Ruback's Tailors
131 Northdown Road
How a family shop became an internationally recognised name in bespoke tailoring.
Researched and Written by Katie Blythe
A Cliftonville Family Tradition​
For much of the twentieth century, Ruback’s Tailors was one of Cliftonville’s best-known Jewish family businesses, its name synonymous with craftsmanship, integrity, and community spirit. The Ruback story is that of a family who brought their skills from Poland to England, built a livelihood from scratch, and helped shape Margate’s postwar commercial life.
Jewish Chronicle 1933-04-07 p. 19
Family Origins and Early Years​
The Ruback family’s roots lay in Poland, where Jakub Joseph Rybak and Annie Julia Segal were born. They married in 1914 at the East London Synagogue, part of the wave of Jewish immigrants who had settled in Britain before the First World War. They had four sons, Gerald, Cyril, Harold, and Sydney, and like many working-class Jewish families of the time, they valued both education and craft. The family name, originally Rybak, meaning fisherman, became Ruback after a clerical error during their early years in London.
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In 1928, the Rubacks left London for Margate, opening a small tailoring shop at 12 St John’s Road, where they also lived. At that time, Margate’s Jewish community was growing, and the family quickly became part of its network of traders and artisans. Jacob Ruback’s shop, like several others, served both residents and holidaymakers, offering bespoke tailoring and alterations. Within a decade, the family had moved to 32 Old Crossing Road, Westbrook, reflecting their increased prosperity.
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By 1939, Jacob was recorded as a master tailor, and his son Harold, then aged twenty, was already following in his father’s footsteps as a journeyman tailor. He had begun learning the craft as a child, even before starting school, helping to cover the small lead weights used in ladies’ skirt hems; this simple task sparked a lifelong fascination with fabrics and precision.
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Religious life within the family was shaped less by strict observance than by politics, ethics, and habit. As Judy Ruback later recalled, “they were not traditional – what’s the word? – observant.” Their grandfather, she explained, was “very left-wing, and pretty atheist and a pacifist,” and while the boys probably had Bar Mitzvahs, “as a family, they were never particularly observant.” At the same time, Jewish practice remained present in everyday life: her mother kept kosher, meat was bought from kosher butchers, and the family “sort of observed the High Days and holidays.”
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Jacob Ruback died in 1957, and Annie two years later, in 1959. Both are buried in the Hebrew Section of Margate Cemetery, alongside many members of the town’s Jewish community.
Jacob and Annie Ruback standing outside Margate synagogue
1970 Harold Ruback Cuts The Ribbon
Harold Ruback’s Training and Early Success​
Harold Ruback had grown up surrounded by tailoring. From his father, he learned the principles of cutting, measuring, and handling cloth, and in his early twenties, he travelled to London’s West End to study advanced design and pattern cutting. He trained and worked in the workrooms of leading tailors, absorbing the traditions of British bespoke artisanry that would later define his own approach.
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Returning to Margate after the war, Harold opened his own shop on Northdown Road, Cliftonville, building on his father’s reputation while developing his own modern vision of the trade. His skill and artistry soon gained national attention.
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In 1952, his firm achieved remarkable success in the Tailor & Cutter’s annual Competition and Exhibition of Bespoke Tailoring, Britain’s most prestigious showcase for the trade. Among over seven hundred entries from across the country, Harold’s garments stood out for their quality of line and finish. The prizes and a certificate of merit were proudly displayed in his Cliftonville shop window, the first in a long series of professional distinctions.
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By 1960, Harold had moved his business to 111 Northdown Road and had become a regular and respected figure in national competitions. The achievements of Harold and his apprentices reflected both his technical mastery and his dedication to training new generations of tailors in the postwar years. Among these were Derek Lovell, Yvonne and Wendy Griffiths, and “Uncle” Felix Rozmaryn, a distant cousin with a mysterious partisan background who joined the firm after escaping to Britain. These highly talented tailors continued working with Harold for decades, affirming Ruback’s Tailors enduring reputation.
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Memories of the shop itself describe how fully the craft shaped the space. Harold’s niece, Ernestine Ruback, recalled customers entering through the front, where ready-made clothes were sold, before walking through to the back room, where the real work took place, with “these massive steam irons… and the cutting room… the tables with all the white chalk on the material.” She remembered seams chalked and tacked by hand, and a workshop filled with “very old Singer sewing machines,” their recurrent rhythm marking the steady background beat of the business’s daily life.
An early sign for J. Ruback's, c. 1930.
They were not traditional - what's the word? - observant family. Our grandfather was very left-wing, and pretty atheist and a pacifist, and none of the boys particularly - I think they probably had a Bar Mitzvah. But as a family, they were never particularly observant, although my mum did keep kosher. I think they all bought their meat from the Kosher butchers, and sort of observed the High Days and holidays.
