Ian Allan Group

In the beginning… there was a schoolboy with a model railway in his attic, and memories of visits to signal boxes and a passion for steam trains. Having lost his leg at the age of 15 Ian Allan began his working life in the post of temporary Grade 5 clerk in the office of the General Manager of Southern Railway at Waterloo Station, which allowed him to pursue his enthusiasm for railways.

Within a few months of joining (on a salary of 15 shillings a week), the Second World War began and Ian’s work planning advertisements for excursions had to stop and he was moved to the publications department, where he began to learn how to organise the print and production of the Southern Railway magazine.

Having had an all consuming interest in railway engines, locomotive classes and types of rolling stock, Ian was given the task of handling enquiries from the public. To do this he was given a notebook with the numbers of most of the Southern’s locos, their classes and their shed allocations. Realising that there was a keen interest in these names and numbers he made the suggestion that the company should publish the notebook. The suggestion was turned down and so permission was sought to publish his own booklet. This was given, subject to his doing so only at his own risk and expense. With the help of his colleagues, Ian produced a booklet containing a numerical list of loco numbers and their classes and a table at the end of the book giving all the details of each class so that it would be possible to relate the number to the name. There was at this stage no thought of collecting the numbers. That was to come later.

Having obtained a quote of £42 to produce 2,000 6” x 4” pocket books, the 'budding' publisher spent 5 shillings and sixpence (26p approximately) placing a small classified ad in the Railway World magazine offering the publication to enthusiasts in exchange for one shilling. Very soon Ian had nearly 2,000 one shilling postal orders, which after all expenses produced to his surprise an unexpected profit.

A reprint with the new title of ABC of Southern Locomotives was quickly ordered, with the authors credit changed from I. Allan to Ian Allan.

The other big four companies followed – The Great Western, LMS, and LNER. Soon the dispatch of these books became too much to handle for Ian alone, so friends, colleagues and neighbours were enrolled to help satisfy the demand. Ignoring the advice of experts Ian published a book on London Transport (the Underground, trolley buses, and buses). The 20,000 print run disappeared in days.

Steaming onwards…… Ian’s books were attracting the attention of bookshops at railway stations and book chains such as W H Smiths. The success of the loco spotters books was assured. However, one reluctant buyer said “it’s only a list of bloody numbers, who do you think is going to buy this?” The answer soon became obvious, thousands of the ABC books were purchased and “train spotting” was born. In 1944 one excursion of school boy loco enthusiasts wandered on to the mainline track, an incident which made headlines in the national newspapers. (The formation of Ian Allan Locospotters Club run by Ian’s future wife Mollie and the establishment of branches the length and breadth of England quickly followed). There were other transport publications about ships and civil aircraft, as well as hardback publications, such as “Titled trains of Great Britain”, and it was time, now that the war had ended, for Ian to take a new and separate direction.

In 1945 Ian Allan Ltd was incorporated, and shared to operate from offices at 282 Vauxhall Bridge Road. Thus the publishing company was born and began to grow. In 1946 the first magazine was published – Trains Illustrated. There were more soft and hardback books as well as magazine titles such as, Locomotive Railway Magazine, Railway World and the organisation of loco spotters excursions, a pointer to a new opportunity in the future.

Another extension of activities came in 1948 when Ian and five friends became the owners of the Hastings Miniature Railway.

In 1951 the company was prospering and to avoid the time and cost of commuting from Staines to Waterloo, Ian bought a building near Hampton Court and moved the company there. Profits were reinvested in printing machinery, which was operated from the basement of the Hampton Court office. This led to the creation of Ian Allan Printing Ltd in 1955, which had just two Rota print machines then, and now has the last word in high speed, hi-tech printing presses and reprographics equipment, costing millions of pounds.

Eventually the Hampton Court offices became too small and Ian bought land at the end of the railway line at Shepperton and built an office there.

A 1922 Pullman car was purchased as the firms board room, previously used by King George VI, 'Malaga' now lies within the body of the Ian Allan Headquarters in Shepperton, Terminal House, which was completed in 1963.

