Fun Fact Friday! Following on from our post about Sunlight Soap last month, we thought we'd share a little history of its beginnings.
1884
Sunlight household soap was introduced by the British company Lever Brothers in 1884. Starting with a small grocery business begun by his father, William Lever and his brother James entered the soap business in 1884 by buying a small soap works in Warrington. The brothers teamed up with a Cumbrian chemist, William Hough Watson, who became an early business partner. Watson invented the process which resulted in a new soap, using glycerin and vegetable oils, such as palm oil, rather than tallow. The resulting soap was a good, free-lathering soap, at first named Honey Soap then later named Sunlight Soap. With a growing business in soapmaking a larger factory was required. In 1888, a visionary idea to provide a beautiful place to live for working class people became a reality. On the banks of the River Mersey in Liverpool, England, William Lever bought a piece of Wirral marshland and began building his new soap factory and community for the workers called Port Sunlight. It was named after Lever Brothers’ famous and innovative Sunlight Soap product.
2026
Port Sunlight Village is the finest surviving example of early urban planning in the UK and has remained largely intact since its foundation by William Hesketh Lever in 1888. Port Sunlight is home to over 900 Grade II listed Arts and Crafts-style houses and public buildings, set in 130 acres of stunning parkland and gardens and is open to everyone. https://portsunlightvillage.com/
Sunlight Soap was first imported into New Zealand from England in 1884. It was manufactured in Petone from 1919 until 2003. Our supermarkets now stock Sunlight Soap imported from Australia.
Posted: 20 March 2026 06:00