Howards and Sons

Howards and Sons was a pharmaceutical business established in 1797 by Quaker chemists William Allen and Luke Howard under the name 'Allen & Howard'. The business consisted of a dispensing pharmacy in Plough Court managed by Allen and a laboratory in Plaistow, Essex managed by Howard. Allen and Howard amicably dissolved their business in 1805 with each keeping their respective sections.

As Howard's chemical manufacturing business grew, new premises were needed and he shifted the laboratory to City Mills, Stratford where it flourished over the 19th century becoming Howards and Sons in 1858. It was under this title that it became a well-known supplier of quinine and aspirin.

Notable partners include John Eliot Howard, son of Luke Howard, who became a specialist in cinchona bark identification and quinine-related research, and Joseph Jewell (1763–1846).

Manufacture of chemicals ceased in 1975.

The business-related archives are located at the London Metropolitan Archives, Redbridge Heritage Centre and John Eliot Howard's cinchona archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.