Forge To Forge
This year sees our 165th birthday, an auspicious anniversary which officially makes Forge 1860 (still) the world’s oldest bike shop.
Lots of brands talk about heritage. At Forge 1860, we have the pedigree to back it up. This year, we’re proud to mark our 165th anniversary, a milestone that confirms us as the world’s oldest bike shop. Run by the Pearson family and officially recognised by Guinness, it means that for well over a century and a half, we’ve welcomed riders to our London store for everything from the tiniest tweaks to brand new bikes.
At a time when even much-loved shops are disappearing, our mere survival is something worth celebrating. Here at Forge 1860, however, we’re not just surviving but thriving. Which is why the world’s oldest bike shop in continuous operation now boasts a newly refurbished store, featuring exciting new Pearson bikes, state-of-the-art bike fitting, along with new partner brands, services and accessories. And for the many customers unable to get to the store as often as they’d like, we now offer not one but two online destinations where you can browse, size and ultimately buy your dream bike: pearsoncycles.com; and our new, store-specific site, forge1860.com.
Our original store was founded – in 1860, of course – in the blacksmith’s forge established by our esteemed forebear, Tom Pearson. Fired by a coal-powered furnace, Tom’s forge lay at the heart of the community; a time when wrought-iron ruled, blacksmiths would be called upon to fashion anything from horse tack to garden gates, workmen’s tools and, of course, wheels.
A business which initially kept carts on the road, subsequent decades saw Tom increasingly visited by enthusiasts of the penny-farthing. Coming to the aid of those who were effectively the first road cyclists, Tom found he had something of a knack for running repairs of these strange, two-wheeled machines, whose rims ranged from a 46cm rear wheel to a 130cm giant out front. As word spread, more riders rolled in and, thanks to Tom’s forge, rolled out again. From those penny-pioneers to today’s electric adventurers, the modern Pearson family store boasts unrivalled industry experience.
In our nation of shopkeepers, claims to be the oldest store depend on what’s for sale. Of other establishments in continuous operation, some are even older than we are. Hatchards, for example, the famous bookshop on London’s Piccadilly, has nearly a century on our original Sutton store, first opening in 1797. A few doors along, the luxury food halls of Fortnum & Mason (1707) pre-date us by nearly two hundred years. In terms of longevity, both come up short compared with Lock and Co, the hatters favoured by royals and which first dressed regal heads as far back as 1676. More mature than all of these, however, is the Tulip Tree, in the village of Chiddingstone, in Kent. The oldest grocery store still trading welcomed its first customer in 1453, a time when England still had a Plantagenet king.
Compared with such a venerable institution, Pearson might seem a little fresh-faced. Except that we did reinvent the wheel. Sort of. Just like those who came before them, our Forge 1860 store sees Guy and Will as the fifth generation of Pearsons to advise riders on the cycling innovations of the day. Back in the beginning, as more and more cyclists discovered the freedom of the open road, Tom found his store was ideally situated for those riders heading out of London to the south coast. In 1889, Tom was succeeded in the business by his son, Harry, who made the switch into full-time bicycle manufacture with the first-ever Pearson bike, the Endeavour.
Between them, Tom and Harry (thus far no Dick Pearson) had already overseen key innovations to the humble bike; most notably wheels of equal size, while the first brakes stopped by Tom’s shop in the 1870s, followed by gears a decade later. The next major innovation, the derailleur, was not invented until the 1920s but was in common use by the time Harry’s own sons, Arthur and Len Pearson, were steering the family fortunes. By the end of the 1930s and with war looming, both Arthur and Len were exempted from conscription in order to produce bikes for the Home Front. When the spectre of war receded, the Pearsons were busier than ever as the bike, a cheap and simple form of mass transport, played a vital role in rebuilding the nation.
As Britain moved from post-war to counterculture, by the mid 1960s Pearson had begun to diversify, from everyday workhorses to road-specific ‘racers’, and then into more durable all-rounders, or ‘randonneurs’. It was a period which also embraced a new type of racing, giving rise to the Mills-Pearson ‘cyclo-cross’ team.
By now the company was in the steady hands of Arthur’s son, Roger, whose own stewardship coincided with cycling advances familiar to today’s riders. These included, again in the ’60s, the titanium frameset, followed a few decades later by its carbon counterpart. (Aluminium, despite its reputation as a modern, hi-tech material, was first used in bike frames as early as the 1930s.) Roger was at the helm for the advent of both hydraulic disc brakes and electric gears, albeit the Nineties forerunners to Di2 which created as many problems as they solved.
Among Roger’s proudest contributions to the business came in 1994, when his sons, Guy and Will, joined the family firm and continued to develop Pearson’s beloved custom-built bikes.
In 2012, the world’s oldest bike shop became Pearson Performance. A year in which the London Olympics gathered elite athletes from around the world, our new Sheen location offered the state-of-the-art bike-fitting which has put Pearson at the forefront of innovation ever since and culminating in our Pearson Forge bike, the most data-driven geometry for everyday riders.
In the year Pearson celebrates its 165th year of business, our Sheen premises is renamed to mark our very first. Forge. 1860.
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