James Smith & Sons

James Smith & Sons is an umbrella shop in London. The premises in New Oxford Street is Grade II* listed.

History

It was founded by James Smith as a single shop in Foubert's Place in 1830. Further branches were established in Savile Row and New Burlington Street and the main premises is now in New Oxford Street. The shop-fittings there were constructed around 1865 and the shop still has a traditional Victorian character.

In popular culture

• In the 2011 movie Captain America: The First Avenger, the storefront of James Smith & Sons appears in the CGI background of a shot, but the name is changed to Henry Cooper & Sons.
• In the 2014 biography A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, historian Ben Macintyre includes the detail that Philby owned a James Smith and Sons umbrella
• The shop featured in episode four of the BBC's 2015 production of Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime.
• In the movie Spooks: The Greater Good, the shop is used as dead drop point for agents contacting each other covertly.
• The shop is mentioned and illustrated in the children's book Gaspard's Foxtrot by Zeb Soanes and James Mayhew.

See also

• Thomas Brigg & Sons
• Fulton Umbrellas
• Swaine London

References

External links

• Official homepage