While a journeyman shoemaker he started selling secondhand books; 1774 - opened bookshop in Featherstone Street, London; c. 1775-1789 - located at 46 Chiswell Street, London; 1779 - Lackington & Co. published its first catalogue; 1791 - Lackington published his memoirs, revealing him as a self-made man, his profits £4,000 a year; 1794 - sold about 100,000 books a year, moved to Finsbury Square and called his shop the Temple of the Muses (built in 1789, it was one of the wonders of London, but it burned down in 1841); 1794 - Lackington first issued tokens, worth a halfpenny and a penny; Lackington retired in 1798 and made over his business to his third cousin George Lackington (1777–1844), when the business was known as Lackington, Allen & Co.