FLORIS: British Perfume History Lives On at 89 Jermyn Street

“We blend our fragrances in London, in the same room where my father and grandfather did.”
— Edward Bodenham, ninth-generation Perfumery Director

Basic Information

Brand name: FLORIS
Official company name: J. Floris Ltd
Established: 1730
Founder: Juan Famenias Floris
Founding location and flagship store: 89 Jermyn Street, St James’s, London
Official website: https://www.florislondon.com/

Floris began as a perfume and grooming shop opened in London’s St James’s district in 1730 by Menorca-born Juan Famenias Floris and his wife Elizabeth. Its original address, 89 Jermyn Street, remains its home, and descendants of the founding family have been involved in its management and fragrance-making for nine generations.

Accounts of Juan’s youth differ slightly from one biography to another. His exact birthday, the year he crossed the sea, and the timing of his marriage and training do not all fit neatly into a single chronology. Even so, the starting point of this house remains unchanged: the couple opened their London shop in 1730.

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

From the Mediterranean to London

Juan’s homeland was Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean. As recounted by ninth-generation family member Edward Bodenham, his path led from work as a barber to training in perfume-making in Montpellier in southern France, and then to London. Details of which school he attended, whom he studied under, and how many years he spent there remain somewhat unclear.

In 1730, Juan and his wife Elizabeth began trading at 89 Jermyn Street in St James’s, close to royal palaces and gentlemen’s clubs. They sold not only perfume but also combs, shaving products, toothbrushes, mouthwash, and other items for the grooming of the upper classes of the day. Floris therefore began less as a “specialist perfume brand” in the modern sense than as a shop encompassing barbering and personal grooming.

Juan’s early creations were strongly marked by clean scent profiles associated with the barber’s shop, such as talc and cologne. At the same time, he sought to recreate scents that recalled his boyhood in Menorca, with Limes often cited as an example. Cherished in the brand’s history as a fragrance dating to 1740, it retains a Mediterranean brightness in its present composition, which layers lemon and petitgrain with lime blossom, neroli, lily of the valley, and musk.

Someone who has left home entrusts the smells of that place to perfume. There is a warmth of that kind in the story of longing for home that Floris conveys today. Yet this is not a personal account that can be traced directly to Juan’s own words; it is also a memory handed down by later generations. Homesickness alone cannot explain the founding of the business, but it offers an important clue to the background of its scents.

A Joint Enterprise with Elizabeth

Telling the brand’s history as Juan’s story alone leaves out Elizabeth’s role. In the family records, she kept the accounts while raising seven children, ordered perfume for the shop, and took over the running of the business after Juan’s death. What emerges from her work is not a supporting figure who was merely the founder’s wife, but a co-manager responsible for keeping the business going.

Juan wrote new formulas by hand in large leather-bound ledgers and also recorded blends for individual customers. The ledgers were kept at 89 Jermyn Street through successive generations and became a foundation for reviving and reinterpreting later fragrances. For Floris, an “archive” is not merely something to display: it remains a practical blueprint for creating new work.

Overseas Sourcing and Robert’s Travels

In the next generation, Robert Floris traveled abroad in search of suppliers of fragrance materials. Edward explains that surviving letters to the family describe negotiations with the Italian perfumer Giovanni Maria Farina over cologne ingredients, learning of a shortage of honey in Marseille and considering supplies from Menorca, and attempts to obtain rose oil and figs from Grasse.

To economize on paper and postage, Robert’s letters used “cross-writing,” in which a written sheet was rotated ninety degrees and further lines written across the existing text. This record of his travels later inspired Neroli Voyage, a fragrance centered on neroli. It is a characteristic example of Floris today translating family history into fragrance rather than simply preserving it unchanged.

Royal Warrants and the Establishment of the Shop

The royal connection did not begin with perfume alone, either. The first Royal Warrant, an appointment as a supplier to the British royal household, listed in Floris’s timeline is the title “Smooth Pointed Comb Maker,” granted by George IV in 1820. In Edward’s interviews, there is also an account of recognition beginning earlier, in 1800, from the then Prince of Wales. Family memories of a connection dating to his years as heir to the throne sit alongside the milestone of recognition by him as king in 1820. Together, they convey the long history of the house and the royal family.

The 1820 coat of arms is still displayed above the shopfront. Spanish mahogany cabinets and glass fittings purchased at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 also remain at 89 Jermyn Street. The shop is not a stage set recreating the past, but a space where layers from different periods have accumulated in a building that has been trading since the eighteenth century.

In 1863, Florence Nightingale, who had returned from the Crimean War, sent a letter of thanks to “Mr Floris” for his “beautiful, sweet-smelling bouquets.” The letter is still displayed in the shop. Edward has also said that she wore Night Scented Jasmine. The thank-you letter does not specify the flowers or name a perfume, but the letter expressing gratitude for the bouquets and the family’s account of her perfume together bring her connection with the shop into view.

