Lendrum & Hartman Ltd was a major London importer, the sole UK concessionaires of Buick and Cadillac cars from North America between 1919 and 1968. It became the most prestigious car dealership in the country, having sold a Buick in 1935 to the Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VIII the following year.
History Ernest Lendrum, a self-made successful businessman Ernest Samuel Soames Ledrum, born in London 1876, became a self-made man in his twenties creating Lendrum & Co, a successful waste-paper business, 3 Temple Avenue EC4. and Frederick Hartman, son of a wealthy Anglo-German industrialist, partner in Suter Hartmann, now a stockbroker invalided out of the Royal Naval Air Service met in 1917 at a City of London function,made a Freeman of the City of London by the Company of Stationers, 18 Sep 1917 struck up a friendship realising a mutual interest in motor cars.Maud Coleno's Daughter, The Life of Dorothy Hartman 1898-1957, John Dann, Troubador, 2017, page 180 They recognised the sales opportunities there would be after the First World War, particularly American cars, as the whole of British industry had been devoted to the war effort. In May 1919 they travelled to New York to secure a deal with General Motors. Their initiative was successful. General Motors had already established itself in London at Long Acre but met with variable success over the years. The persuasive businessmen had secured a deal as non-franchised importers of top General Motors brands, Buick and Cadillac. In October Ernest registered the new company Lendrum Motors Ltd, using the address of Hartman's London flat at 26b Albemarle Street, London W 1.
1920s–1930s In 1920, they acquired the General Motors old premises in Long Acre, and in 1921 moved to a better location in Mayfair, the recently vacated ground floor and basement premises of The Mellier building at 26b Albemarle Street. They renamed it ‘Buick House’. It would be the Lendrum & Hartman Mayfair showrooms for the next thirty years. The following year General Motors announced they were seeking to appoint another agent in London. Hartman again travelled to New York, and after a series of meetings at the General Motors Building (Manhattan) on Broadway won the business. With the result Ernest Lendrum made Hartman a full partner in January 1923 creating Lendrum & Hartman Ltd. By 1927 the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders announced that it had achieved 27,949 – the highest number of US imported cars to the UK. Confident that the business was developing well in the hands of Hartman, Lendrum took on the role of silent partner and resigned in 1931. The following year the company became Buick, Cadillac, and La Salle Concessionaires. The number of cars sold in 1932 was 150, by 1938 it would reach 2,000; the upper classes were now considering American cars as a credible alternative to Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Daimler Maud Coleno's Daughter, page 196 The 1920s and 1930s was a period of rapid growth for Lendrum & Hartman. Captain Hartman, (using his assumed war-time rank) was a consummate salesman and went out of his way to cultivate American executives like James D. Mooney, president of General Motors Overseas, and General Motors president Alfred P. Sloan. Hartman used the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, officially opened by H.M. King George V, for social and business networking. General Motors of Canada Limited took the largest space in the Canadian Pavilion receiving a visit from the Prince of Wales. It was the largest exhibition ever staged anywhere in the world and had attracted twenty-seven million visitors. By the early 1930s, the Buick brand in the UK had generally become accepted as representing one of the finest examples of transatlantic design in the field of medium-priced cars. The models exported to the UK came from Canada and were badged as McLaughlin Buicks for the British market and classified as being Empire-built. In the summer of 1934, Lendrum and Hartman Limited was completely reorganised, with an increased share capital, and a new director was appointed, Hartman's wife (the former Lady Dalrymple), Mrs. Dorothea Mirabelle Cynthia Hartman.
Post war Ernest Lendrum died in 1938 aged 61, at his home, Moor Place, Pinkneys Green, near Maidenhead Berkshire. Four years later in 1942, ‘Captain’ Hartman died aged 58 at his home, Luckington Manor, Wiltshire. His wife, Dorothy Hartman (the former Lady Dalrymple) inherited the business and ran it successfully in the post-war years. It was announced at the 1952 Motor Show, Another woman in the motoring news is Mrs Dorothy Hartman, head of a firm which distributes some leading American cars in Britain, who will be the only woman exhibitor at the Motor Show. To-night she gives a party to introduce a ‘Golden Anniversary’ Cadillac..Maud Coleno's Daughter, page 293 She moved to Stumblehole Farm in Surrey in 1953, continued running the company from her flat in Berkeley House in Hay Hill, until her death in November 1957.
The company was bequeathed to a close family friend Guy Nicholas (Nick) Vansittart,This caused a stir in the press at the time, Keith Morfett wrote a piece in the Daily Express 22 Nov 1957 headed,"One Man Alone Inherits The Entire Fortune Of Rich Mayfair Hostess" -one of Mayfair's most lavish hostesses has left her entire six-figure fortune to one of the highest paid men in Britain's motor industry then chairman of Vauxhall Motors. Nick sold it to the Lex Group in the early 1960s. Around that time Lex had bought the US franchise for Chevrolet and Oldsmobile by the acquisition of British and Colonial Motors in St Martins Lane. The Lendrum & Hartman concessions of Buick and Cadillac fitted well into their strategic plans.
