Born in Glasgow to struggling Irish immigrants, Lipton started life with nothing. At nineteen, he was sleeping on floors, taking any work he could find, and begging for food to survive.
This documentary traces how he built a global empire from the ground up. Through shop records, immigration files, Victorian newspapers, and family archives, we follow his journey from working in grocery stores in America to opening his first small shop in Glasgow, then expanding into one of the most successful retail businesses in Britain.
Thomas Lipton later created one of the world’s most famous tea brands, reshaped food marketing, and became a household name. But behind the global success was a life shaped by hardship, ambition, and the harsh realities of Victorian Britain.
This is the forgotten rise of a boy who refused to stay poor — and built a legacy that still exists today.
