Mann & Overton
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Mann & Overton Limited owned and operated a motor vehicle dealers business previously known as Mann & Overton's and established 14 May 1901 which came to specialise in the supply and financing of London taxicabs, first Unic then Austin Taxicabs, eventually holding the concession for the Austin taxicab chassis for the whole of the Metropolitan Police Area of London.[1]
Their base was at 177, Battersea Bridge Road, London, SW11 and their distribution area included the provinces.[2] A major part of their operation was funding cars for drivers carried out from 1907 by Mann & Overton Finance Limited[note 1] ultimately M&O's major asset, bought by the Lloyds Bowmaker finance group in 1977.
Their non-finance vehicle retail and service operations were bought in 1984 and added to the group owning Carbodies, later known as London Taxis International, which since 2013 is in liquidation following unsustainable warranty claims.
The most popular London taxicabs continue to be built to the essential Mann & Overton design and provided by their firm's successors.