Our Artisan Soap Company – From Humble Beginnings

It all started for us way back in the 20th Century, when our founders set out to buy unusual Christmas gifts for various friends and relatives in the shadows of the Nicholas Hawksmoor-designed Christ Church, Spitalfields.

They’d left it rather late to buy Christmas presents that year. The big day was looming and there was a slight sense of panic…

Christmas present shopping options were pretty limited in Whitechapel and Shoreditch back in the 1990s but, fortunately for our founders, they stumbled upon a stall in a very sleepy Old Spitalfields Market, housed in the huge, imposing, grand Victorian structure

ARTISAN SOAP COMPANY – FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

The impoverished area around Old Spitalfields Market was infamous in the Victorian era – characterised by extreme poverty, sub-standard housing, poor sanitation, homelessness, drunkenness, endemic prostitution, dimly lit, foul, crime-ridden, narrow winding streets, alleyways and passageways. Whitechapel & Spitalfields was the- district where Jack The Ripper famously committed his grisly deeds around 1888...

Our protagonists didn’t uncover the true identity of Jack The Ripper or solve the enduring mystery of the Whitechapel murders that day but what they did discover would change their lives forever and mark the beginnings of the soapery business you see today.

Now back to the 1990s. The area around the market had significantly improved since the squalid conditions during Jack The Ripper era but it was still rather undesirable and underdeveloped, not short of vagrants gathering outside the Church and modern day streetwalkers.

It felt like a fool’s folly even attempting to buy gifts in the sparsely populated, largely desolate, indoor market, let alone, unusual gifts. Despite there having been a market on the site since 1638, during the mid 1990s, the market had hit hard times after the relocation of the wholesale fruit and vegetable market to a new home in Leyton, East London.

There were very few stalls dotted around the huge, near empty covered market hall in the gargantuan but as it turned out, our founders were certainly in the right place at the right time…

One market stall tucked away in a far corner stood out – the stall featuring handmade soaps. Initially, attracted by the commotion surrounding the soap stall, our founders approached with growing excitement, overwhelmed with the delectable fragrance of the natural soap and artisan soap wares, the aesthetic appearance of the natural soap loaves, artisan soap slices and natural soap gift boxes.

The heady scent that filled the air, the hustle bustle of the traders vigorously chopping natural soap slices off the block as people scrambled to buy natural soaps, the clamour of the partisans as they interacted with the market stall holders and each other, the beautiful soaps with their different designs and the kaleidoscope of colour, made it a very stimulating sensory experience.

It was hard to resist the urge to buy soaps that day… and it was here our protagonists chose to buy natural soaps carved off the block for the very first time. The rest, as they say, is history.

It transpires that the decision to buy handmade natural soap that day would trigger a passion for artisanal soaps and natural soaps and it would be the first step in establishing a soapery business of our own.

There is a striking parallel between our own growth as a soapery business and the development of the market itself. Over the course of the 20th Century, Old Spitalfields Market has earned a reputation as one of London’s leading markets, renowned as a trendy, buzzing shopping destination with a thriving atmosphere.

Now, back to where it all began… Our protagonists bought ten gift boxes of soap purely for their enchanting looks and fabulous scents. Interestingly, adherence to rules and regulations were slack back then, certainly in a market.

There was no detail available at the stall regarding the soap ingredients, the packaging amounted to nothing more than plain kraft board boxes and plastic bags. There was limited signage and buyers had to largely guess what the soaps were by their look and smell. A list of soap ingredients was not even included in the boxes and legislation was largely ignored.

We advised the recipients of our soap gifts that we couldn’t tell them what was in the soaps and asked them to proceed with caution by testing the soaps on a small area of the back of the hand before proper use. Fortunately, we had nothing but positive feedback for our soap gifts.

It wasn’t long before we launched our own soapery enterprise in earnest. Our mission was simple: to create a shop where people could buy the best natural soaps and artisan soaps - to feature well-packaged, high quality soap gifts at reasonable prices.

We started selling face to face with our own artisan and natural soap stall artisan markets, school events, country fairs, Summer fetes and Christmas markets.

Not only did we develop a growing passion for artisan and natural soaps, we received such a warm reception that it seemed only natural for us to create an online store where we could spread the word to more people so they could buy natural soap or purchase artisan soaps online. And here we are!

We can’t replicate the grandeur of a Victorian market building or the chaos and excitement of a busy market stall while selling soaps online but what we have done is create a soapery online shop where you can buy artisan soaps and natural soaps online at your own convenience.

Sadly, you won’t get to sample the beautiful fragrances through your screen, you can’t handle or test the soaps and you have to rely on photos and written descriptions to get a feel for the soap products we offer but you can rest assured our soaps are tremendous. You can relax and browse our soaps, bathroom and home products at your leisure.

No hassle, no trudging around, no rush, no hectic crowds and no queues – just great natural soaps to buy in your own time.

Please browse the virtual shelves of our soapery. We’re sure you’ll be as impressed with our soapery products as we were that fateful day we decided to buy artisan soaps and natural soaps what seems like a century ago...