perfumery course at a technical college, where she met a perfumer who helped her understand the Penhaligon's formula books. Pickles hired Michael Peters's firm for the complete corporate identity and product branding, which leaned into the company's history and nostalgic appeal. Peters's firm designed the new store at London's Covent Garden to look the way people imagine a Victorian-era shop and created a range of Victorian and Edwardian product packaging that were adorned with the Duke of Edinburgh's crests, bottles with neck ribbons, and specially-created typography and illustrations. The branding won awards such as a Starpack bronze award in 1979, a Design and Art Direction (D&AD) silver award in 1982, and the Presidential award from the Royal Society of Arts in 1983.

By mid-1981, sales approached £500,000.

Laura Ashley (1987–1990)

In 1987, Laura Ashley bought the company from Sheila Pickles for £1 million, committing to keeping Pickles as a managing director.

The Limited (1990–2002)

In 1990, shortly after winning a legal battle with The Limited for plagiarism, Laura Ashley sold Penhaligon's to The Limited for £7.5 million.

Fox Paine & Company/Cradle Holdings (2002–2015)

In 2002, Fox Paine & Company, an American private equity firm focused on leveraged buyouts, bought Penhaligon's as part of their Cradle Holdings, which also owned the Erno Laszlo skincare company and the French perfume retailer L'Artisan Parfumeur.

Puig (2015– )

In 2015, Puig bought the Penhaligon's and L'Artisan Parfumeur parts of Cradle Holdings. As of 2026, Puig's fragrances are manufactured in Chartres, France, and Alcalá de Henares, Spain.

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