Thrupp & Maberly

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.

This family coachbuilding firm was started near Worcester about 1740. The founder's son, Joseph Thrupp (died London 1821), came to London about 1765 and ran a coach making business in George Street, Grosvenor Square. Though his best known coachbuilder descendant was George Athelstane Thrupp (1822-1905) Joseph left a number of notable descendants who were not coach, carriage or harness makers.

Joseph's London business was continued by eldest son Henry East Thrupp (1776-1852), father of coach builder Robert (1813-1871), together with his much younger brother, third son Charles Joseph Thrupp (1791-1872), who left his nine surviving children £30,000. Those nine children included George Athelstane Thrupp (1822-1905) and it was G A Thrupp's sister, Ellen (1829-1914), who married business partner George Henry Maberly (1836-1901) in 1869.

A decade before coachbuilder George Maberly (1797-1883) had merged his own 70 Welbeck Street business with Thrupps. He became their partner at the beginning of 1858. The firm's name was immediately changed to Thrupp & Maberly. Later his son George Henry Maberly (1836-1901) was taken into George Athelstane Thrupp's partnership.

Head of his family's coachbuilding firm George Thrupp became a leader of his craft known to his fellows throughout the world. He was a founder of the Coach-makers' Benevolent Institution and helped form the Institute of British Carriage Manufacturers and the technical schools for coach artisans which were taken over by the Regent Street Polytechnic. He served as Master of the Coachmakers' and Coach Harness Makers' Company in 1883

George Athelstane Thrupp's publications included:

His son George Herbert Thrupp (1859-1925) joined Thrupp & Maberly but his sister's son, Gerald Clare Maberly (1871-1961), became a barrister.

For many years this business operated from 269 (renumbered 425) Oxford Street, London, with access from the side street, George Street (now Lumley Street). In 1914 their premises which had included their workshops were purchased by the store on the opposite side of Oxford Street, Selfridge & Co, to open Selfridge's household department though war seems to have disrupted Selfridge's plans and Thrupp & Maberly's showroom remained at that address until 1916. That year they moved the showroom along to 475 Oxford Street then moved again in late 1921 to 20 North Audley Street, all in the same locality. When the Rootes brothers took control Thrupp & Maberly was moved a mile further south and set up in Rootes' new premises in the new Devonshire House, Piccadilly, opening there 22 September 1926. There again they advertised they were by appointment to H.M. the King official retailers of Rolls-Royce cars and special coach builders to the Daimler Company. In 1928 ownership passed to Humber Limited, a new member of the Rootes Group.

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