Frequently asked questions: Sainsbury Archive

For more information on Sainsbury's history and images from the archive, visit our Collections Online website, 'Story of a Supermarket'.

Why are the archives of Sainsbury’s at Docklands, rather than the company’s head office?

In recent years, several businesses have formed charitable trusts to own and manage their historic archives, as a cost-effective way to safeguard this heritage for the future. In April 2003, the Sainsbury Archive was established as an independent charity fully supported by the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust and J Sainsbury Plc.

The archive has now moved to the Museum in Docklands on long-term loan, where it is housed alongside the Port of London Authority and Museum’s Port and River Archives. The Sainsbury Study Centre is designed to provide public access to all these collections, opening up their learning and research possibilities to new audiences.

Sainsbury’s is a company with strong London roots and a long association with the Docklands area – in 1881 John James Sainsbury established a shop in Watney Street Stepney, selling to a customer base of East End dockers.

Sainsbury’s started out as a fresh provisions store and while much of its stock came from UK farms, butter, cheese, eggs, poultry and meat were also imported. Other grocery goods were sold from 1903 and came through the docks from all over the world – depot and branch records from the archives complete the story of their journey from source to shelf.

I believe that my ancestor worked for Sainsbury’s – do the archives include staff records?

Many thousands of people have worked in Sainsbury’s head office, branches, factories, depots and staff hostels over the years. Although not comprehensive, the Sainsbury Archive includes numerous records of individual staff, dating from the 1880s onwards.

Potential sources for family history research include: Staff registers and record cards, the Sainsbury’s staff magazine ‘JS Journal’, records of sports and social activities including the Sainsbury’s Staff Association (SSA) and Griffin sports club, the ‘Roll of Honour’ and World War II service details, records of long service dinners and staff Veterans, oral history interview transcripts and written reminiscences and photographs.

Few of these records are fully indexed, so any existing information that can be provided (e.g. dates of service or geographical location), will narrow down the list of relevant sources and so speed up the search process. Please note that in some cases it may not be possible to gain access to certain records as they are subject to the Data Protection Act.

In addition to these sources, the archive contains a wealth of general information on recruitment, training, duties and working conditions, salary levels, pensions and welfare, and social activities, all of which can help to build up a fuller picture of your ancestor’s time at Sainsbury’s.

I’m doing a project on the history of my local area – is there anything in the Sainsbury Archive that might be useful for this?

Quite possibly – one of the main sources for local history is our series of ‘branch files’, which usually include photographs, press releases and promotional material relating to local stores.

The files often also include images and information on the areas surrounding the stores, such as general high street / town centre views and town planning material. From 1946, Sainsbury’s in-house magazine ‘JS Journal’ features articles on the history of Sainsbury’s in different localities. For information on store, warehouse and factory premises, the archives’ early rent and rates registers are a particularly useful source, and detailed plans and drawings are available for some buildings.