Marchmont St Fishmongers
The fishmonger's shop in Marchmont street was owned and run by Samuel Gordon from around 1881, but both the business and the shop both bore his name until at least 1995. However advertisements list the shop as being established in 1803, well before Samuel Gordon became involved (and many years before his birth).
Long before Samuel Gordon took over, the shop was run as a partnership between a Robert Morgan (born in 1803 to a Samuel Morgan) and Robert Kenneth.
The blank receipt below shows the shop being owned by a Susannah Morgan (I presume Robert's widow?), but the original partnership of "Kenneth & Morgan" is still visible on the upper sign.
[File:MarchmontFishmongers2.jpg|500px|Marchmont Street in 1977]
Receipt heading for Morgan's Fishmongers.
The following details come from David Morgan, descendant of Samuel, as did the 1977 photograph and receipt above.
There is a series of letters from 1854 from Robert Morgan(1803) and Susannah (nee Yolland) to their son, Robert Morgan(1830) who migrated to Australia. They are all written from 36 Marchmont Street up to around 1870. A visit to the Greater London Council in 1977 showed that here have been several re-numberings over the years; #36 in 1854 was the north-east corner of Tavistock Place (now with Cartwright Gardens not Marchmont Street according to Google maps). Robert(1803) was at Edgeware in the 1841 census, but Marchmont Street in 1851. Their youngest child was born at Edgeware in 1846.
Business directories show Kenneth from 1830 to 1848, Kenneth & Morgan from 1849 to 1851, then Robert MORGAN from 1856 to 1861, then Susannah Morgan till1871 with assistance principally from children Thomas and Ellen. The Kenneths were Robert and Sarah Elizabeth nee Yolland, sister of Susannah. The letters give no reason why the partnership broke up. Robert Kenneth moved to 17 Great Coram St, Finsbury by the 1851 census as a "proprietor of coal and iron mines and houses". In 1872 it is Mordin and Larkin, fishmongers.
Robert died in 1864, and Susannah in 1879, at the home of her eldest daughter Elizabeth Tossell, not Marchmont St. Thomas died in 1882, of the Broadway, Ludgate Hill.
Among the letters was a receipt of unknown date, apparently during Susannah's time, though the sign still shows Kenneth and Morgan, attached to this email.
In 1977 we visited London and found the fish shop, and took the second attached picture, where the business name was still Samuel Gordon. This was still the case in 1995, when we visited with our children, but opening hours were limited. In 1975 we spoke to the proprietor, who produced a parchment giving permission from the Guild to operate a fishmonger on the site. We did not record the name of the original owner! On the back, the permission had been signed over to Robert Kenneth, showing that it was the same business. The building was rebuilt around 1900. There are documents in the London Metropolitan Archives on A2A about this, showing ownership as Mrs J Gordon.
Modern directories show that it is no longer a fish shop, but I have no idea what happened to the parchment.
Fishmongers in 1995 - the opening hours were now limited.