This business was created by a merger in 1858 of the carriage builders Joseph Thrupp, who had established his business in George Street (near Portman Square) in 1760, and George Maberly. As far back as the 1880s Thrupp & Maberly began its move from making horse-drawn carriages to making car bodies watching developments in electric cars, fitting Immisch motors in carriages to order and in 1896 supplying an electric car to the Queen of Spain. By the spring of 1897 Thrupp & Maberley held the British licence for the Duryea Motor Wagon. More commissions followed and the business grew, leading to large numbers of bodies for staff cars being made during World War I.