zotz | Robert Cresser's

Cresser

Following yesterday's discussion about Robert Cresser's (the famous brush-and-string shop on Victoria Street), we found that they used to have a website at http://www.robertcresserthebrushshop.com, although there's only a placeholder page there now. The Google cache, on the other hand, still has a brief history of the shop.

But in case it should fall out of the cache at any point, I've pasted it in here:

RobertCresser (1846-1940)

Robert Cresser was born into a large family of brush makers in 1846. Here he is picture to the right with his sister Susan and his dog called Ginger. At the age of twelve Robert Cresser began his career in the brush making trade as a halfin and rapidly moved upwards in the trade . In 1873 He decided to renovate the downstairs of their High street house in Edinburgh and turn it into a shop for selling his brushes. This was to be the first Robert Cresser shop and was designed to deliver quality brushes to suit the cleaning needs of the people of Edinburgh. For the first few years business was good and in 1884 it was decide to move to a larger premises in 27 South Bridge. That shop remained their until 1886 when the business moved to 40 Victoria Street where it has remained ever since. Pictured to the right is John Cresser Robert's brother and also a master craftsman brushmaker. With the shops motto of "a brush for every purpose" business boomed churning out brushes of all different varieties. Ranging from deck brushes, mops and scrubbing brushes to brushes needed for cleaning industrial equipment Cresser's manufactured the lot. However brush making wasn't the only interest of the Cresser family and in 1890's Cresser's took up coopering. Barrel making was continued up until Cresser's death in 1946. Although Robert and John were fine craftsmen it was allegedly thought that there sister Susan was the one with the business sense and was deemed to be running those sides of the business. The shop was to end up in her hands after Robert's death and was then to pass it on to her bookkeeper a Mrs A. W. Aithie. Mrs Aithie ran the shop for about 40 years where business was as usual popular to the tourists but still providing for the locals cleaning needs when a good brush is needed for the job. In 1970 Mrs. Aithie unfortunately passed away and the shop was left to her daughter. She had no interest in brushes and therefore decided to sell the shop. So it was up to an ambitious young apprentice Stephen Gilhooly to step in and buy the business. That young apprentice is still the owner today, but it hasn't always been happy times since then and in 1993 the shop actually closed it doors and no brushes ever left its premises for nearly two years. This was due to financial difficulties and it looked as if another remnant of history was going to be consigned to the libraries However all was not lost and in 1996 the doors were reopened to the public. This was due to a partnership formed by Steven Gilhooly and Stanley George, who in turn passed his share in the business to his son Garry Turner. From then on the shop has gone from strength to strength sitting in its location just below the castle in some of the oldest parts of Edinburgh. Today Steven and Garry still run the famous Edinburgh "Brush Shop" Not only are we now on the World Wide Web but we are now also doing the old brush peddling round the doors so watch out for a Cresser van in an area near you soon (only in Scotland).

Presumably the copyright belongs to the owners of the shop. Obviously I don't have the picture it mentions (or I'd find a way to include it), but a few thumbnails from their old site can be found in the Google images cache.