Our History


The History of Elizabeth Rose
1979 Elizabeth Rose First Shop
1979
 
Rosemarie, with the help of her mother Irene, opens the first Elizabeth Rose shop in Tenterden selling quality ladies clothing

In 1979, Rosemarie Busby decided to start her own business and opened a beautiful ladies' fashion shop in the market town of Tenterden. The first shop was located at 4 & 6, Ashford Road, and was stocked with a wide variety of fashionable and beautifully styled clothes sourced from all over Europe. Her husband, Chris, started his own chartered accountants business located close by in Tenterden high street, and was a tremendous help to Rosemarie. Her mother Irene relocated from her home town of Henley to help Rosemarie run the new shop, 'Elizabeth Rose'.


1981 Elizabeth Rose Lingerie Shop
1981
 
Rosemarie opens a second Elizabeth Rose shop at 13 East Cross, Tenterden, selling lingerie and accessories

Only two years after starting the business, Rosemarie opened a second Elizabeth Rose shop at 13 East Cross, Tenterden, selling quality ladies' lingerie and beachwear. The shop was cleverly designed to give an intimate feeling of being 'in your own bedroom'. Selling La Perla lingerie, Simone Perele and Lejaby as well as Gottex swimwear, it became lovingly known as 'The Little Shop’.


1985 Elizabeth Rose Tollgate Opening
1985
 
Elizabeth Rose combines its clothing, lingerie and accessories departments under one roof and moves to its new home at Tollgate House, Tenterden

In 1985 Tollgate House came on the market. Rosemarie decided to seize the opportunity of relocating both the clothing shop at 4 & 6 Ashford Road and the lingerie shop at 13 East Cross to create her own emporium selling beautiful clothing, lingerie, swimwear and accessories all under one roof – a true paradise for her discerning clientele! Her name was spreading far and wide and new customers were now travelling some distance to visit her shop.


1994 Drapers Award/Chris Helen Rosemarie 1994 Therapy Room
1994
 
Elizabeth Rose receives Drapers Independent Retailer of the Year award

In 1994 Elizabeth Rose won the Drapers Record Magazine's Independent Retailer in the womenswear category, presented by fashion designer Jeff Banks. It was an extremely prestigious and highly competitive award, with ER going up against some very strong entries from independent fashion shops across the UK.

Rosemarie’s daughter Helen joins the partnership

In 1994, after a career in PR at Visa International, Rosemarie's daughter Helen joined the partnership at Elizabeth Rose and began working in the shop alongside her mother.

The Therapy Room is added to Elizabeth Rose to provide luxury ESPA treatments to the retail experience.

One of Helen’s first ideas was to open a luxury therapy centre so that customers could really experience the ‘top to toe’ service all under one roof! 1994 saw the beginnings of her vision, and the ‘Therapy Room’ at Elizabeth Rose was opened on the second floor of the shop. With the charming and very talented beauty therapist, Julia, offering luxury treatments, customers could be pampered from head to toe, including massages and facials from Espa, manicures from Jessica Nails, and make-up from New York brand Vincent Longo.


1997 Michael Joins Elizabeth Rose
1997
 
Rosemarie’s son Michael joins the partnership

After completing his studies at Manchester University and working for a period of time in France and California for the electronic’s giant, Schlumberger, Rosemarie's son Michael joined the ever-growing Elizabeth Rose business.


1998 Top Buyer Certificate/Chris Rosemarie
1998
 
Rosemarie is nominated, and becomes a finalist, for the Draper’s Record Top Buyer award

This was a highly prestigious award, and after nearly 20 years, Rosemarie's enviable buying talent was being recognised. Considering Rosemarie had not been trained in this field it was an enormous achievement. The award ceremony took place at the Natural History Museum.


2003 Tunbridge Wells Shop
2003
 
The partners of Elizabeth Rose are delighted to open another branch at 7 High Street, Tunbridge Wells

In 2003, after a big building project with the help of Helen's husband Dan, Elizabeth Rose further expanded with a new three story retail unit in the heart of Royal Tunbridge Wells.


