Editing Thomas Cook (section)

== First excursions ==
[[File:Thomas Cook Building, Leicester, panels.jpg|thumb|Panels from the Thomas Cook Building, Gallowtree Gate, Leicester, displaying excursions offered by Thomas Cook]]
While he was living at Market Harborough, Cook became a supporter of the temperance movement. In 1836, both he and Marianne signed the pledge and Cook became active in campaigning for abstention from alcohol.<ref name=odnb/> Cook described how he got the idea for his first railway excursion when he was walking the 15 miles from his home to Leicester in June 1841 to attend a temperance meeting:<ref name=story>{{cite web|url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/city-stories/thomas-cooks-leicester/|title=Leicester – the birthplace of popular tourism|work=Story of Leicester|access-date=8 January 2025|archive-date=25 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825225551/https://www.storyofleicester.info/city-stories/thomas-cooks-leicester/|url-status=live}}</ref> "A thought flashed through my brain – what a glorious thing it would be if the newly developed powers of railways and locomotion could be made subservient to the promotion of temperance". Cook's plan came to fruition on 5 July 1841, when he took a party of 485 members of the Leicester Temperance Society on a rail excursion from [[Leicester railway station|Leicester Campbell Street Railway Station]] to Loughborough to attend a temperance meeting.   He charged passengers one [[shilling]] each to cover the cost of hiring a train from the [[Midland Counties Railway]].<ref name=story/> On the 150th anniversary of the excursion, a statue of Cook by [[James Butler (artist)|James Butler]] was unveiled outside Leicester Railway Station.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crosbyheritage.co.uk/location/leicester/thomas-cook-statue/|title=Thomas Cook statue|publisher=Crosby Heritage|access-date=8 January 2025|archive-date=7 November 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241107005037/http://crosbyheritage.co.uk/location/leicester/thomas-cook-statue/|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Thomas Cook Statue Leicester 2013.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.6|Statue near Leicester railway station]]

Later in the year 1841, Cook moved to Leicester and set up as a bookseller and printer. He also ran two temperance hotels with his wife and his mother. In 1845, he organised his first profit-making excursion, taking a party to [[Liverpool]], [[Caernarfon]] and [[Mount Snowdon]]. The following year he branched out with tours to Scotland and in 1851 he arranged for 165,000 people to travel to the [[Great Exhibition]] in London.<ref name=odnb/> That same year he began publishing ''Cook's Excursionist'', a monthly magazine which, as well as advice to travellers and advertisements for travel goods, contained testimonials from people who had been on Cook's tours. One traveller wrote: "Everything is organised, everything is catered for, one does not have to bother oneself with anything at all, neither timings, nor luggage nor hotels".<ref name=lethbridge>{{cite book |first=Lucy| last=Lethbridge |title=Tourist: how the British went abroad to find themselves|date=2022 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London}}</ref>{{rp|25}}