Peek Freans A brief history of Peek, Frean and Company Limited The first Mr Peek was a partner in the firm of Peek Bros., tea merchants in the City of London. His sons, Charles and Edward, refused to join the family business so James Peak decided to set them up in a more congenial business. In the West country, lived George Hender Frean, a miller and ships' biscuit maker who had married one of Peek's nieces. Peek wrote to him explaining he would set up a biscuit factory for his sons if Frean would become manager and partner, he accepted. Sadly Charles left and went to the provinces where he died and Edward gave up business in favour of religion. It became clear the factory needed more technical help and Frean remembered an old schoolfriend John Carr. An unlikely candidate because Carr was a brother of the owners of Carr’s, a major biscuit manufacturer in the North. Whilst he has completed an apprenticeship at his brothers’ firm, he had disliked it and had severed all connections with it. Despite these facts Frean wrote to John Carr inviting him to join the business. Carr was considering the offer when one morning an elderly Quaker lady who was staying with them remarked ‘You have a letter from London in your pocket which will turn out for your good’. Carr’s mind was made up and he joined Peek Frean & Co in 1860. The turn of fortune for John Carr began when he produced his famous Pearl biscuit, this was the pioneer of the modern biscuit. The secret was that he could dispense with the 'docker-holes' the little pinholes one sees in certain biscuits today. The biscuits of those days were unpalatable, indigestible and hard as bricks. The new biscuits swept the country. Carr and Frean introduced machinery. The firm grew. The bakery in Mill Street, Dockhead, became too small. Peek Frean found an area of market gardens in Bermondsey in 1866. The Franco-Prussian war brought them into prominence, 10-11 million fine Navy biscuits were ordered. The old factory in Mill Street was burned down. The sight was so amazing that the Prince of Wales (later King Edward V11) had gone there on a fire engine to see it. In 1902, the introduction of the Pat a Cake biscuit was welcomed to the tune of nearly 3,000 tins in the first week. Celebrated lines invented by Peek Freans were Garibaldi (1861);Marie (1875); the first chocolate coated biscuit Chocolate Table (1899); Golden Puff(1909); Creola then Bourbon (1910); Shortcake (1912); Glaxo (1923) and with the cocktail age, Cheeselets and Twiglets. The company were pioneers in supplying medical, dental and optical services for their work staff. The Peek Frean Club was founded in 1920, its precursors were an athletic club and dramatic society (1908), a musical society (1907) and a cricket club (1868). From October 1904 a house journal called 'The Pickaxe' was given every month to each employee and ceased publication in 1909, but from 1919 to 1937 'The Biscuit Box' linked the 'family' then numbering 3,000 and it was followed by 'P.F. Assorted' to 4,000 employees. The Peek Frean biscuit factory provided Bermondsey and Rotherhithe with a major source of employment until it closed down in 1989. Artefacts held at the Pumphouse Educational Museum: On display 6 foot iced replica of Queen Elizabeth II wedding cake with letter of thanks from Elizabeth 11. 2 Boards Peek Freans Works Committee 1918-1963 / 1964-1971 Enamel tin sign 5x10 foot: by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen, biscuit manufacturers. In the Museum Biscuit moulds for Pat a Cake biscuits, Certificates of Merit: 1900 from General Trades Exhibition and Exposition Internationale, catalogues for biscuits, tins, tie and the badge of the Peek Frean Social Club. The museum has other artefacts not on display