London Press Exchange; LPE

History

1892-1969, London

The agency was founded in 1892 by Mr R. J. Sykes, in one room in the Strand, moving to Fleet Street in 1894, then Charing Cross and finally St Martins Lane. It started as a small news agency supplying sports news items to provincial papers. It became a significant agency, under Major George Harrison as MD, for research work and initiating the first scientific large scale readership surveys in the 1930s and in 1936 for 'The Home Market', the first systematic analysis of the UK public as consumers. It was also well-known for Government advertising, especially during WWII. It merged with Leo Burnett in 1969.

See: www.leoburnett.com

Archive Content

Date range: 1929-1969

Scope: There is a significant collection of correspondence with The Times (1930s), Times quarterly advertising figures, national daily newspaper circulation figures and research (1931-35), and background on public information campaigns (WWII). LPE corporate material includes research reports (e.g. political research reports on the Labour Party), planning and campaign material, correspondence and staff magazines.

Formats

Correspondence papers, booklets, leaflets, reports and other LPE publications.

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