ManufacturerAlfred Dunhill

Alfred Dunhill

The Dunhill business was started by Alfred's father, who ran a saddlery shop in London. By the time Alfred had inherited his father's business in 1893, the automobile was slowly starting to gain popularity among the more affluent of English society. Capitalizing on this new trend, Dunhill closed down the saddlery shop and opened up "Dunhill Motorities", a shop which specialized in accessories for the automobile, including lamps, leather overcoats and goggles, picnic sets, car horns, and dashboard timepieces. The new shop's slogan was "Everything for the car except the motor." Dunhill also began dabbling in tobacco blending and pipe-making, having patented, in 1905, his "Windshield Pipe", created to allow for comfortable smoking by drivers and cyclists.

In 1907, Alfred decided to retire the Motorities store, and instead focussed on his tobacco blending, by opening up a tobacconists at 30 Duke Street, located amongst the gentlemen's clubs in the St. James neighbourhood of London, S.W. 1.