page_title: Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society
section_title: Establishment and growth
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society / Establishment and growth
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the southwestern section of Powis Street in Woolwich, south east London, UK, on a postcard from 1907. The Co-op Central Stores is only half finished.
context_page_description: The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society was a large consumer co-operative based in south east London, England. The co-operative took its name from the Royal Arsenal munitions works in Woolwich and its motto was: "Each for all and all for each". In 1985 it merged into the national Co-operative Wholesale Society.
context_section_description: Co-operative trading had been rooted in Woolwich and the Royal Arsenal since the mid 18th century. In 1868 the Royal Arsenal Supply Association was established by William Rose (1843–1909?) and Alexander McLeod (1832–1902), consisting of 20 workers from the Royal Arsenal. The first base and store was at Rose's house at 11 Eleanor Road (now Barnard Close). In 1869 Rose was laid off at the Arsenal and emigrated to Canada (where his son William Oliver Rose became a well-known politician). McLead took over as secretary and moved the store to Parry Place (Spray Street Quarter). The society adopted the Rochdale Principles of profit-sharing and renamed itself Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society in 1872.
  At first, the store was only open four evenings a week and on Saturday afternoon, but this improved after 1873, when the store moved to larger premises in Powis Street, next but one to the house in which the Woolwich Equitable Building Society had been established in 1842. Membership grew from 232 in 1873 to 1,597 in 1879 and 6,721 in 1889. By that time it was the largest co-operative society in London and the 21st largest (of more than 1500) in the country. According to the social reformer Charles Booth, there was "nothing at all like it within the boundaries of London".
  In the century that followed, the society's activities expanded from food retail into a huge range of commercial, social and political activities. In 1902 it had over 20,000 members. Shops opened up in areas beyond Woolwich and house-building took place beyond the parish boundaries in Abbey Wood and Eltham. In 1924 membership had surpassed 100,000 and in 1938 this number had quadrupled. At its height (circa 1975), membership had reached 500,000 and sales exceeded £60 million. The society had outlets across most of South London and parts of Hampshire, Berkshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
caption: Half-finished Central Stores, Powis Street, Woolwich, 1907
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