Edward E Pool and Company , 1891-1964 , meat merchants

Edward Eleazer Pool was born to parents Samuel and Marie Anne Van Cleef Pool in London in 1851 the eldest son (he had four siblings). His parents were from Holland and Samuel was an importer and salesman of Cattle who was granted naturalization in 1854. Samuel remained a cattle dealer until his death on 18 December 1886. Edward must have joined his father in the trade and the first evidence of him trading at Smithfield Meat Market appears in an entry in the London Post Office Directory of 1875 as a meat salesman of 32 Central Avenue. By 1880 he had moved to number 158 and in 1881 the tenancy registers of the market show him renting both 157 and 158 at a weekly rent of nine pounds three shillings and four pence.

The market tenancy registers show a partnership with other meat salesmen, Arthur Curnick and William Godsell Curnick in the later 1880s and early 1890s. In 1891 Edward took over the business of 'Lambert and Sons' at 91 Central Avenue. The business would remain at number 91 until the 1960s. In 1900 the partnership with the Curnicks was dissolved and Edward became the sole tenant of number 91. The trade directories also show that he carried on business at the Foreign Cattle Market in Deptford.

In 1873 Edward Pool married Phoebe Bernstien at the Willis Rooms in King Street, Westminster. The couple had five children. It was under his only son, Gordon Desmond (born 21 April 1882) that the business continued following Edward's death in 1915.

Gordon Desmond can be seen in the market tenancy registers becoming the joint tenant of number 91 with his father in 1911. Gordon continued the business at Smithfield Market, expanding into number 54 and also into trade at 48 and 49 Aldgate Street, an area known informally as 'butchers' row.'

Gordon Desmond had two sons. His eldest Peter was killed in action in the Second World War so the business fell to his youngest son, Edward Gordon (who received a military cross for his part in the Normandy landings sustaining injuries which meant he lost his left foot), he also had three daughters including Phoebe Pool (art historian). Edward Gordon was married four times and it was during his second marriage to the sculptress Elizabeth Frith that he sold the business.

The last entry for the business in the London Post Office Directories is in 1964.