Higginbothams book store

 

Higginbotham's is an Indian bookstore chain and publisher based in the city of Chennai. The company's first bookstore at Mount Road, Chennai is India's oldest bookshop still in existence, founded in 1844. 

An English librarian named Abel Joshua Higginbotham reportedly arrived in India as a British stowaway. The captain of the ship ejected him from the ship at Madras port, after he was discovered on board

In the 1840s, he found employment as a librarian with a bookstore named Wesleyan Book Shop run by Protestant missionaries. However, the store suffered heavy losses and the missionaries who ran the business decided to sell their shop for a low price. Higginbotham purchased the business, set up his own store and called it "Higginbotham's" in the year 1844.

Customers included British Prime Minister Clement Attlee (in office 1945-1951) to the last Maharaja of Mysore, Jayachamaraja Wodeyar. 

 From 1890 to 1920, Higginbotham's were the sole suppliers to the Connemara Public Library

Abel Joshua Higginbotham served as the Sheriff of Madras in 1888 and 1889.

As business grew, the firm found a new MD in Abel’s son, C.H. Higginbotham, who expanded the firm beyond the city by establishing outlets in railway stations across South India, 

Since 1949, Higginbotham's has been owned by the Amalgamations Group