2006 Drapers Award
2006
Elizabeth Rose is recognised for the third time by Drapers and wins Best Independent Womenswear Retailer of the Year Award

It was the second time the business had won ‘Best Independent Womenswear Retailer’ in the UK. This award was a fantastic achievement and was especially felt by Michael and Helen, who were now running the business on a day to day basis.

Helen sadly was unable to attend the award ceremony, having just given birth to Charlotte 4 days earlier! However, Michael was supported by some of the Elizabeth Rose staff, and had a fantastic time at the awards which took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. The award was presented by comedian Jimmy Carr.


2008 Elizabeth Rose First Website
2008
 
Elizabeth Rose opens its online store at www.elizabeth-rose.com

With the internet becoming a huge part of the modern retail experience, in 2008 Elizabeth Rose decided to launch a brand new online store, embracing multi-channel retailing.


2009 Rosemarie Retires 2009 ER Celebrates 30 Years
2009
 
Rosemarie retires from the business after 30 years and Elizabeth Rose becomes a limited company with Helen and Michael as directors

After 30 years, Rosemarie decided that it was time to retire and pass the business on to Helen and Michael, giving her more time with her six grandchildren: Harry, Rory, Alice, Isabelle, Tess and Charlotte, and also her husband, Chris, to pursue their love of travel.

Elizabeth Rose celebrates 30 years of business

In 2009 ER celebrated its 30 years in business with a party at the shop, supported by all our customers and suppliers. It has been an extraordinary journey and the innovation of the business continues daily with new opportunities in the world of fashion and technology! During the 30 years we have dedicated our time and ability to host events and fashion shows to raise money for the following charities:

  • Friends of East Sussex Hospices
  • The Kent Air Ambulance
  • The Tenterden Day Centre
  • Hospice in the Weald
  • The Silas Pullen Brain Tumour Charity
  • Save the Children

 


2017 Elizabeth Rose New Web Launch
2017
 
Elizabeth Rose launches its new website using the latest technology to improve ease of use across mobile, desktop and tablet, bringing the business into the digital age

As smartphones and iPads are becoming more and more a household item, we felt it important to improve the look and feel of our website across mobile and handheld devices for the huge proportion of our customer base who are now choosing to shop this way. After Working tirelessly for several months with our talented web developer Robert, we launched the current, 'new-look' elizabeth-rose.com!


2019 ER Celebates 40 Years Logo
2019
 
Celebrating 40 Years of Fabulous Fashion!

A Year full of events, parties, fashion shows and much more to celebrate the 40 year anniversary, supported by all our customers and suppliers. ER continues to flourish in-store and online, selling amazing ladies fashion!

2019 Helen Celebrates 25 Years At ER
Helen celebrates 25 years at Elizabeth Rose

Helen also celebrated her 25 years at Elizabeth Rose in September and Michael kindly organised a surprise tea party at Bottega (a gorgeous italian cafe) next door to us. It was a fabulous event - both current and retired members of our wonderful team came and helped Helen celebrate this very special occasion as well as Rosemarie and Chris, her parents! ‘Has it been that long’ Helen was heard saying in her thank you speech!


2020 ER Shop/Helen from Home 2020 ER New Wesbite
2020
 
The Start of a New Era

January seemed to arrive and the anticipation of the start of a new decade for Elizabeth Rose was so exciting until an unexpected and challenging virus arrived on all of our doorsteps! Sadly the doors to our beautiful shop had to close on Monday 23 March and this was indeed an incredibly emotional day for all of us! Not in our history of 40 years in business had we ever had to close our doors to anything - snow, floods etc but this was something that the world had never seen in 300 years! This virus was going to test the resilience of our wonderful and much treasured shop!

The idea of the ‘Helen from Home’ videos was created and whilst it started off as a means of light entertainment and information on new collections for our customers it turned into a great success and kept us all going! The online shop was a ‘godsend’ to us all so we were able to continue selling all the wonderful collections that were locked behind the doors of Elizabeth Rose, Tenterden for the entire summer season 2020.

