Haywards Heath, South Road c.1950

Photo ref: H252593

More about this scene

Sir Henry Price and the Fifty Shilling Tailors A branch of the Fifty Shilling Tailors stands on the right of the parade of shops in this photograph. This was where men could buy a reasonably priced suit. The currency of the time was pounds, shillings and pence, with 20 shillings to a pound, and 12 pennies to a shilling: a fifty shilling suit would be the equivalent of £2.50 in decimal currency. This amount was also the average weekly wage in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The business was the brainchild of Henry Price (later Sir Henry Price) from Bradford, Yorkshire. From its embryonic beginnings in Silsden, Yorkshire in 1906 his business empire grew; by the 1930s he had over 500 shops nationwide with 12,000 staff. He became wealthy, and in 1936 bought Wakehurst Place, near Haywards Heath. He died in 1963 (aged 86); by that time Wakehurst had been presented to the National Trust. Today, Wakehurst is the home of the magnificent Sir Henry Price Memorial Garden.