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Judy Ruback
1960 advertisement for Ruback’s Tailors
Harold Ruback and two of his longstanding craftsmen colleagues, Felix Rozmaryn and Derek Lovel
…I remember you went through the front, because he also sold ready-made clothes, you know, the paid clothes. But I remember you walked through to the back, and there was… these massive steam irons… and the cutting room, you know, the tables with all the white chalk on the material… they chalked the seams and then they'd do all the tacking and things. And I remember the sewing machines as well; they had very old Singer sewing machines.
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Ernestine Ruback
Family Life and Civic Involvement​
In 1949, Harold married Irene Josephs before going on to have two children, Anthony and Judy. Irene became a respected local magistrate, while Harold established himself as both a craftsman and a civic figure. He was known for his strong Socialist principles and during the Second World War, served on the land in the West Country rather than in the military, developing an affection for Italy from supervising Italian Prisoners of War employed in agriculture.
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Later, he became President of the Margate Rotary Club, President of the Federation of Merchant Tailors of Great Britain, and Chairman of the Federation’s Technical Committee. At home in Leicester Avenue, Harold was equally meticulous in his garden, cultivating “amazing peaches” with the same patience and deliberate precision that defined his tailoring.
National and International Reputation​
A major milestone in the firm’s history came in 1967, when Ruback’s Tailors moved into newly expanded premises at 131 Northdown Road. Margate’s mayor, Alderman A. W. Adams, had urged local traders to “brighten” the town’s shopping areas, and Ruback Tailors new premises presented a sleek, stylish shop stitching together contemporary design and traditional service.
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By the late 1960s, Ruback’s Tailors had earned recognition well beyond Thanet. The business maintained a fitting room on Saville Row where Harold visited weekly to meet clients and take orders. His customer base included celebrities, government ministers, and senior members of the United States Air Force stationed at Manston. Each client’s measurements were kept on file in Margate, allowing for future garments to be fabricated and shipped worldwide.
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Under Harold’s direction, Ruback’s Tailors won numerous bronze, silver, and gold medals in Tailor and Cutter competitions. His peers recognised him as one of the leading figures in postwar British bespoke tailoring, a reputation strengthened by his commitment to craftsmanship and to nurturing young apprentices, many of whom went on to distinguished careers in the trade.
Golden Jubilee and Later Years​​
In June 1978, Ruback’s Tailors celebrated its golden jubilee, marking fifty years since the family had first opened a shop in Margate. The East Kent Times and Mail observed that while the town had once been home to half a dozen tailors, Ruback’s was by then the only one remaining between Thanet and Maidstone.
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By this time, Ruback’s had become an international name, its reputation carried by satisfied customers throughout Britain, Europe, and America. Yet at its heart, it remained a local, family-run enterprise, a cornerstone of Cliftonville’s shopping district, and a source of pride for Margate’s Jewish community.
The label inside a Ruback's suit jacket, dated from 1977.
1970 photograph of new Ruback shop
The plaque above the entrance to the Harold Ruback Memorial Room at the Thanet and District Reform Synagogue.
An Enduring Legacy​
From the modest premises on St John’s Road to the elegant frontage of 131 Northdown Road, Ruback’s Tailors was emblematic of British tailoring; tradition blended with innovation, craftsmanship with community, and local pride with international reach. Sustained by the skill of its workers and the loyalty of its customers, Harold and Irene Ruback’s leadership carried the business through half a century of change.
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Harold died in Cliftonville in 1988, followed by Irene in 2012. He was later honoured with a commemorative room at the Thanet and District Reform Synagogue, a tribute to his contribution to the area’s Jewish and civic life. Many members of the Ruback family remain in the area today; their name quite literally stitched into the fabric of Cliftonville.
© Katie Blythe 2026
Primary Sources & Further Reading​​
East Kent Times and Mail (1952), “Margate Tailor’s Success,” 14 May, p. 8.
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East Kent Times and Mail (1978), “50 Years of Quality Tailoring,” 9 June, p. 6.
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Find a Grave (n.d.), Annie Julia Ruback (1896–1959). Memorial page, Memorial ID 275183660. Margate Cemetery, Hebrew Section, Margate. Available at: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/275183660/annie_julia-ruback.
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Find a Grave (n.d.), Jacob Joseph Ruback (1883–1957). Memorial page, Memorial ID 275183629. Margate Cemetery, Hebrew Section, Margate. Available at: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/275183629/jacob_joseph-ruback.
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Isle of Thanet Gazette (1988), “Rubacks (Menswear),” 30 December, p. 21.
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Ruback, Ernestine (2021), oral history interview. Cliftonville Voices Oral History Project and Exhibition. Unpublished interview recording and transcript.
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Ruback, Judy (2020), oral history interview. Jewish History Thanet archive. Unpublished interview recording and transcript.
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Thanet Times (1960), “Margate Tailor’s Success,” 10 May, p. 4.
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Thanet Times (1967), “Ruback Tailors Move to New and Larger Premises,” 31 October, p. 7.