Floris London: How a Jermyn Street Comb Maker Became a Perfumer

Floris sells perfume from a listed building in St James's, under a royal coat of arms, and the press has called it Britain's oldest perfumer. Its first royal title, though, was for combs. This chapter of our check of the oldest perfume houses sets the house's story beside the public record.

When was Floris founded?

In 1730, according to the house, although no record from that year appears in any source we read. The Floris house history says Juan Famenias Floris and his wife, Elizabeth, "began selling perfume, combs and shaving products" in St James's that year. The shop they opened at 89 Jermyn Street, it adds, is still run by their descendants.

The founder came from Menorca, says the house's own text in the Royal Warrant Holders Association (RWHA) directory, which spells the island Minorca. The Rake's 2018 profile of Floris tells the start differently: he founded the company "initially as a barber and comb-maker", then found a better market for his scents.

Both accounts come from the family: The Rake interviewed the ninth-generation head of the firm, and neither text cites a document from 1730. By our arithmetic, Floris turns 296 in 2026 if the house's date holds, and the earliest independent record we found, from 1799, comes 69 years later.

What was Floris's first royal warrant for?

Combs. The house dates its first royal warrant to 1820 and prints the title in its history:

Smooth-pointed comb maker to HM King George IV

Floris London, house history, entry for 1820

The house's page on its royal warrants gives the same year and calls Floris the king's "Smooth Pointed Comb Makers". Finely made combs were a Floris specialty at the time, the history says, along with toothbrushes and mouthwashes for an elite clientele.

The title names the trade the king's household bought, not everything on the shop's shelves. No Floris comb of the period appears in our sources, so the combs in our pictures are open-access museum pieces, such as an early 19th-century tortoiseshell comb at The Met, not the house's own.

What is a royal warrant?

It is a mark of recognition for a regular supplier to the Royal Household, not an award for a product. The royal family's website defines it this way:

...a mark of recognition to people or companies who have regularly supplied goods or services to the Royal Household.

The Royal Household, "Royal warrants", royal.uk

A warrant is first granted for up to five years to a named person at the company, says the royal family's page on warrants. It gives the holder "nothing more than a right to display the Royal Arms", with no claim to exclusive supply, and every warrant is reviewed in the year before it expires. The page counts more than 800 holders today. A comb maker was in good company: the same page notes that the Royal Kalendar of 1789 listed a Pin Maker, a Mole Taker, a Card Maker and a Rat Catcher among the court's tradesmen.

The sources differ on one rule: Floris's explainer asks for at least five consecutive years of supply, the royal page for five years out of seven, including the 12 months before applying. The Royal Household runs the scheme, so its page is the stronger source.

When did Floris become a perfumer?

On paper, by 1855 at the latest. The National Archives catalogues a will of 2 July 1855 for John Floris, "Perfumer of Jermyn Street", 35 years after the comb warrant (our arithmetic). The house's royal history page claims an earlier perfume, Bouquet de La Reine, gifted to Queen Victoria on her wedding day in 1840. Since the house says perfume was on its shelves from 1730, the change may lie more in the records than in the shop.

The warrants followed the same turn. The RWHA's directory record for Floris, archived in 2016, lists two: Perfumers to Queen Elizabeth II, granted in 1971, and Manufacturers of Toilet Preparations to the Prince of Wales, granted in 1984. The house says King Charles III granted it a warrant under that second title in 2023, and that toilet preparations cover fine fragrance, skincare and grooming products.

Is Floris the oldest perfume house in London?

It may be, but the title is a press label, not a record. The Rake called Floris "Britain's oldest perfumer" in 2018, reasoning from the 1730 founding date. Country Life's February 2026 visit to the shop chose a safer phrase, "one of London's oldest perfumers", while the house's warrant page calls Floris "Britain's oldest fragrance retailer".

We found no register or official body that ranks perfume houses by age. Every version of the claim rests on 1730, and that date comes from the house alone. The earliest independent record we found puts Floris on Jermyn Street in 1799; the first period document we found that calls a Floris a perfumer is from 1855.

Our verdict: unproven. Floris may well be London's oldest perfume house, but the paper trail we could check is younger than the story. Founding dates get the same test in our articles on Farina and the first eau de Cologne, Santa Maria Novella's two birth years and Guerlain's Eau de Cologne Impériale.

Who owns Floris today?

Most likely the founders' family: the house says their descendants still run it, and Companies House points the same way. Companies House's record for J.Floris Limited shows an active private company, incorporated on 31 March 1948 and registered at 89 Jermyn Street. Its registered business is the retail sale of cosmetic and toilet articles.

Since 19 January 2018, the company's register of persons with significant control has named Floris of London Holdings Limited, with 75 percent or more of the shares and votes. The holding company's own register lists a single individual with 75 percent or more, under the surname Bodenham.

That name leads back to the founders. The house history says Mary Anne Floris married James R. D. Bodenham, and that the couple took over the business from her brother Joseph in 1878. It describes its perfumery director in 2018 as a ninth-generation family member. Companies House itself warns that it does not check the accuracy of what companies file.

Where is the Floris shop?

At 89 Jermyn Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6JH, which is also the company's registered office. Historic England's list entry for the building describes a terrace house of about 1675, rebuilt in the early 19th century and listed at Grade II on 4 October 1974. Its early 19th-century shop front sits under a fascia topped by a coat of arms.

Public records tell a more complicated story. The Survey of London's chapter on Jermyn Street, published in 1960 from the parish ratebooks and Post Office directories, places Floris at No. 88 from 1799 to 1851 and at No. 89 since 1810. No. 88 had been home to Isaac Newton from 1696 to 1700, the chapter adds.

On the address, the Survey is the stronger source: it cites the records, while the house's 1730 shop at No. 89 rests on its own telling. The Survey does not say where Floris traded before 1799.

The Great Exhibition story comes in three versions. The house says its Spanish mahogany cabinets were bought at the exhibition and files the purchase under 1852. Historic England speaks of fittings "from the 1851 Great Exhibition", while the Survey calls them "modelled on an original show-case acquired" there. The two independent sources agree on 1851; we follow the Survey's more careful wording. For the scents on those shelves, our guide to the eight fragrance families is a useful key.