Ward Lock

Ward Lock & Co was a publishing house in the United Kingdom that started as a partnership and developed until it was eventually absorbed into the publishing combine of Orion Publishing Group.

Ebenezer Ward and George Lock starting a publishing concern in 1854 which became known as "Ward and Lock". Based originally in Fleet Street, London it outgrew its offices and in 1878 moved completely to Salisbury Square, London.

London publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton was obliged (as a result of the financial Panic of 1866) to sell his titles and name to Ward Lock; this gave them the rights to his late wife's Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.

The Red Guides, for which it became renowned, were initially acquired in the early 1880s, as the company bought Shaw’s respected list of tourist guides.

In the 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual (published in November) Arthur Conan Doyle's first detective novel, A Study in Scarlet, was published, introducing the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and chronicler Dr. Watson.

James Bowden came in to the now three way partnership. In 1882 offices were opened in New York, and in 1884 in Melbourne. In the mid-1890s, the company opened an office in Toronto, Canada; however, this was closed in 1919.

In 1964, the business split in two, creating Ward Lock Educational Ltd, which was bought by Cassell Publishing in 1989. By the early 90’s, Cassell was acquired by the current owner, Orion Publishing Group.

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