Our Mission is to surprise and delight our customers with our passion for the very best tea, coffee and related gifts from around the world.

Walter Whittard established his tea company in 1886, trading at 165 Fleet Street. He certainly leapt in at the deep end, because it was the busiest year in the history of the tea business in England, with Chinese imports reaching their highest, and tons of 'Empire' tea pouring in from India.

The London Tea Auction was a grand tradition that had commenced in 1679. The first auctions were held initially by the East India Company, which originally had held the monopoly for the import of tea but by 1834 when the company ceased to be a commercial enterprise, tea became a 'free trade' commodity. A new home was found in the newly built London Commercial Salerooms on Mincing Lane, earning it the nickname the 'Street of Tea'.

Within a few years Walter Whittard had branched into coffee. He was selling coffee from well-established regions in South America and Indonesia, and also saw the last of the Ceylon coffee of the late 1890s, before the coffee blight destroyed all the crops. As well as Indian and China teas he would have seen the arrival of the 'new teas' from Ceylon in 1898 and Kenya in 1903.

Whittard was a City of London merchant, based from 1901 in Mincing Lane, and from 1904 in Mansell Street near Aldgate. The move to Chelsea came in 1940, after a direct hit on the Mansell Street premises during the Great Fire Raid of 29th December.

Hugh Whittard, Walter's son, started work in 1920 and one of his first jobs each morning was to fill the kettles at the Aldgate pump on the corner of Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Streets so that only the purest water was used for tea tasting.

The general strike of 1926 brought new problems. Additional 'boys' were employed to make deliveries by bicycle, and with electricity cut off during the day, Mr Gard, the head roaster, went in at night.

Walter's two sons, Hugh and Richard ran the business successfully in Chelsea through the De-rationed 50s, Swinging 60s and Revolutionary 70s. They lead the movement away from House Blends and into new origin coffees; they saw the revival of herbal teas and the start of the flavoured tea boom.

Giles Hilton, Product Director at Whittard joined in 1976, just in time for the 'Foody' 80s with greater awareness of origins, flavour and health. He took over quite a list of contacts and insists that many of the Whittard teas and coffees are still bought directly from the producing estates. Buying directly ensures support and a fair deal for the farmer, and the best quality product. Read about Giles's latest adventure in Giles' Blog.

In the 1980's Whittard of Chelsea underwent an aggressive expansion plan with 2 test sites in Bath and Oxford which were extremely successful and over the next 5 years, more than 80 stores were added, topping 100 in 1996. This fast retail expansion was coupled with an ecommerce website launched in 1998 making Whittard of Chelsea a successful multi channel retailer. By 1998 we had 120 stores in the UK and were pushing into new international markets, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Singapore, South Africa & Chile. In 2009 we have over 80 stores and still work towards the same goal to supirse and delight our customers with our passion for the very best tea, coffee and related gifts from around the world.