Why Wilson's?

We regularly get asked why the restaurant is called Wilson’s…it’s because that’s sort of what it’s always been called…

For years, we looked over from Oscar’s across the road at a barely visible etched stone sign above the shopfront that read “A. Wilson”.  Long before we had any inkling we might one day open a restaurant there, we tended to refer to it as the Wilson’s site although we had no idea what it was or who “A. Wilson” might have been.

Some years ago, we spent some time researching the old shops and businesses on Ladywell’s high street out of curiosity, hoping maybe to find something about Oscar’s.  It was lockdown number three and we had time on our hands!

Turns out, the 1918 London Directory lists the occupant and trade of every property on the street, and provides a fascinating window into Ladywell village over 100 years ago.  Judging by the listings, it really must have felt like a proper little village!

The list above starts at the corner of Gillian Street, where Thresher & Co (wine and spirit merchants) once occupied the building now home to the chicken shop.  Next came a stationer, a fancy draper (no idea!), and Longstaff & Co, a grocer, who took up the double-fronted space now owned by Dexter’s

Keep going and you’ll learn that Donnelley’s Barbers was once an underclothing manufacturer before eventually you get to Arthur Wilson, bootmaker!

So, A Wilson was in fact Arthur Wilson and the faded sign we spent so many years squinting at was his, dating back over a century.  Once we knew that, the name was a no-brainer.  Wilson’s it was!