WardDrayton2 at 09:01, 26 March 2026

2026-03-26T09:01:54Z

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{{Short description|Indian publisher and bookseller}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Higginbotham's
| logo = Higginbotham's Logo.png
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| image = Higginbothams.jpg
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| image_caption = The first Higginbotham's store in [[Anna Salai]], [[Chennai]].
| former_name =
| type = Private
| industry =
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| founded = [[Madras]], [[Madras Presidency]], [[British India]] ({{Start date and age|df=yes|1844}})
| founder = Abel Joshua Higginbotham
| hq_location =
| hq_location_city = [[Chennai]], [[Tamil Nadu]]
| hq_location_country = India
| num_locations = 22
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| area_served = [[South India]]
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| parent = [[Amalgamations Group]]
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}}

'''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,<ref name="retailing_management">{{cite book | title=Retailing Management: Text and Cases| last=Pradhan| first=Swapna| year=2007| pages=39| publisher=Tata McGraw-Hill| id={{ISBN|0070620202}}, {{ISBN|978-0-07-062020-9}}}}</ref><ref name="madrasrediscoveredp81">[[#Madras Rediscovered|Madras Rediscovered]], Pg 81</ref> founded in 1844. The company's second bookstore in [[Bangalore]], located at M. G. Road, opened in 1905 and is the oldest existing bookstore in the city. Since 1949, Higginbotham's has been owned by the [[Amalgamations Group]]. In the late 19th century, the company published books under the name '''Higginbotham & Co.'''

== History ==


An English librarian named Abel Joshua Higginbotham established Higginbotham's after reportedly arriving 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.<ref name="tribune_ref_1">{{cite news | last=Khan | first=A. D. L. | title= Much more than a bookstore | date=23 October 2005 | url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20051023/spectrum/main2.htm | work =The Tribune:Spectrum | access-date = 2008-10-20}}</ref><ref name="thehindu_ref_1">{{cite news | last=Muthiah | first=S. | title= Printer's ink on Mount Road | date=13 August 2003 | url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/08/13/stories/2003081300140300.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031029004543/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/08/13/stories/2003081300140300.htm | url-status=usurped | archive-date=29 October 2003 | work =The Hindu:Metro Plus | access-date = 2008-10-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Higginbothams story: How a sea cadet from Kerala set up India’s oldest book chain in 1844|url=https://scroll.in/magazine/883493/the-higginbothams-story-how-a-sea-cadet-from-kerala-set-up-indias-oldest-book-chain-in-1844|last=Kumar|first=Anu|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-10}}</ref> In the 1840s, he found employment as a librarian with a bookstore named Wesleyan Book Shop run by Protestant missionaries.<ref name="tribune_ref_1" /><ref name="thehindu_ref_1" /> 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.<ref name="tribune_ref_1" /> Higginbotham's is, therefore, India's oldest bookstore in existence.<ref name="tribune_ref_1" /> It soon gained a reputation for quality. John Murray, in his ''Guidebook to the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay'' in 1859, describes Higginbotham's as the "premier bookshop of Madras".<ref name="newstoday_ref_1" /> In March 1859, in a letter to [[Lord Macaulay]], [[Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet|Lord Trevelyan]], the Governor of Madras wrote:

{{blockquote|Among the many elusive and indescribable charms of life in Madras City, is the existence of my favourite book shop 'Higginbotham's' on Mount Road. In this bookshop I can see beautiful editions of the works of Socrates, Plato, Euripides, Aristophanes, Pindar, Horace, Petrarch, Tasso, Camoyens, Calderon and Racine. I can get the latest editions of Victor Hugo, the great French novelist. Amongst the German writers, I can have Schiller and Goethe. Altogether a delightful place for the casual browser and a serious book lover.<ref name="newstoday_ref_1" />}}

Higginbotham's started selling stationery<ref name="thehindu_ref_1" /> and also publishing and printing their own books from the 1860s onwards.<ref name="newstoday_ref_1">{{cite news|last=Sundaram |first=V. |title=Deathless 'Humanity in Print' in South India |date=13 August 2003 |url=http://newstodaynet.com/2005sud/05sep/ss13.htm |work=News Today |access-date=2008-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080616064321/http://www.newstodaynet.com/2005sud/05sep/ss13.htm |archive-date=16 June 2008 |url-status=dead }}
</ref> When the British Crown took over the governance of India from the British East India Company by the Queen's Proclamation of 1858, Higginbotham's printed copies of the Proclamation in English and Tamil and distributed them all over the Presidency.<ref name="newstoday_ref_1" /> Higginbotham's were appointed as the "official booksellers to [[Edward VII|His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales]]" during the latter's visit to India in 1875.<ref name="tribune_ref_1" /> Its first publication ‘Sweet Dishes: A little Treatise on Confectionary' by Wyvern, came out in 1884.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article2630077.ece | location=Chennai, India | work=The Hindu | first=Anusha | last=Parthasarathy | title=Survivors of Time: Higginbothams | date=2011-11-15}}</ref> Higginbotham's became official book-supplier to government and to various institutions, with different customers from British Prime Minister [[Clement Attlee]] (in office 1945–1951) to the last Maharaja of [[Mysore]], [[Jayachamaraja Wodeyar]]. Abel Joshua Higginbotham served as the [[Sheriff]] of Madras in 1888 and 1889.<ref name="tribune_ref_1" /><ref name="thehindu_ref_1" /> From 1890 to 1920, Higginbotham's were the sole suppliers to the [[Connemara Public Library]].<ref name="newstoday_ref_1" /> James Higgs, who was the managing director from 1890 onwards, was a prominent [[Freemason]] who had previously served as the Grand Deacon of England and the Deputy District Grand Master of Master.<ref name="freemasons">{{cite book | title=Representative British Freemasons| year=2003| pages=198| publisher=Kessinger Publishing| id={{ISBN|0766135896}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7661-3589-5}}}}</ref>

