The roots of Mulliner can be traced back to a family of carriers and saddlers in 1559, but the surname did not come to prominence until 1760, however, when F. Mulliner was commissioned to build and maintain carriages for the Royal Mail.
Then, following his forbears’ continuous pursuit of perfection, Robert Bouverie Mulliner started his own coachbuilding company called Mulliner London Limited in 1870.
The family business then moved to fashionable Mayfair in London under the name H.J. Mulliner & Co. Here, the company was perfectly placed to serve society’s elite. With the advent of the motor vehicle, the company made the decision to step away from horse-drawn vehicles to concentrate on this new, mechanical mode of transport.
Back then, cars arrived from the factory simply as an engine mounted on a chassis, with a steering wheel and a transmission system. Yes, it could be driven, but it wasn’t comfortable by any stretch of the imagination. For that, you needed someone who could furnish the vehicle with seats and other niceties. Coachbuilding had arrived.
Then, a century ago, Mulliner crafted a bespoke 3-litre, two-seater coach-built Bentley for the 1923 Olympia Show in London. This was the start of a partnership that would continue for decades. In 1952, Mulliner, now an established leader in the coachbuilding field, revealed its most famous coach-built Bentley – the R-Type Continental.
In 1957, Mulliner created a four-seat example of coachwork on a Continental chassis, the iconic Flying Spur. In 1959, the partnership was further cemented when Mulliner became a part of Bentley. The business subsequently took up residence in the old experimental engineering department in Crewe – where it has remained ever since.
Today, Mulliner operates as Bentley’s personal commissioning division, offering a range of products and services from premium options that can be fitted to Bentley production cars as they are built, to truly unique bespoke luxury cars such as the Bentley Bacalar and the new Bentley Batur.
Report by BENTLEY MOTORS/FERDI DE VOS | Images © BENTLEY MOTORS