BROMPTON
STORY SO FAR
Folding bicycles invented and made in London. Andrew Ritchie — a Cambridge engineering graduate who had worked at Elliott Automation / Marconi before turning to landscape gardening — designed the first Brompton prototype in 1975 in his flat overlooking the Brompton Oratory in South Kensington (which gave the bike its name). Ritchie's ingenious three-part fold won 'Best Product' at the 1987 Cyclex exhibition; that year he set up a proper factory under a Brentford railway arch with £100k of equity. The company has expanded steadily ever since: it is now the UK's largest-volume bicycle manufacturer, producing around 80,000 bikes a year. Operations are based at a purpose-built factory in Greenford, west London, opened in 2017, with a specialist titanium welding division in Sheffield. Around 300+ engineers, designers, fabricators and makers are employed across the two sites.
DESIGNED BY
Brompton — design and HQ in Greenford, west London, UK (titanium facility in Sheffield)
MADE BY
Designed and made in London. Every bike is hand-built at the Greenford factory in west London, with titanium framesets welded at Brompton's specialist Sheffield facility. A 'huge number of components' are made in-house — including the wheels, frames and folding mechanisms — with each bike hand-brazed by a single named maker whose mark is stamped onto the frame. As with most modern bike makers, peripheral components (drivetrain parts, tyres, electronics) are sourced globally.
TO BUY
FURTHER INFORMATION
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brompton_Bicycle
Further research reading
Region Made