Although Ian Allan Ltd had for a long time organised railway excursions for the thousands of members of the Ian Allan Locospotters Club, there now came an unexpected and fortuitous opportunity. Having surplus office space in Shepperton and a friend who wanted to build on Ian Allan’s experience of organising railway excursions it was decided to start a travel agency.

Ian Allan Travel Ltd very quickly became a retail travel business with an annual turnover which eventually grew to £40m.

It was suggested that Ian Allan Group Ltd be formed to comprise – Ian Allan Ltd, Ian Allan Locospotters Club Ltd, Ian Allan Developments Ltd, Ian Allan Printing and of course Ian Allan Travel, which evolved into one of the country’s leading independent travel agents specialising in business travel.

A hobby close to Ian’s heart was miniature railways; and joint ownership of the Hastings Miniature Railway had done nothing to dim his enthusiasm. Given a chance to acquire a privately owned 7½” gauge model railway, and having previously bought 56 acres of farmland at Lyne, near Chertsey, this became the home of the Greywood Central Railway, which was to become the Great Cockcrow Railway. Ian Allan (Miniature Railway Supplies) Ltd was conceived in order to provide equipment for commercial miniature railways nationwide. Soon, there were 10¼” miniature railways at Bognor, Whitby, Bournemouth, Sandown, Prestatyn, Buxton and a second at Bognor's famous Hotham Park.

The printing company had, with the move to Shepperton, established itself in Terminal House, but as the company grew there was a need to expand to new premises at Pitfield House. By 1971 Travel and Publishing were at Terminal House and Printing at Pitfield House. Storage, packaging and dispatch were moved to a new warehouse at Chichester.

Eventually this arrangement of having publishing and printing at Shepperton and storage, packing and dispatch at Chichester became unnecessary, when again to his good fortune Ian was approached by a local printer who invited him to acquire Coombelands, a two acre mock Tudor facaded printing factory with 41,000 sq ft of space, which allowed printing, storage, packing and dispatch to be housed under one roof – a logical and justifiable strategy for the core business.

Apart from being an enthusiastic supporter of the Shepperton Rotary Club, Ian had for some years been a freemason and when an opportunity came to acquire A Lewis’ (Masonic Publishers) Ltd, Ian found it too tempting to turn down, moving the company to Shepperton under the name of Ian Allan Regalia and retaining Lewis Masonic for publishing imprint purposes.

In 1986 manufacturing premises were acquired at Hinckley in Leicester to produce all forms of Masonic, military, corporate and club regalia items.

Through his local connection in Shepperton, Ian became involved with a company producing fertilizer made from seaweed namely Chase Organics Ltd. Eventually Ian Allan Group offered to purchase the shares. Chase had also been involved in a joint purchase of a local motor dealer site in Virginia Water, so with the acquisition of Chase shares, Ian Allan created Ian Allan Motors Ltd .

The creation of the Ian Allan Group is always described by Ian as being, “serendipity”, but it is typically and inevitably the outcome of a great entrepreneurial spirit. Having identified the latent interest and enthusiasm for railways in the middle part of the twentieth century the company that was created to satisfy that interest expanded into new publishing ventures, printing, travel, regalia, organics and property.

Ian Allan SAAB dealership The Group today offers a range of interesting and exciting businesses still run by family members true to the tradition of their founder. Just as publishing begat printing, so printing led to bookselling railway excusions and graphics, now based at Hersham together with Chase Organics, Ian Allan Development became Tennay Properties after the then Ten ‘A’s of the Allan Family. Publishing transport books led to a travel company and magazines led to opening bookshops in Cardiff, Manchester, London and Birmingham as well as MCP the graphics mail order fulfillment house providing a complete service to the transport and military enthusiast - stocking over 16000 titles and a full range of models.

Today IAG continues to operate sucessfully in a number of markets including business travel management, car sales, property, publishing and book retail, printing direct mail for the enthusiast or transport and military history.