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business. These new premises also included a foundry. In 1908 W & G Du Cros was incorporated as a limited liability company and
William and George Du Cros were joint managing directors. In 1910 W & G Du Cros employed about one thousand drivers and in Warple Way, close to Napier's Works, they made taxicab bodies. Offices were in the same block of buildings but at number 177 Acton Vale, on the corner of Warple Way and Acton Vale. From cab bodies they moved on to lorry bodies and then complete
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Before the First World War they operated more than 450 Napier cabs and some 150 Panhards. After 1910 trade slackened from the competition of much cheaper underground and rail bus and tram services. By this time W & G Du Cros employed more than 1,000 drivers and operated 600 cabs. The trade moved
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In 1920, the company sold out to STD Motors Ltd, which needed additional body-building capacity next to its
Darracq works. In the 1920s Du Cros built lorry and charabanc chassis and in 1926 announced a new low-frame six-cylinder bus. Many of these buses were given bodywork by the Du Cros concern in
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as well as
Panhard & Levassor taxicabs. Both brands of the taxis had yellow bonnets to their engines, W & G was inscribed on their radiators and their drivers wore special grey uniforms. New premises were bought in Warple Way Acton to provide a depot and service facilities tor the taxicab
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Harvey's youngest sons, William and George Du Cros, were directors of Dunlop but found time to attend the Paris exhibitions as
British concessionaires to welcome English-speaking visitors to Panhard & Levassor's displays. The business extended to Ireland where they were retailers of
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the 1920s. A 1921 commercial directory described the current business as W & G Du Cros
Limited, motor and general engineers, 177 The Vale, Acton London W3 —specialty W & G commercial vehicle chassis, repairers of motor cars, vans and lorries, founders.
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Following the First World War there was serious over-capacity in the motor body building business because of its enormous expansion during the war making aircraft wings and fuselages. In the summer of 1920 it was revealed that
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were completing the purchase of all the share capital of W & G Du Cros and their engineering body-building and foundry works by the issue of preference shares. The Warple Way premises were close to those of the
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Company and a major investor in businesses connected to the automobile. It grew into a major taxicab business and car and commercial motor-body builder which manufactured it own brand lorries and passenger vehicles.
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cars as well as
Panhard & Levassor. Harvey Du Cros had major holdings in Swift and Austin and was Austin's deputy chairman. The Panhards were serviced and repaired in premises in Kimberley Road
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It became a subsidiary of a major car manufacturing combine which fell into financial difficulties in the Great
Depression and W & G Du Cros closed its doors in 1935.
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lorries using bought-in engines and mechanicals. In 1920 they listed W & G delivery vans with 23.7 hp and 25 hp engines and 30cwt and 40cwt capacities.
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About 100 yellow cabs appeared in London in the autumn of 1923 after some years of planning to introduce a French design to replace the prewar vehicles.
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towards owner-drivers and small companies. By 1912 many cabs had been converted to delivery vans and works space into a parcels repository.
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When S T D Motors went into receivership in 1935 the Du Cros operation was closed down. The Warple Road Works became the premises of
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at the junction with
Carlton Street on the ground floor of Dunlop Rubber's head office.
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was a business established in 1901 as a motor importers and dealership by
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Street frontage of the former W & G Du Cros Works in Warple Way,
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Postwar W & G introduced
American made but locally assembled
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Though Dunlop was late to move into the manufacture of car tyres
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Where to, Guv?: The
Complete History of British Taxi Service
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Who's Who in Engineering Compendium Publishing Company, 1921
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They established one of London's major taxi fleets using
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Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1901
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The Motoring Annual and Motorist's Year Book. 1904.
58:1902 Panhard & Levassor tonneau leaving London
238:The Motor, Marine and Aircraft Red Book. 1920.
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330:British companies established in 1901
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134:Darracq about to become S T D Motors
320:Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom
296:, Stroud, The History Press, 2015.
252:Taxi! - The Story of the London Cab
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139:Darracq Motor Engineering Company
340:Companies disestablished in 1935
345:1901 establishments in England
186:subsidiary, the coachbuilders
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325:Vehicle manufacture in London
213:Crowood Press Wiltshire 2013
365:Taxis of the United Kingdom
254:, Veloce, Dorchester, 1998
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211:A-Z of British Bus Bodies
17:W & G Du Cros Limited
64:Lord Montagu of Beaulieu
157:US assembled Yellow Cab
272:The Auto Motor Journal
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72:Panhard & Levassor
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188:Thrupp & Maberly
174:Thrupp & Maberly
76:Lower Regent Street
19:also well-known as
182:' up to that time
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250:Malcolm Bobbitt.
100:Willesden Lane NW
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270:Company Doings,
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70:to buy a French
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25:Harvey Du Cros
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168:Yellow Cabs
314:Categories
194:References
162:Yellow Cab
145:STD Motors
66:persuaded
117:W & G
80:London W1
21:W & G
184:West End
106:Taxicabs
88:Mercedes
68:Du Cros
50:Panhard
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180:Rootes
127:Bodies
112:Napier
96:Austin
355:Taxis
92:Swift
298:ISBN
256:ISBN
215:ISBN
94:and
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