In the beginning...

The very first British health food store was opened by James Henry Cook in Corporation Street, Birmingham in 1898.

Originally called the Vegetarian Food Depot it's name was quickly changed to Pitman’s Health Food Store after a customer enquiry of Mr Cook as to which foods would help her particular medical condition and he suddenly realised he was selling foods for health.  The building, which still stands, also housed a seven storey vegetarian hotel and vegetarian restaurant and was named after Sir Isaac Pitman, whose shorthand system has also stood the test of time and who was a notable vegetarian of the time.

There followed many more health food stores, initially in the cities and then the major towns, during the early 1900s.  Not least in London where the pioneer names Eustace Miles, William G Orr and Edgar Saxon opened health food stores in Chandos Street, Ludgate Hill and Wigmore Street respectively.  Shearns of Tottenham Court Road was a veritable health food mecca.  The Martin family opened the Savoy Health Store in Nottingham which was to pass through three generations of the same family.

The Roaring 20s

William Orr had expanded to four shops, his others being in the UK capitals of Belfast, Cardiff and Glasgow.  By 1925 there were a few hundred health food stores in the UK.  More were added steadily throughout the next decades.

In 1920 Samuel Ryder started Heath and Heather: The Herb Specialists in St Albans.  His name will long be remembered since it was he who presented the Ryder Cup golfing trophy.  From one shop in St Albans his family business expanded to no less than 45 health food stores by the 1960s. The Heath and Heather chain was eventually bought out in 1968 and merged with some 30 Realfood shops which  were re-named Holland & Barrett.  Today the company has 500 health food shops in most towns.

The National Association of Health Stores was formed in 1931 and it advertised its members shops for the first time. The message which went with the list said ‘Health Stores have for many years been advocating and facilitating the adoption of a vital natural diet.  By purchasing your supplies from any of the undermentioned Establishments, you will not only be assured of obtaining foodstuffs of guaranteed quality, purity and integrity, but you will be helping to support the much needed educational work which they, hand in hand with the great pioneers of Natural Therapeutics, are doing to eradicate disease, and to inaugurate an era of universal health and happiness’. The message is still as valid today.

During the war and the continuing rationing period health stores had a particular edge.  For they were a source of veggie protein sustenance on which the nation’s vegetarians could rely.  Despite the shipping casualties most stores enjoyed a smooth supply of nuts and nutmeat products.

Swinging Sixties

The 1960s witnessed dynamic growth in health foods and the number of stores increased to over 2000 along with health food departments in the most prestigious department stores of the time – not least Harrods and Selfridges.

Though this boom in interest in health foods led to some big companies setting up shop it was still dominated by an individual entrepreneurs, many with the same altruistic ideals of those early pioneers set on, what would be described today as ‘eating for health’ and reversing disease by natural methods.

The success of the health food store message through the latter part of the 20th century also captured the interest of the major food and pharmacy retailers. Despite these challenges the independent health food store continues to thrive as a result of its ability to adapt and to lead, its infinitely wider range of healthy merchandise and, not least, the expert advice it is able to freely offer to its customers.

In 1998 a permanent plaque was unveiled on the listed Pitman building, the site of the first British health food store by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham acknowledging James Henry Cook’s foresight and his coining the ‘health food store’ name.

Written by Ray Hill - Fellow Health Food Institute  and Honorary Member National Institute of Medical Herbalists

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