By 1966 the Albemarle Street showroom closed, and Lendrum & Hartman relocated to Flood Street in Chelsea, near the Kings Road. Under the ownership during the 1960s, the dealership became known for selling American vehicles to figures in the entertainment industry, including film and television actors and pop musicians, During this period, American cars were increasingly viewed as status symbols by the demographic, often favored over traditional British marques such as Rover (marque) or Armstrong Siddeley.
The 1980s were not so kind and unfavourable legislation introduced earlier finally led to the company being dissolved and put into receivership in September 1990. The Lex Group was acquired by Aviva, a British multinational insurance company in 2005.
Company and directors
Lendrum & Hartman Ltd. Automobile Distributors, Importers and Repairers. Company registered office: Berkeley House, Hay Hill, London W1 (Mrs Hartman's flat) Showrooms: Buick House, 26b, Albemarle Street, London, W.I. Telephone: Regent 7121. T/A:"Buickgen" London Vehicle Service: Buick Works, Old Oak Lane, Willesden Junction, London, N.W.10. Telephone: Elgar 7911. T/A: "Exbuickmo" London Directors: Dorothy C. M. Hartman, Charles H. Culross, Rowley M. Rowley-Morris, Henry E. Berenstein (general manager and advertising executive),Council Officer of Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders 1951-58 Sales executive: E. T. Cuthbert, service executives: R. Johns (production), E. Taylor, secretary: John Sheehan.
DIRECTOR NOTES: Henry Berenstein (1895–1970), joined L&H in 1922 had been a friend of Hartmam since their days in the RNAS during WW1. Rowley-Morris (1875–1954), a confirmed bachelor, distantly related through marriage to actor Charles Dance, was also a member of the RAC, and Hartman's banker at Lloyds Bank (Cox and King's branch), later joined the L&H board after Captain Hartman's death. Charles Culross (1881–1960), had been Hartman's close friend and solicitor (Charles Culross & Co.) since 1918.Maud Coleno's Daughter, Berenstein: pages 177-78, Culross: page 179, Rowley-Morris: page 280
Mayfair showroom Albemarle Street, one of the most fashionable streets in Mayfair with many historic associations. Lord Byron, whose publisher John Murray was based at number 50, Oscar Wilde, a member of the Albemarle Club at number 13, the Rev. William Webb Ellis, the Anglican clergyman who invented rugby football, preached at St George's Chapel at number 27, demolished around 1903, and Anne Lister, Gentleman Jack a notable Victorian lesbian, stayed at number 29.
Lendrum Motors moved to Mayfair in 1921, taking the recently vacated ground floor and basement premises of The Mellier building at 26b Albemarle Street, opposite the Royal Institution at number 21. This fashionable and stylish showroom in the Beaux-Arts building was known originally as The Mellier, once the home and showroom of Charles Mellier & Co. Mellier was born in France and became a successful high quality cabinet maker and decorator, one of his most famous commissions had been for the liner, RMS Mauretania (1906). They renamed it ‘Buick House’ and from 1923 it remained the Lendrum & Hartman Mayfair showrooms for the next thirty years.
The showroom was closed in 1966, after the company was sold to the Lex Group, moving to Flood Street, off Kings Road, Chelsea, S.W.3. Today the Albemarle Street building renamed The Mellier again, has been transformed by architect Eric Parry from commercial use into apartments with spectacular penthouse.
Willesden works - Old Oak Lane In 1921, the company took a new lease on the facilities at Old Oak Lane in Willesden N.W.10, originally the Bedford Motors assembly plant, which became the ‘Buick Works’ for servicing and maintenance. It backed onto the Grand Union Canal.1934 Willesden, Lendrum & Hartman works Grand Union Canal, https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/14319165519
From the very early days Lendrum & Hartman had specialised bodies built on Buick chassis. In the 1920s, the most popular were two-seater coupes with dickey seats, built by Page & Hunt of Farnborough, Surrey. It was one of these that the artist Augustus John had acquired in exchange for a picture.Augustus John, Michael Holroyd, Pimlico, 2011, pages 447-8 The limousines version was usually by Vanden Plas of Brussels. The chassis were shipped from the London docks and they returned finished to Harwich, several at a time, escorted by the Lendrum & Hartman Belgium representative.
Hartman recruited well, his choice of Merle Gates Armstrong from Noyes Buick in Boston in 1924, to run the London servicing operation, proved a success, assisted by Ted Taylor, his under-manager, who had previously been employed by General Motors, and a popular Canadian, Bob Berryman, headed the Reception Department. Hartman had initiated a new-car delivery service and Berryman's team was instructed to show anyone interested over the Buick Service Department without prior appointment, all innovative business practices at the time. By 1929 the Old Oak Lane in Willesden the service depot for Buick, Cadillac and La Salle cars was now covering 114,000-square-foot and employing over two-hundred personnel, with a wide range of skills on the premises. These included blacksmiths, welders, trimmers and upholsterers, machine shops, paint shops and a spare-parts department. This coordinated approach was a very unusual and advanced for the 1920s. By the 1930s the facility was handling over 12,000 cars a year.