The Maison Espérance ('House of Hope'), 'an experiment in Co-operative Dressmaking', was established in London in 1897 by Mary Neal and Emmeline Pethick. The business began with five girls from a working girls' club, but by 1900 it employed twenty… read more
The Maison Espérance ('House of Hope'), 'an experiment in Co-operative Dressmaking', was established in London in 1897 by Mary Neal and Emmeline Pethick. The business began with five girls from a working girls' club, but by 1900 it employed twenty workers. See The Englishwomen's Year Book (1900), p. 100, which gives the address of the business as 155 Great Portland Street. The registered address of the company in September 1902 was 80 Wigmore Street, Portman Square, London, W (PETH 6/43).
