Hooper (coachbuilder)
Coordinates: 51°30′17″N 0°16′48″W / 51.504695°N 0.2798804°W
Hooper & Co. was a British coachbuilding company based in Westminster London. From 1805 to 1959 it was a notably successful maker, to special order, of luxury carriages both horse-drawn and motor-powered.
The company was founded as Adams and Hooper in 1805 and held a royal warrant from 1830, building elegant horse-drawn carriages, supplying them to King William IV, Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. They moved into motor bodies at the turn of the 20th century. The first royal car, a Hooper body on a Daimler chassis, was delivered to Sandringham on 28 March 1900. It was painted chocolate brown with red lines; a livery which continued for the royal family well into the twentieth century.
Hooper specialized in the very top tier of the market, building the most luxurious bodies possible without consideration of cost. The models were not sporty, as the company specialized in stately, elegant carriages. Coach customers included the Marquis of Londonderry and the Marquis of Crewe . Car body customers included the Kings of Spain, Norway, Portugal and Siam, the Shah of Persia and the Negus of Abyssinia. In 1911, Hooper built an extension onto their Kings Road works, due to increased customer demand. Their London showroom, opened 1896 (possibly earlier), was on the corner of St James' Street and Bennet Street. It included a vehicle lift so that coaches and cars could be displayed at first floor. The alterations are likely to have been overseen by Francis Hooper, architect, son of the then owner.
During World War I, Hooper turned to aircraft manufacture, eventually producing Sopwith Camels at the rate of three a day. With peace, the firm returned to coachbuilding. They weathered the Great Depression of the 1930s far better than most coachbuilders, even building a second factory in Acton, West London. In the peak year of 1936, more than 300 bodies were built.
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