Our History

Harveys was started in the 1920s by Mr Edgar Thomas Harvey in a small unit in Dewsbury and by the 1950s had expanded to another three shops in Halifax, Wakefield and Harrogate.

The Halifax store was opened in 1950 on the site of the old Waddington’s Dress Warehouse on Rawson Street in the town centre and ran as a ladies fashion shop selling clothing and accessories (including a big business in furs!!)

In 1968, the Managing Director Mr Ian Harvey died, and Mrs Harvey Snr and our current Chairman, Mr Roger Harvey, continued to build the business throughout the 1970s and 1980s when the outlying shops were sold in order to concentrate efforts on the Halifax site.

In late 1988 the company purchased the adjacent Tramways building from the council and over a two year period developed this into retail space, which almost doubled the size of the store to 15,000 square feet. The departments then included men’s and ladies fashions, accessories, cosmetics and perfumery, lingerie, household linens and a 143 seat restaurant. Expansion then continued with the opening of a cookshop and gift department in 1993.

Planning permission was then obtained to commence an extension to the rear of the building and the adjacent Sun Alliance building was purchased in 1994 and a complete refurbishment of the store followed. A brand new perfumery and cosmetic hall opened in 1996 and a conservatory extension to the restaurant increased the seating to 170. New top name brands were introduced and Halifax’s first glass sided lift was installed to smoothly convey customers to four floors of quality shopping.

Not content to stand still, 1998 saw the opening of a new lingerie department for which Harveys were finalists in 1999 for the Draper’s Record Lingerie Department of the Year Awards.

November 1999 saw the opening of a small candle and glass shop after acquiring the Abbey National building on Commercial Street, which help boost gift sales until 2003 when, after gaining another shop frontage, Harveys embarked on their most ambitious project to date with the home@harveys development.

home@harveys opened in October 2003 and gives an impressive new entrance to the store. It homes a large cookshop and re-vamped gift and linen departments.

The store now has approximately 30,000 square feet of selling space and there are firm plans for future expansion.

Although Harveys is unrecognisable from the original store, our philosophies remain the same. We are extremely customer focused and enjoy a high reputation for customer care. We are also very pleased to have been awarded the Investors in People award in March 2003.

We aim to offer the best merchandise to meet our customer’s needs in a friendly environment to which they return again and again. We are a focal point in the local community and will always strive for this to continue.

In 2004, Tracy Harvey became our Managing Director. The store remains 100% family owned and run of which we are very proud.