Plaque marking Tesco founder Sir Jack Cohen's first bank account at the former Midland Bank branch in Hackney, now Gail's.

. A small metal plaque mounted on wood records that Sir Jack Cohen, founder of Tesco, opened his first company bank account at this branch of Midland Bank on 27 November 1920; the premises are now occupied by Gail's. Tesco grew from Jack Cohen's market-stall trading into one of Britain's largest grocery retailers, making early business records and surviving plaques part of UK retail history. The date 27 November 1920 places the banking relationship near the beginning of the company's development, when access to an account and working capital mattered to an expanding small trader. Midland Bank was one of the major British clearing banks before becoming part of HSBC, so the plaque also connects two strands of twentieth-century commercial history. Hackney and the East End were central to Cohen's early trading story, before Tesco developed into a national supermarket chain. The reuse of the former bank premises by a modern bakery illustrates the continual change of high-street buildings even when small historic markers remain in place. The photograph preserves a specific physical link between a present-day shop interior and the origins of a major British retailer. Early retail businesses depended on local banking relationships for deposits, payments and working capital, so a first company account can mark an important transition from informal trading to a more established commercial operation. Small plaques of this kind can survive changes of ownership and use, preserving corporate memory in places that otherwise appear to be ordinary modern high-street premises. The plaque remains legible in the present-day premises. The image records a surviving point of business history. The wooden surround is visible. The wording links Sir Jack Cohen, Tesco's founder, with an early banking milestone at this former Midland Bank branch in Hackney. It is relevant to Tesco corporate history, retail entrepreneurship and British business banking.