This page provides an overview of publishers and publishing developments within the directory industry.
The earliest English directories were published in London where demand for commercial information they contained was greatest.
Limited coverage was given to major cities outside of London. The first provincial directory was James Sketchley’s survey of Birmingham, which appeared in 1763, but few others were published before the 1780s. Early publishers were enterprising individuals with quite varied backgrounds.
Urbanisation and economic growth contributed to a surge in new publications during the 1790s. Publishers, however, continued to be essentially amateurs, drawn into directory compilation from a variety of trades. This diversity of experience reflected the rapid growth of the sector, but also contributed to a high level of business failure. Indeed, 36% of directories published between 1760 and 1800 had only one edition, and this trend intensified during the early nineteenth century.
Only a few firms were able to make a success of publishing national and provincial directories, and they came to dominate the market during the mid-nineteenth century. Among them was James Pigot, a Manchester engraver, whose series of directories ran from 1820 to 1853. His directories generally took the form of a classified list of trades, with a names index only included for the largest towns.
Information for the directories was gathered through personal canvassing by a well-trained body of agents. Indeed some of these agents later went on to produce directories of their own. Pigot produced a new directory in the form of a series of separate regional surveys every six or seven years.
From 1840 he was partnered by Isaac Slater, a fellow Manchester engraver, and the firm was finally taken over by Kelly’s in 1853, although Pigot’s name was retained until 1882.
Whilst Pigot’s business was centred in the north of England, his main rival Frederick Kelly, was based in London. Kelly was chief inspector of inland letter carriers when he bought the rights to Critchett’s London directory in 1835, and was able to use his association with the Post Office to considerable advantage.
Kelly attracted widespread criticism for using Post Office employees to gather information for his London directory and was forced to abandon this practice in 1847. Nevertheless, by the 1850s his directories were pre-eminent in the south of England, and national dominance was assured once he took over the business of Pigot and Slater a few years afterwards.
Kelly’s success was based on the innovative content and formats of his publications. He championed the production of county and provincial directories covering all settlements in a given area. These provided a wealth of information about each place, often including a commercial, street and classified trades section. He also retained the title of Post Office Directory for some time, giving his publications an aura of officialdom.
Although Kelly’s was the largest directory publisher in the late nineteenth century, there were many other substantial firms, some concentrating on regional markets, others attempting a national coverage.
For instance, Wright’s directories (by Christopher Norton Wright) were concentrated in the East Midlands, whilst Mannex and Co. were based in the north-west. Many of these companies were relatively short-lived due to the intensity of the competition, particularly from Kelly’s.
Nonetheless, the period from 1880-1940 saw the largest number of directories published, and the greatest number of firms operating.