Finnigans

1830

Finnigans of London, Manchester & Liverpool, are ranked amongst one of the finest of English luggage manufacturers. They were one of the finest leather goods makers as well as a successful luxury goods retailer, manufacturing and producing a wide range of luxury products, including trunks, bags, fashion, jewellery, timepieces and silverware.
Finnigan was founded by Benjamin Finnigan (trading as Brian B Finnigan) around the 1830's, although he first apprenticed to a sailing partner of his father's, Reuben Farrel. The pair made leather goods in Liverpool, especially bags and trunks as they were particularly adapted to the long and tedious journeys of that time.
As Manchester developed into a prosperous city with the boom of the cotton industry both Farrel and Finnigan moved there with Finnigan opening his own workshop in Newton Street Mill and a Finnigans shop in Market Street, then Manchester most fashionable area. He soon became famous for his high quality dressing cases, travelling trunks, leather goods and saddlery.
Benjamin Finnigan died in 1868 and was succeeded by his son William Finnigan, who embodied the second generation of the family's firm. In 1879, William opened a Finnigans shop at New Bond Street, London, interestingly opposite to Asprey, another Luxury retail firm.
At this time they also diverged and started selling clocks, watches, and silverware.
The business continued to be run by succeeding generations of the Finnigan family and in the 1950's they moved their Manchester store to Wilmslow and in 1968 closed its New Bond Street store in London. It continued to run

Finnigans of London, Manchester & Liverpool, are ranked amongst one of the finest of English luggage manufacturers. They were one of the finest leather goods makers as well as a successful luxury goods retailer, manufacturing and producing a wide range of luxury products, including trunks, bags, fashion, jewellery, timepieces and silverware.
Finnigan was founded by Benjamin Finnigan (trading as Brian B Finnigan) around the 1830's, although he first apprenticed to a sailing partner of his father's, Reuben Farrel. The pair made leather goods in Liverpool, especially bags and trunks as they were particularly adapted to the long and tedious journeys of that time.
As Manchester developed into a prosperous city with the boom of the cotton industry both Farrel and Finnigan moved there with Finnigan opening his own workshop in Newton Street Mill and a Finnigans shop in Market Street, then Manchester most fashionable area. He soon became famous for his high quality dressing cases, travelling trunks, leather goods and saddlery.
Benjamin Finnigan died in 1868 and was succeeded by his son William Finnigan, who embodied the second generation of the family's firm. In 1879, William opened a Finnigans shop at New Bond Street, London, interestingly opposite to Asprey, another Luxury retail firm.
At this time they also diverged and started selling clocks, watches, and silverware.
The business continued to be run by succeeding generations of the Finnigan family and in the 1950's they moved their Manchester store to Wilmslow and in 1968 closed its New Bond Street store in London. It continued to run

as a family business until it shut down its last store in 1988. The family were bought out around this time by a company called Hoopers.

Finnigan relentlessly innovated to adapt its travel goods to the new means of transportation from the railway to the automobile, and later air travel. The name "FINNIGANS" can invariably be found embossed three or four times on the exterior of their luggage, together with London, Manchester or Liverpool or various combinations of the three locations.

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