From the Floris Family to the Bodenham Family

Mary Anne Floris married James R. D. Bodenham, and in 1878 they took over the business from her brother Joseph. The Bodenham surname enters the management story at this point, but the business was not sold: it passed through marriage within the founding family’s line. That continuity underlies today’s description of the “ninth generation.”

Special No.127 was created in 1890. According to Edward, it was originally made for the Russian Grand Duke Orloff, who was living in exile in Paris, and took its present name from the formula’s entry on page 127 of the bespoke ledger. It is a citrus floral that layers bergamot, orange, lavender, and petitgrain with neroli, rose, geranium, and ylang-ylang, closing with musk and patchouli.

Twentieth-Century Customers and Overseas Expansion

A receipted invoice from December 1934 records Winston Churchill’s purchase of Special No.127 and Stephanotis. Stories about the fragrances of famous people can easily take on a legendary quality, but here is a sheet of paper bearing a date and product names. A figure from great historical events feels closer when seen as a customer choosing perfume.

In 1951, No.89 appeared, named after the shop’s street number. A woody aromatic, it opens with notes including bergamot, lavender, neroli, and nutmeg, moves through rose and geranium, and settles into sandalwood, cedar, vetiver, and oakmoss. The writer Ian Fleming was a regular customer and liked this fragrance, and he mentioned Floris products in his 1955 novel Moonraker. It is also known as “James Bond’s perfume,” but the central figure in that connection is Fleming himself, Bond’s creator.

During the 1950s, Floris increased its exports to the United States. An internal record from December 1959 documents a purchase of Rose Geranium for “Marilyn Monroe Miller” while she was staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel. This single document cannot establish that it was a fragrance she always wore. Still, the moment when a scent from distant London reached a Hollywood actress remains preserved in the records.

As demand grew, a production base was established in Devon and officially opened by Princess Diana in 1989. Fragrance development continues at 89 Jermyn Street in London, while the Devon facility and long-standing British manufacturing partners play their roles in producing the finished goods. There is the place where a fragrance is born, and the place where products are finished so they can reach many people. The shop and the British production sites support these respective tasks.

Passing to the Ninth Generation

A key figure leading fragrance creation today is Edward Bodenham, a member of the ninth generation. He has visited the shop to see his father and grandfather since childhood and says he regards its fragrances as “old friends.”

“It is important to preserve familiar scents. At the same time, there is great joy in adding new fragrances to the collection that will become future classics for the next generation.”
— Edward Bodenham

These words express Floris’s approach, which does not end with preserving old fragrances. While safeguarding historic formulas, it considers whether a new creation belongs within the context of the house. Edward says that when assessing a new fragrance, he asks himself whether his ancestors would approve of it if they smelled it.

In 2006, Floris fully opened its bespoke fragrance service to the general public, enabling customers to have personal fragrances made in the perfumery at the back of the shop. The finished formulas are recorded in the tradition of the ledgers passed down through the generations, so that not only the customers themselves but future generations can reorder them. The system can be seen as a modern service built from the eighteenth-century practice of blending for individual clients.

What Defines the Brand

Putting the Archive to Work

At the heart of Floris is its preservation of almost three centuries of formula books, order records, letters, receipts, and equipment as “materials for use in present-day creation.” The Grade II-listed building at 89 Jermyn Street has also undergone its first major renovation in at least a hundred years. Dated to 2016 in the shop’s introduction and to 2017 in the timeline, it marks another milestone for the house. This was followed by a museum space displaying the archives and the launch of the Ledger Series, comprising eight fragrances selected from old customer ledgers.

Composing Fragrances in the Same Place

Fragrances are still conceived and composed in the perfumery at the back of the shop. Edward and the perfumery team reportedly use old glass equipment and measure ingredients in imperial fluid drams and ounces rather than metric units. Using old tools does not, in itself, make a fragrance good. What is passed down together is the figures in the formula books, the units in which those figures are measured, and equipment familiar to the hand. That accumulation connects the work of Floris with the present.

“A single drop really matters. There has to be scientific precision behind it.”
— Penny Ellis, bespoke perfumer

Not Setting Natural and Synthetic in Opposition

The relationships this house has built over time also inform its approach to materials. It says it sources absolutes (in Japanese), highly concentrated fragrance materials obtained by solvent extraction, and essential oils with regard for sustainability from long-standing suppliers, checking the quality of each harvest. While using many natural ingredients, it also says it combines them with high-quality synthetic fragrance materials (in Japanese) for ethical and environmental reasons and to broaden expressive possibilities. This is a stance that does not treat natural materials as an absolute ideal, but evaluates ingredients by traceability and their role in a formula.

“Highest quality” and “sustainability” describe Floris’s stated approach to choosing materials. Yet those words alone do not reveal each ingredient’s origin, the exact proportion of natural fragrance materials, or the extent of third-party certification. Rather than assuming all materials can be described by the same standard, it is worth looking at the relationships with long-standing suppliers and the work of assessing individual ingredients.