Higginbotham's was renamed Higginbotham & Co in 1888. Abel was Sheriff of Madras during 1888 and 1889. During this period, he involved his son C. H. Higginbotham in the business.<ref name="thehindu_ref_1" /> On Abel's death in 1891, the firm passed on to the hands of his son C. H. Higginbotham.<ref name="tribune_ref_1" /> C. H. expanded the business beyond Madras, and across South India.<ref name="thehindu_ref_1" /> Since 1944, Higginbotham bookstalls were established in many railway stations on the South Indian Railway and the Southern Mahratta Railway.<ref name="thehindu_ref_1" /> In 1904, the company's diamond jubilee year, the bookstore shifted to its current location on Mount Road. The new bookstore was specifically built for the firm, and designed to house books. Its high, sloping roof provided improved air circulation, and very few windows were built to prevent dust from entering.<ref name="tribune_ref_1" /><ref name="thehindu_ref_1" /><ref>{{cite web|last1=Parthasarathy|first1=Anusha|title=Survivors of Time: Higginbothams|url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/survivors-of-time-higginbothams/article2630077.ece|website=The Hindu|access-date=28 February 2017|language=en}}</ref> In 1929, Higginbotham's had as many as 400 employees.<ref name="tribune_ref_1" />

[[File:Doha 001 (1).jpg|right|thumb|250px|Higginbotham's store inside the Anna international terminal, [[Chennai Airport]]]]

Higginbotham's opened its first bookstore in Bangalore at M.G. Road (then known as South Parade) in 1905. The store was located in a two-storey Graeco-Roman-style building constructed in 1897.<ref name="Quartz1"/> This is the oldest bookstore in existence in the city.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bengaluru's oldest bookstore Higginbothams gets a makeover, but retains old world charm|url=http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/bengaluru-s-oldest-bookstore-higginbothams-gets-makeover-retains-old-world-charm-57860|website=The News Minute|access-date=28 February 2017|date=28 February 2017}}</ref>

In 1925, John Oakshott Robinson of the Spencer's conglomerate purchased Higginbotham's, and merged the company with his printing firm Associated Printers, to establish Associated Publishers.<ref name="Quartz1">{{cite web|last1=Thomas|first1=Maria|title=Higginbothams, the oldest bookshop in the home of Flipkart, gets a colourful makeover|url=https://qz.com/919391/higginbothams-the-oldest-bookshop-in-the-home-of-flipkart-gets-a-colourful-makeover/|website=Quartz|access-date=28 February 2017}}</ref> Associated Publishers was acquired by [[S. Anantharamakrishnan]] of Amalgamations Group in 1945, and has remained a part of the conglomerate ever since.<ref name="thehindu_ref_1" /> Some of Higginbotham's famous customers included [[Clement Attlee]], [[Chakravarti Rajagopalachari]] and [[S. Radhakrishnan]]. [[William Miller (missionary)|Rev. Miller]], a pioneer of the [[Madras Christian College]], was another regular at Higginbotham's.<ref name="newstoday_ref_1" />

Higginbotham's was the largest bookstore in India until the 1990s.<ref name="tribune_ref_1" /><ref name="retailing_management" /> In 1989, renovations helped restore the original look to the Mount Road building.<ref name="thehindu_ref_1" />

In mid-2015, the Bangalore bookstore was closed for renovations to revamp its interiors. The store was re-opened in February 2017.<ref name="Quartz1"/>

==Branches==
Higginbothams has a chain of 22 outlets spread across the [[South India]]n states of [[Tamil Nadu]], [[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Karnataka]] and [[Kerala]].<ref name="retailing_management" />

==See also==
{{Portal|India|Literature}}
* [[Heritage structures in Chennai]]
* [[A H Wheeler & Co]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | title=Madras Rediscovered| last=Muthiah| first=S.| year=2004| publisher=East West Books (Madras) Pvt Ltd| isbn=81-88661-24-4|ref=Madras Rediscovered}}

{{coord|13.0652|N|80.2664|E|source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:IN|display=title}}
{{Chennai topics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Bookstores of India]]
[[Category:Book publishing companies of India]]
[[Category:Publishing companies established in 1844]]
[[Category:Retail companies established in 1844]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Chennai]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Bengaluru]]
[[Category:Heritage sites in Chennai]]
[[Category:Indian companies established in 1844]]

Higginbotham's - Revision history

WardDrayton2 at 09:01, 26 March 2026