Straight Outta Brompton

The mass manufacture of bicycles in the UK has almost been consigned to history. But in one corner of west London, Britain’s biggest bike builder has just upped capacity to cope with demand. Welcome to the fold…

- Paul Robson

Popping up into the London sunshine at Notting Hill Gate tube station, we unfold our bikes and set off past Kensington Palace through Hyde Park, Mayfair and Soho: destination Covent Garden. ‘We’ are Cycling Plus and Brompton’s global brand manager Ross Hawkins, and our bikes are two of the west London firm’s portable wonders, which is why we’ve been able to complete the first part of our journey from Brompton’s Greenford factory under TfL’s steam rather than our own. And that, in microcosm, is the genius of designer Andrew Ritchie’s famous creation.

You’ve almost certainly encountered a Brompton folding bike on a street or railway platform; perhaps you were impressed, perhaps you were intrigued, or perhaps you were aghast at the very idea. Whatever your thoughts, if one of them is that they are nothing more than interesting curiosities beloved of suburban commuters who wouldn’t otherwise be seen on two wheels then you might be surprised to learn that 50,000 of these small, hand-made bikes fly out of the firm’s west London factory every year – a remarkable success story for a business built from one man’s vision.

“I’d played with one or two other ideas before the Brompton,” remembers inventor Ritchie, “and although at the outset with the bike I had nothing else on the boil, I didn’t expect or intend to devote my working life to the project.

“When the original plans came to nought, I realised that the only way forward was to make and sell the bike independently.”