Bottles and Packaging

Edward explains that the rectangular bottle design that led to the present form was introduced in 2000 and drew heavily on an earlier bottle used from the late nineteenth century through the 1930s. Its restrained form, a transparent rectangular prism, a rectangular central label, and a gold cap, is consistent with Floris’s approach of refining the archive for the present rather than adding excessive ornament.

For its soaps, the same design as molds made in the early nineteenth century is still used, and the soaps are hand-wrapped in Devon. A range spanning not only perfume but bathing, shaving, oral care, and home fragrance preserves the memory of the original grooming business.

The Fragrance Lineup

Two main reference points when choosing a perfume are the Signature Series of eaux de toilette and the richer Private Series of eaux de parfum. The former comprises British perfume classics explored through the generations, while the latter has been presented as the house’s highest range, connecting materials and stories from around the world. Alongside these are the Ledger Series of archive revivals and reinterpretations, and Bespoke personal perfumery.

The Signature Series

Limes: An early creation that the brand’s history traces to 1740. A citrus green with a concise composition of lemon, petitgrain, lime blossom, neroli, lily of the valley, and musk.
Night Scented Jasmine: A floral green derived from an 1806 formula. It builds layers of white flowers, including jasmine, gardenia, neroli, and ylang-ylang.
Special No.127: A citrus floral created in 1890. It takes its name from a page number in the bespoke ledger, and a record of Churchill buying it survives.
No.89: Created in 1951. It moves from citrus, lavender, and nutmeg through flowers to sandalwood, cedar, vetiver, and oakmoss. It offers an introduction to the heart of the British grooming fragrance tradition.
Elite: A fresh yet woody composition that pairs a cool opening of bergamot, grapefruit, and lemon with the woodiness of patchouli and vetiver.
Santal: A woody fougère that moves from bergamot, black pepper, cardamom, lavender, and nutmeg to sandalwood, frankincense, cedar, and amber. Fougère is a fragrance family combining lavender and herbs with a woody, moss-like foundation.

The Private Series

Honey Oud: An eau de parfum in which the sweetness of English honey and vanilla smoothly envelops the richness of rose and oud. The brand officially explains that the oud oil it uses comes from a certified sustainable source of agarwood.
A Rose For…: Inspired by the contrast between Moroccan rose fields and the souks of Marrakech. Rose is given a dark structure with orris, spices, incense, oud, and woods, and the owner’s name or initials can be written in the “For…” section of the bottle.
Neroli Voyage: A creation linking Robert Floris’s travel accounts with Edward’s own journey to Liguria. Centered on neroli, it evokes Mediterranean coastal vegetation and travel by sea.
Purple Mémoire: Taking as its subject Ivy Lodge, the home of Mary Anne Floris and James Bodenham, it expresses family memories through lavender, bergamot, mandarin, jasmine, sandalwood, and amber.

The Ledger Series

A ledger is an account book, and this series selects historical fragrances from books recording customers’ orders and formulas, reviving or reinterpreting them. The 2017 rollout introduced eight: Stephanotis, Red Rose, Malmaison Encore, Newly Mown Hay, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Rose Geranium, and Florissa Encore. Some fragrances containing materials that had become regulated were reconstructed to meet current standards, reconnecting scents of the past with forms that can be enjoyed today.

Where to Begin

To trace the brand’s starting points, three accessible reference points are the Mediterranean Limes, the white-floral Night Scented Jasmine, and No.89, with its lineage in barbering culture. To explore a somewhat more contemporary and richer direction, adding Honey Oud or A Rose For… reveals the Floris of today as something more than the preservation of classics.

An Additional Note…

Next door to 89 Jermyn Street, Isaac Newton lived at No.88 for four years in the late seventeenth century. A blue plaque remains there today. The historical customers Floris names are equally varied, including Admiral Nelson, Oscar Wilde, Vivien Leigh, Cary Grant, and David Bowie. Not every detail of who chose which scent, and when, has come down to us, but the fact that people from different eras have visited the same shopfront lends depth to this address.

Floris states that in 2023 it received a Royal Warrant from Charles III as “Manufacturers of Toilet Preparations to HM The King.” What this appointment conveys is a history of work supplying products and services to the royal household. Its meaning is distinct from accounts of which perfumes individual royals privately prefer. There is a pride characteristic of this house in having continued to meet the royal household’s needs over such a long period.

The appeal of Floris lies in more than the number of years that place it “among Britain’s oldest.” The memory of a barber who crossed from Menorca, formula books for individual customers, letters from a traveling buyer, combs for royalty, Great Exhibition fittings, and the receipts of famous customers still connect with the making of perfume at the same address. When sampling its fragrances, considering not only your scent preferences but also “which era of Floris am I smelling?” should bring the world of this house into fuller perspective.

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