Adjoining premises at No. 18 Rosoman Street were taken and a travelling representative was employed. Leslie Rose and Victor Morris also travelled while Stanley Rose organised the operation of the tiny warehouse.
Those days, of course, were not the days of travelling in luxury by car: the representative travelled by train from town to town, with his samples in wicker hampers or 'skips'. At destinations he would hire a waiting barrowman to trundle the skips to the customer's premises, there to show and re-pack them before catching the train to the next station of call.
In the early days of the company, the partners (after returning to London each Friday) were then involved in packing and despatching the goods they had sold during the week!
In 1921 another employee was hired, this time for the office. Lack of capital was a severe brake on progress, and the company's records of those formative years include mentions of the directors having waived their salaries. Such profit as there was was at once ploughed back into the company.
By 1923 better premises were justified, and company took up residence in Goswell Road, not far from Old Street, where it remained for the next years of steady growth. Rose, Morris & Co. Ltd was becoming known for fair dealing, good service and excellent merchandise - and it has been the company's aim, ever since, to uphold the reputation established by its founder-directors.
The growth of Rose, Morris & Co. Ltd was firmly based if not spectacular. The range of merchandise continued to expand and embraced the whole scope of the 'small goods' field together with some smaller instruments – though even at that time such things as carnival wigs were listed! Overcoming the hindrance of the general strike in 1926, not making any fortunes but making many friends, the years at Goswell Road saw the edifice built on firm foundations and the name of Rose, Morris & Co. Ltd respected throughout the trade.