Catalogue description TROLLOPE AND COLLS LIMITED [BUILDERS]

Corporate and financial records

The letter book of 1797-1808 (ref B/TRL/9) is of special interest to students of wallpaper and interior decoration history. The detailed account books for Trollope and Colls Ltd illustrate the work of a major building firm with a great influence on the London skyline.

The GLRO holds records of the Central Association of Master Builders (ref A/NFB) in which both Trollope and Colls families played a leading part. The successors to the firm of Trollope and Sons (London) Ltd, decorators in West Halkin Street Galleries were Cowtan and Sons Ltd, decorators, whose records are deposited at the GLRO (ref B/CWT).

Amongst other building firms, the records of John Mowlem and Co. Ltd (ref Acc 2809), Messrs Higgs, builders (ref B/HIG) and Holliday and Greenwood Ltd, building contractors (ref B/HOL) provide interesting comparisons.

Trollope and Colls Limited, builders

Trollope and Sons (London) Limited, decorators

Joseph Trollope and Sons, London, wall paper hangers

Joseph Amos Trollope and George Trollope, London, decorators

Colls and Sons, London, builders

George Trollope and Sons and Colls and Sons Limited, London, builders

Trollope and Colls Limited, London, builders

AC/64/082, AC/65/092 and AC/75/070

There have been three separate deposits. The first two (ref B/TRI/1-9) had been listed for sometime and therefore their original numbers have been kept.

Trollope and Colls 1778 - 1978 (GLHL outsize 35.33 TRO)

Buildings of Today and Tomorrow: a review of modern construction, 1924 (GLHL outsize 35.33 TRO)

Westminster Old and New: a record of dealings in real estate carried through by messrs George Trollope and Sons Westminster Office 1898-1938, W.H. Mills Editor (GLHL 35.33 TRO)

The Royal Mint House, Leadenhall Street and the Gray's Inn Holker Law Library builty by Trollope and Colls Ltd to the desings of Sir Edwin Cooper, 1930 (GLHL 69.0 LEA)

Sale Particulars: 49 Prince's Gate SW7, 1919 (GLHL 70.7 PRI)

Sale Particulars: The Abbey, Campden Hill, 1889 (GLHL 92.7 ABB)

• Construction industry

Trollope and Colls Ltd can trace their origins back to 1778. The company was formed from two distinct family businesses (see bibliography for further details on the history).

The first business was that of Joseph Trollope who set up as a wall paper hanger in St Marylebone moving to St George, Hanover Square and then in 1787 to Parliament Street, Westminster. He was a specialist in exotic wall paper, especially Chinese painted paper, with work undertaken at Lullingstone Castle, The Vyne (Hampshire) and Burghley House. He retired in 1800.

George Trollope, younger son of Joseph took over the running of the family business along with his brother Joseph Amos Trollope. In 1830 he became paper hanger to King George IV, and in 1842 to Queen Victoria. The firm expanded into interior decoration. Later, in 1849, it expanded into estate agency, letting and controlling property for the Grosvenor Estates. A separate branch of Cabinet-makers, bearing the family name, was opened at West Halkin Street, becoming known as "The Museum of Decorative Arts" (run by George Robinson). In 1851, the firm became formally known as George Trollope and Sons.

George Trollope and Sons were notable for their speculative development of Mayfair, in Eccleston Square, Eaton Square and Warwick Square. Because of delays in a development at Hereford Gardens, Grosvenor Estates were highly critical of the Company and it therefore lost its exemptions to various Building Acts. Further setbacks were industrial disputes in 1859/1860 and 1894. By the end of the 19th century, the main branches of the family firm were, in descending order, building, estate agency (at Hobart Place), and interior decoration (at West Halkin Street). The latter was involved in contracts to fit out the interiors of liners.

Colls and Sons of 3 High Street, Camberwell, was started in 1840 by Benjamin Colls a painter and decorator who had previously worked in Camberwell and had an opportunity to develop Jackson's Place, Camberwell (belonging to his father-in-law Thomas Jackson). In 1844 he branched out into plumbing and glazier work and in 1853 became a builder and contractor with new premises at 240-246 Camberwell Road. A branch opened in the City at Moorgate in 1858. Most of the business pursued was contract work on workmen's flats, schools and Anglican Churches in South London (e.g. St Philip, Battersea and St Luke, Camberwell).

Increasingly attention had turned towards the City where Benjamin Colls used his experience as a master builder when Chairman of the City Lands Committe. This development into office building was continued by his sons William and John Howard (e.g. Institute of Chartered Accountants 1889-1892). J. Howard Colls was responsible for drawing up the standard contract (1880) and the firm was involved in a famous case Colls V Home and Colonial (1900) over the issue of 'Ancient Lights'. A branch of the firm was founded in Dorking to secure work on houses of City magnates living in Surrey.

In 1903 the new company of George Trollope and Sons and Colls and Sons Ltd was formed with George Howard Trollope and John Howard Colls as joint Chairmen. Both had been presidents of the Central Association of Master Builders. The merger did not include the Surveyors, Auctioneers and Estate Agency at Hobart Place. There was a new headquarters for the firm at 5 Coleman Street, City; the cabinet-making continued with a new contract from Harland and Wolff, Belfast for the Royal Mail Line; the branch in Dorking continued.

The firm came to specialise in civil engineering. A.B Howard Colls did pioneer work in reinforced concrete during the First World War, when many docks, viaducts and railway bridges were constructed. Their work extended to reinforced concrete pipes for drainage, then later to suburban housing, garden cities and work in the Far East. The Second World War left much of the City to be redeveloped and elsewhere new opportunities arose in the field of atomic energy. Trollope and Colls Ltd (as the firm had been known since 1918) joined forces with Holland, Hannen and Cubitt to form Nuclear Civil Constitution (responsible for Trawsfynydd Power Station, North Wales).

In 1968, the firm was taken over by Trafalgar House Investments Ltd but retained a separate identity. Appropriately enough, the company was responsible for the new precincts at Guildhall, and the repairing of the roof of Guildhall following the Second World War.

Chronology of Companies

1778 Joseph Trollope, wall paper hanger

1800 Joseph Amos and George Trollope

1840 Benjamin Colls, painter and decorator

1851 George Trollope and Sons

1903 George Trollope and Sons and Colls and Sons Ltd

1918 Trollope and Colls Ltd

1969 Trollope and Colls Ltd, owned by Trafalgar House Investments Ltd.

Selected Major buildings

George Trollope and Sons:

Haymarket Theatre 1869

Claridges Hotel 1897

Baltic Exchange 1903

Colls and Sons:

Institute of Chartered Accountants 1889-1892

St Philip, Battersea 1870

Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Co., Bank 1904

Trollope and Colls Ltd:

Lloyds Bank, Head Office, Lombard Street, 1931

Shell Mex House, remodelling 1931

Trinity House, Tower Hill, 1950s

Daily Express, Daily Mail, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Fleet Street, various dates

Debenhams, Wigmore Street, 1905-1908

Northwick Park Hospital, 1970s

New Stock Exchange, City, 1972-1975

Trawsfynydd Power Station, 1962

Interior work for Queen Mary (Cunard liner)

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