The Grosvenor Carriage Company Ltd was a British coachbuilder founded in around 1910 and based in Kilburn in North West London. They ceased operations sometime in the 1960s. [1]
With premises at Welbeck Works, Willesden Lane, London NW6, Grosvenor gained a reputation in the years up to World War I for high quality coachwork on leading makes of car including Rolls-Royce.
During World War I they made ambulance bodies.
By 1920 they had joined up with Shaw & Kilburn [1] who were the main Vauxhall dealer in London and although they still supplied coachwork on other chassis their main customer was from then onwards Vauxhall. From the late 1920s Grosvenor became responsible for building most if not all or Vauxhall's specialist bodies and in 1929 were responsible for the Hurlingham and Melton bodies on the Vauxhall 20-60. From 1932 it seems they only built for Vauxhall, effectively becoming their in-house coachbuilder.
All luxury coachbuilding stopped in World War II. This was not the end for Grosvenor as in 1954 they were advertising a 10-passenger bus and also a pick-up conversion of a Bedford van. Their final offering seems to have been in 1956 with an estate-car conversion of the Vauxhall Velox.
1957 Vauxhall Velox
By the late 1950s or early 1960s the name seems to have been allowed to lapse.
Notes
1 2 A-Z of British Coachbuilders. Nick Walker. Bay View Books 1997. ISBN1-870979-93-1
Related Research Articles
Vanden Plas is the name of coachbuilders who produced bodies for specialist and up-market automobile manufacturers. Latterly the name became a top-end luxury model designation for cars from subsidiaries of British Leyland and the Rover Group, it was last used in 2009 to denote the top-luxury version of the Jaguar XJ (X350).
Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd was a British manufacturing company in Coventry from 1919 to 1967. In addition to automobiles designed for the civilian market, the company also produced racing cars, aircraft engines, armoured cars and other armoured fighting vehicles.
The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is a luxury automobile produced by Rolls-Royce Limited from April 1955 to March 1966. It was the core model of the Rolls-Royce range during that period. The Silver Cloud replaced the Silver Dawn and was, in turn, replaced by the Silver Shadow. The John P. Blatchley design was a major change from the pre-war models and the highly derivative Silver Dawn. As part of a range rationalisation, the Bentley S1 was made essentially identical, apart from its radiator grille and badging.
A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. Coachwork is the body of an automobile, bus, horse-drawn carriage, or railway carriage. The word "coach" was derived from the Hungarian town of Kocs. A vehicle body constructed by a coachbuilder may be called a "coachbuilt body" or "custom body".
Duple Coachbuilders was a coach and bus bodybuilder in England from 1919 until 1989.
Thrupp & Maberly was a British coachbuilding business based in the West End of London, England. Coach-makers to Queen Victoria they operated for more than two centuries until 1967 when they closed while in the ownership of Rootes Group.
Abbey Coachworks Limited was a British coachbuilding business based in Merton, South West London and later Acton, North West London. It was active between 1930 and 1938.
Abbott of Farnham, E D Abbott Limited was a British coachbuilding business based in Farnham, Surrey, trading under that name from 1929. A major part of their output was under sub-contract to motor vehicle manufacturers. The business closed in 1972.
The Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite is a small sports car that was produced by the Donald Healey Motor Company at its Cape Works in Warwick and at the Healey's Speed Equipment Division in Grosvenor Street, London W1. Subsequently Sebring Sprites were also produced by John Sprinzel Ltd from his well-known premises in Lancaster Mews, W2.
The Cunard Motor & Carriage company was a British vehicle coachbuilder. It was founded in London in 1911 and continued in various forms up to the 1960s.
Harold Radford & Co. Limited of Melton Court, South Kensington, London SW7, which was located opposite South Kensington tube station, were long-established retailers of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars who, under G. H. Radford developed a bespoke coach building business in the late 1940s named Harold Radford (Coachbuilders) Limited. The coach building business began by making bodies for new Bentleys with amendments to suit the rural lifestyle of the landed gentry. In the Swinging Sixties, Radford became best known for luxury versions of the cult-car Mini.
Corsica Coachworks was a small British coachbuilding business founded in 1920 just after World War I. They were builders of bespoke car bodies, employing no in-house designer. They realised customers' designs for them. Almost every Corsica body is unique.
The Lancefield Coachworks Limited was a builder of bespoke bodies for expensive car chassis always introducing sporting elements into designs. Lancefield operated as coachbuilders from 1921 to 1948 then switched their business to aircraft components which had been their wartime activity. They were based in London at Wrenfield Place, Herries Street, Queen's Park, W10.
The Carlton Carriage Company was a highly respected London coachbuilder that provided bespoke coachwork for some of the finest car makers of the 1920s and 30s. They are best known for their drophead coupes which are archetypal designs of the British Jazz Era.
William Vincent Ltd., often known as Vincent of Reading, was a British coachbuilder founded in 1805 making carriages but in 1899 they made their first car body and later made bodies for commercial vehicles.
Chalmer & Hoyer was a British coach-building company with premises in Poole, Dorset and Weybridge, Surrey. In 1926 the company name changed to the Hoyal Body Corporation Ltd.
John Charles & Co was a British coachbuilding company founded in 1932 and based initially near Kew Gardens, London.
New Avon was a British vehicle coachbuilder. The company, based in Warwick, was started when a Ben Tilton and a Captain Philips trading as Avon Coachworks went into business in 1919 to make bodywork for cars. Following a change of ownership and financial reconstruction it became New Avon in 1922.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
