Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co - Kandy - 1920s
Ward St, Kandy.
Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co (nicknamed 'Right-away & Paid-for' because it operated on cash payments only, no credit) was 'the' colonial emporium or department store in British India and became a household name throughout the East. It was founded in Calcutta by two eponymous Scotsmen in 1882 and it grew to have branches in Bombay, Madras, Lahore and Simla as well as further afield in Burma, the Straits Settlements and in Shanghai. My photo of the Calcutta head office is at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/3030463591/ .
It was a relative latecomer to Ceylon's retail landscape which had its own colonial emporium Cargills & Co (established in Kandy in 1844) - see my photo at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/8269336688 and Miller & Co (also established in Kandy in the 1850s) - see my photo at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/8447304573 .
Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co - Kandy - 1920s
Ward St, Kandy.
Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co (nicknamed 'Right-away & Paid-for' because it operated on cash payments only, no credit) was 'the' colonial emporium or department store in British India and became a household name throughout the East. It was founded in Calcutta by two eponymous Scotsmen in 1882 and it grew to have branches in Bombay, Madras, Lahore and Simla as well as further afield in Burma, the Straits Settlements and in Shanghai. My photo of the Calcutta head office is at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/3030463591/ .
It was a relative latecomer to Ceylon's retail landscape which had its own colonial emporium Cargills & Co (established in Kandy in 1844) - see my photo at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/8269336688 and Miller & Co (also established in Kandy in the 1850s) - see my photo at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/8447304573 .