History

Messrs Lee & Nightingale first joined forces in 1854, basing their fledgling business around the regular transatlantic shipping services that bought people, goods and – crucially - news from the States to England.

When a ship made landfall in the Irish port of Cork, one or the other of them would be waiting, notebook in hand, to board the ship and gather information from the passengers as it made the final leg of its journey to Liverpool. From there they'd be on the first stagecoach to London, writing up articles from the notes and American newspapers they’d collected on the ship, ready for submission to national newspapers.

It was a tough regime, but the capital was crying out for news from across the pond and Lee & Nightingale were only too happy to capitalise on their excellent position in Britain’s second port. The agency's activities continued to evolve, and for over twenty years after the Second World War they were even BBC correspondents for the Northwest region.

In the 1990s Lee & Nightingale restructured as a specialist recruitment advertising business and this, along with the statutory advertising work that evolved from their original Liverpool to London run, remains at the core of the business to this day.