At Chubb Safes, we have been in the business of supplying safes and other secure storage products for almost 200 years. Today, Chubb Safes’ commitment to ongoing development of new safe and secure storage technology means that we are the UK’s number one supplier of safes for both domestic and office use.

Born and brought up near Winchester, the Chubb brothers served apprenticeships as blacksmiths, Charles moving to the Portsea area in 1804.

1818:

The history of Chubb Safes began operation in  with the designing and manufacturing safes and locks for banking and financial institutions.

1835:

The Chubb brothers patented their first safe. Engineering quality soon became recognised and the Craftsmanship and skill with which the products were made was unequivocal.

1841:

Charles Chubb was appointed lockmaker to the Prince Consort

The Chubb Safes group grew from strength to strength, it continued designing and constructing only the best physical security for major financial institutions such as the Bank of England.

1846:

Charles Chubb died on 16 May 1846, aged 75. After his death the business was continued by his son and partner, John Chubb.

1868:

The factory making safes and strongroom doors which had been set up in Cowcross Street, London, in 1837 was moved to the Glengall Road off the Old Kent Road in 1868. This new factory was about the same size as that in Wolverhampton.

Production at the Glengall works was exclusively of fire and burglary resisting strongrooms, safes and chests in the early years. On the expiration of the lease of the Wolverhampton factory, in 1882, the lock works was removed to London at the end of the year, to return to Wolverhampton on completion of the new factory in 1899.

1872:

John Chubb died in 1872 and was succeeded by his sons John Charles, George Hayter and Harry Withers Chubb as sole partners. Ten years after their fathers death, the concern was turned into a private limited company.The firm began to expand and promote its products abroad.

To celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the foundation of the firm, a new lock works was built at Wolverhampton capable of accommodating 350 workmen and a new safe-making department to take about the same number.

1900’s:

For the next ten years the firm had works in London and Wolverhampton but in 1908 the Glengall Road factory was closed and transferred to yet another new works in Wolverhampton. The transfer was organised like a military operation with the minimum loss of working time. The men left London on a Thursday afternoon, were given the rest of the week to find accommodation in Wolverhampton for themselves and their families and entered the new works again on the Monday to find everything ready for them to start work again.

There has always been a strong ‘family feeling’ within the firm. Not only has the management remained within the same family since the foundation, but their are also a number of workmen today whose fathers, grandfathers and great- grandfathers worked for Chubb.

From 1914 to the end of the war there was a constant flow of safes from the Admiralty and the Army. High explosives and shrapnel shells were produced on huge quantities reaching as many as 4000 shells a week in 1918.

In 1938, the firm celebrated its 120th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Lord Hayter ( Sir George Hayter Chubb had been created a Baron in 1928) opened a new extension to the Wolverhampton works at a ceremony which coincided with his own 90th birthday. The new buildings consisted of a lock works and offices which brought the total factory area to over six and a half acres.

1948, Chubb equity was made available to the general public for the first time. Improvements and additions to the security of the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London were made.

In 1954 manufacturing by Chubb commenced in Canada with the formation of a Canadian company.

The introduction of the new range of safes by Chubb was a landmark in safe design. The rapid increase in oxygen- cutting since 1947 had created a demand for a reasonably priced safe to give protection against this particular attack. Such protection had been available since the 1920’s but its cost was prohibitive and so its use was restricted to banking houses and specialised organisations. The Chubb Standard Anti Blowpipe safe was a technical breakthrough that had far reaching effects not only in the security world but to Chubb itself.

In 1962 another step forward in safe protection was made by Chubb with the introduction of a new alloy known as TDR ( Torch and Drill resisting ).

1967 saw the installation of the first Chubb cash dispenser unit in the Victoria Street Branch of Westminster Bank Limited.

Further expansion of the Chubb organisation grew from organic growth and acquisitions.

2000:

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