I have a great interest in London’s past and love a good railway, tunnel or story of social history.  I moved to London in 1985 but my family history encompasses previous lives in London.  My Grandad was born in Hoxton, though he and his son, my Father, were both in the Royal Air Force and so moved around a lot.  My Grandad had talked of his father working as a bespoke tailor around Cheapside. With a surname of Macdonald our story obviously begins in Scotland but we’ve gleaned that after a family emigration to Canada my great grandfather, who was born there, moved back to the UK and eventually settled in London.  He apprenticed as a tailor and was ‘discovered’ on the pension records of the Civil Service Supply Association (CSSA) during family research undertaken by my sister.  My sister’s friend told me that she’d regularly visited the CSSA in the Strand during the time she worked at the BBC.  This was in the fairly recent past and so my interest was piqued as to what the history of the CSSA is and what, if anything, remains now. Googling produced a fair range of references, which are listed underneath.  The best find was a great article from an Australian newspaper, which was written by one of the founding members.  It had been electronically converted and was a very poor conversion so I took it upon myself to correct it.  I made a PDF of the article and it can be viewed here: The Story of the Civil Service Supply Association.pdf In essence what happened was that two Post Office workers established that if they could raise enough money to buy tea in bulk they could save themselves and their colleagues money.  This idea blossomed and soon they were supplying more than just tea.  The success was such that they opened the operation to any member of the Civil Service.  They ended with numerous outlets, the best known being the one pictured to the right.  For the full story read the above article; it’s fascinating and tells the story in detail.

http://archiseek.com/2012/1877-civil-service-supply-association-bedford-street-covent- garden-london/#.UN25EOUYbMJ http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BRK1APtXtA4C&pg=PR65&lpg=PR65&dq=civil+servic e+supply+association+bedford+street&source=bl&ots=2ajQShGb4E&sig=_CcWxOJQnPi2 F7F8jixCqNa3Gk4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ibfdUIVmjMjQBcfGgXg&ved=0CGUQ6AEwBg http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/65431161 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sAA9olZqPSMC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=civil+ser vice+supply+association+bedford+street&source=bl&ots=XOrAYocd- H&sig=3h9Xv4dMdGtQ58LRNAm005zZsa8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8bzdUNzOMcWV0QXmsIH ADw&ved=0CHUQ6AEwCTgK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KQECAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=civil+servi ce+supply+association+cheapside&source=bl&ots=nHlL- FQb89&sig=pvIFHrd0huwfGIjQ0qJ2zlesbj0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=McTdUMXMCIqK0AWdzoG wCw&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAgo http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TH18900724.2.21.6&dliv=&e=-- -----10--1----0-- http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1302&dat=18790531&id=5LhPAAAAIBAJ&sjid= MpMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4632,4586232