Coach Builders - James Young
Unlike Gurney Nutting, James Young established his business long before the advent of the motorcar, and initially the coachbuilding company which he acquired in 1863 in London Road, Bromley, was concerned solely with the production of horsedrawn carriages. The firm specialized in a variety of landaus, omnibuses, wagonettes, Victorias, phaetons and governess carts, but it was the Bromley Brougham - built in various sizes and weighing a mere 6 cwt. - for which they became famous.
A.F. MacNeil, who designed some of the most impressive coachwork produced over several decades, had been brought in to James Young from de Havillands, where he had spent the war years. Previously he had been stylist and chief designer with J. Gurney Nutting. During the early 60ties production at James Young was running at about 50 to 60 bodies a year. This company in fact was the last independent coachbuilder producing a considerable number of bodies anyway, other famous names like Hooper or Freestone & Webb etc. had been forced to close their premises years ago. With Rolls-Royce offering factory bodywork of almost impeccable quality for their Rolls-Royce and Bentley models the work of coachbuilders had been limited after the war. When Rolls-Royce confidentially informed coachbuilders in 1959 that the next model generation (i.e. Silver Shadow/T-Series) would be of monocoque construction it was concluded correctly that bespoke coachwork would become incredibly expensive.