ROLLS-ROYCE COMMEMORATED ITS FOUNDER'S BIRTHDAY WITH A TRIP AROUND LONDON
September 5, 2021
On Friday, August 27, 2021, Rolls-Royce celebrated the 144th anniversary of the birth of company co-founder Charles Stewart Rolls. The brand celebrated by driving a Ghost around London, stopping at locations connected to Rolls' life and career. The tour was immortalized in new photographs taken at locations including Rolls' birthplace, the Royal Aero Club, the Royal Automobile Club, and the site of the original Rolls-Royce showroom.
"Charles Stewart Rolls, born on this day in 1877, was also an aviation pioneer, a successful racing driver and a gifted engineer. His boldness, fearlessness, love of adventure and willingness to push boundaries continue to inspire RR employees and products. To mark this occasion, which means so much to our company, we visited significant places in Rolls history in a Ghost – a car with technology, performance, craftsmanship and excellence that embodies everything this extraordinary man stood for, valued and aspired to during his extraordinary life and career."
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
The route included the following places:
35 Hill Street, Mayfair
Charles Stewart Rolls was born in a house near Berkeley Square on August 27, 1877. The third son of Lord and Lady Llangattock, he came into the world amidst wealth and privilege, educated at Eton and Cambridge and enjoying the freedom to pursue his passions, including aviation and motor racing.
In contrast, his business partner, Henry Royce, came from a humble background. In 1876, at the age of just 10, he worked as a telegram delivery boy at the Mayfair Post Office. His "territory" included Hill Street, so it's quite possible he delivered congratulatory letters and telegrams to Rolls' proud parents.
119 Piccadilly
Until 1961, this historic building in Piccadilly was the home of the Royal Aero Club, founded in 1901, which Rolls co-founded with Frank Hedges Butler, a leading London wine merchant, and Butler's daughter, Vera. Rolls began his career as a balloonist, making over 170 flights and winning the Aero Club de France gold medal in 1906 for the longest time aloft. In 1910, he became the second person in Britain to receive an aeroplane pilot's license; in the same year, he achieved the extraordinary feat of becoming the first Englishman to fly an airplane across the English Channel and the first aviator in history to fly non-stop from England to France and back. Although now based outside the capital, the Royal Aero Club remains the national governing body for air sports and recreational flying in the UK.
Royal Automobile Club (RAC)
Rolls was also a founding member of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, which became the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in 1897. It was fellow RAC member Henry Edmunds who arranged the historic first meeting between Rolls and Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, on 4 May 1904. The club's secretary, Claude Johnson, was Rolls's business partner in his car dealership, CS Rolls & Co., and later became the first managing director of Rolls-Royce.
The club found its home at 89 Pall Mall in 1911, a year after Rolls' tragic, untimely death in a plane crash at the age of just 32.
14-15 Conduit Street
This building on Conduit Street, which connects Bond Street and Regent Street, was the West End headquarters of Rolls-Royce Ltd for much of the 20th century. From 1905 until his death in 1910, Rolls had his office here and used it as a base for demonstrating early Rolls-Royce models. On 22 March 2010, its historical significance was recognised with a blue plaque from English Heritage, unveiled by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.
Berkeley Street
A stone's throw from the birthplace of Rolls, one of London's most prestigious addresses, Berkeley Street is considered the heart of Mayfair. It now houses the Rolls-Royce flagship store in the UK, the first in the world to be transformed in line with the brand's new corporate identity.
Rolls-Royce material
