The Iconic A H Wheeler
By
Yashovardhan Sinha
My earliest memories of trains revolve around our bi-annual trips with from Patna to my nanihal in Gaya and back. And through the memory-mist I see my brother invariably wheedling some money from Amma and racing to the Wheeler book-cart to pick up a magazine or two.
Later the AH Wheeler stall on Platform 1 of Patna Junction became our rendezvous point in case we were late in reaching the station to receive someone.
Stations meant trains, porters in red, TTs in black – and AH Wheeler.
Why then did I wait till now to find out more about this ubiquitous chain of book and magazine stores, I wonder.
I naturally presumed that the chain was set up by some Englishman named A. H. Wheeler. Well, it wasn’t. The founder was a French businessman named Emile Moreau (actually he was half French, his mother being English.) It was he who set up AH Wheeler & Co Pvt Ltd at Allahabad in 1877.
Moreau was at that time a young employee of the managing agency named Bird & Company at Allahabad. His mother in fact belonged to the Bird family.
Moreau’s office was within the railway station at Allahabad. He noticed there that there was a great demand for reading material, especially from first class passengers. Around this time a friend of his, A H Wheeler by name, mentioned to him that his library had begun to overflow and he wanted to get rid of many of his books. Moreau then volunteered to sell them from a wooden almirah at the station.
The books got sold like hot cakes.
Encouraged by the results, he set up, with his friend Wheeler (Arthur Henry Wheeler) and a few others, the A H Wheeler and Co (named after his friend, who moved to London soon after), in Allahabad. The firm soon acquired sole selling rights for running bookstalls on railway platforms and quickly spread its wings all over North India.
In 1950 a Banerjee family, that had been associated with the firm since 1899, took over the entire equity of the Moreau family.
Things began to change by the late 1970s when their monopoly was taken away. And soon Wheeler’s may disappear totally from our stations because as per media reports a couple of years ago the Railways have decided that multi-purpose stores will be opened in place of A.H. Wheeler book stalls for the greater benefit of passengers.
Things do change. Old timers may miss the familiar stalls and carts. Most visitors to the station probably won’t even notice.
But a question does bother me: why didn’t AH Wheeler change? They had such a strong brand equity. How come they never thought of coming out of the stations?
