John Carr was an engineer and designed biscuit cutters. It’s where you’ll find the Biscuit Museum today. This became the site of the greatly expanded factory. In 1865 John Carr bought 10 acres of land nearby at Drummond Road, Bermondsey and exchanged it for a stake in the business. These were enormous orders for a family run Bermondsey business. When the siege of Paris ended in January 1871 the French government ordered 11 million sweet, soft “Pearl” biscuits to celebrate. They were dunked in stew/water/beer to soften them. They’ve been around for hundreds of years – long before mass produced canned food became available from the 1820s. These biscuits were hard “ship’s biscuits” which were designed to survive long voyages without going off. In 1870 they landed the sale of 470 tons of biscuits to the French Army for soldiers fighting in the Franco-Prussian war. In 1861 they started exporting biscuits to Australia. John Carr was brought in as the manager in 1860. Ltd was registered in 1857 and based half a mile south east of Tower Bridge.

By chance one of Peek’s nieces had married a ship’s biscuit maker, George Frean. Soon after one son left to go to America, the other died aged 20. He suggested that they started making biscuits. In 1857 James Peek’s grown up sons said that they did not want to join the family tea importing business. was founded as a tea import business in 1821.

His mum and dad worked there in the 1950’s and when he found out that the Geezers would be able to visit the museum it really took the biscuit. Geezers Chair Eddie Snooks, although an East London boy, has always remembered the sweet aroma of the Peek Frean biscuit factory in Bermondsey. Who wouldn’t want to visit a biscuit museum! A Peek Frean’s stylish advertisement, 1903

Peek freans company