Our social media grew and we reached that awesome milestone of 1,000 followers with Live Chats, Helen from Home videos, Michael and Helen raising money for the NHS Together charity by running 5K and the ‘buzz’ of social media helped us to move into different demographics! So there was ‘a silver lining’ to that dark cloud!

The New Elizabeth Rose Website

During this tough year of COVID, we didn't slow down behind the scenes! We took the oppurtunity to re-platform and launch our new website to a better and more user-friendly system, which has been very well received by our customers. After many months of hard work we are thrilled with the result.


2021 ER Wealden Times Event
2021
 
Our Wealden Times Debut

We exhibited for the first time at The Wealden Times Midsummer Fair. We had incredible support from our amazing loyal customers and new faces too, making it such a great success. We showcased an array of fabulous summer fashion accessories that was much-loved and inspired many to try something new. We can't wait for the next one!


2022 ER Jubilee Event
2022
 
The Platinum Jubilee Event

We hosted our first event in over 2 years! A vintage tea party in collaboration with Bottega Montalbano, who served all the delicious Italian patisseries.

We raised an amazing £909.13 for The Queen's Commonwealth Trust, from ticket proceeds and our raffle. We were joined by the beautiful Jane, who modelled all our fab collections through the day.

A massive thank you to all our super supportive customers. Ana and her team at Bottega for the amazing Italian treats. Here's to the next event!!

2022 Michael celebrates 25 years at Elizabeth Rose
Michael celebrates 25 years at Elizabeth Rose

Michael celebrated his 25 years at Elizabeth Rose in August and Helen kindly organised a surprise tea party at The Vine (a gorgeous pub) opposite to us. It was a fabulous event - both current and retired members of our wonderful team came and helped Michael celebrate this very special occasion as well as Rosemarie and Chris, his parents and his wonderful wife, Rebecca!

2022 ER Rosemaries 80th Birthday
Rosemarie's 80th Birthday Celebration

Happy 80th birthday to Michael & Helen’s Mum, Rosemarie. For those of you who remember she opened and ran Elizabeth Rose, she was incredible, formidable with such a sense of style and, wow, did she know how to dress her customers. She built the fabulous business from nothing in 1979 and such a legacy for Michael & Helen.


2023 ER Evening of Style Event
2023
 
The Evening of Style Event

Helen introduced our new amazing event, The Evening of Style!

A fabulous evening with our new stylist Clare, who presents a brilliant and insightful presentation on 'how to style' - talking colour, shapes and personality. With a prosecco and canape reception and late night shopping to follow, it's a great night out!

2023 ER Charitable Donations
Charitable Donations

We were delighted to support “The Big Wrap “ charity again this year. This fantastic charity raises money each year to support local families at Christmas by providing presents for young children. Caroline and her team provide an invaluable service to the local community, at a time that can be very challenging.


2024 3 days of fashion event
2024
 
3 Days Of Fashion Event

We hosted our renowned, seasonal, fashion event!

This season we choose Team Ben Hammond as our charity of choice to support from our raffle. We raised £665 for this wonderful cause and met the lovely family behind it all. Steve & Sheralyn who set up the Team Ben Hammond charity in memory of their son who suddenly died at the age of 15 from an undiagnosed heart condition.

2024 ER Autumn Fashion Event
Autumn Fashion Event

Our 3 day event was back again this Autumn!

We were absolutely delighted to support The Big Wrap charity once again at our Autumn Fashion Event this year. With your generous support, we raised an incredible £440 for this wonderful cause, helping families in need this Christmas. Bringing joy and festive spirit to those who need it most.

2024 Briggit's 25 years at ER
Celebrating Brigitte’s 25 years at Elizabeth Rose

November 2024 we got all the team together to celebrate Brigitte's 25 years at Elizabeth Rose, with a most memorable evening at Boys Hall.

Brigitte’s unwavering dedication to our customers is truly unmatched as she goes above and beyond, showing kindness and care that extends far beyond the shop floor. The friendship and warmth she has shared with the staff over the years has been extraordinary. They all hold her in the highest esteem and she has certainly shaped the heart of Elizabeth Rose.