From London to Longbridge: The streets that made Mini

By coincidence, her sister was to become the grandmother of Bernd Pischetsrieder, the BMW boss who bought the Rover Group and in 1994 took the then-moribund Mini brand into the BMW family.

The war between Greece and Turkey resulted in British citizens being evacuated from Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey) to Malta. It’s thought that Issigonis’s father died in Malta, so he and his mother left for London and are usually described as arriving penniless. The two rented rooms in Crescent Grove, by Clapham Common in south London. It’s possible they were sustained by her Bavarian relatives, but we cannot be sure.

Battersea Polytechnic

Having settled in Crescent Grove in 1923, Issigonis seems to have quickly enrolled at the local Battersea Polytechnic to study mechanical engineering.

Most of the sizeable towns in the UK had a polytechnic or similar by the end of the 19th century, and Battersea’s impressive terracotta Poly opened in 1894.

It offered courses in electrical engineering and other trades and crafts. It was a way into skilled work for poorer people and those who could not reach university via state schooling. As a migrant and, furthermore, one who was a refugee, this was an ideal way for the son of an engineer to get on the professional ladder.

However, Issigonis famously struggled with the mathematics part of the course. His genius lay in his three-dimensional engineering sketches, although throughout his career he always needed a close team to translate them into reality.

Cooper, Surbiton

The Mini’s handling magic was apparent from the first test drives. As Autocar said of the Mini-Minor De Luxe following its Chobham launch: “Throwing convention to the winds often produces freaks in the automotive world, but when done by a clever designer the result may be outstanding. It is certain to interest the sporting motorist.”

The Mini’s potential certainly attracted John Cooper. His Surbiton-based operation was on the verge of upending F1, by winning the 1961 championship with his radical mid-engined cars.

Not only did the Mini clearly have the ability to handle much more power but the unusual use of suspension subframes in its construction also aided its potential as a sporting car.

The first 997cc Cooper was launched in September 1961, just over two years after the Mini first appeared. Restricted by having a lightly modified A-series engine, it wasn’t very quick but was still a critical hit.

The faster Mini Cooper S appeared in 1963 and the little car’s reinvention as a performance legend was sealed in 1964 with its first win on the Monte Carlo Rally.

King's road, Hammersmith

Hard on the heels of the Mini’s reinvention as a tiny competition car that could outrun establishment vehicles came the high-profile celebrities of the 1960s.

It’s popularly believed that the first coachbuilt Mini was ordered from coachbuilder Harold Radford in 1963 by actor Peter Sellers, for his wife, Britt Ekland. It cost £2600 when a standard Cooper cost just £679.

Radford was based in King Street, Hammersmith. Much of the area was swept away in the late 1960s and replaced by Brutalist-style car parks and flats. The company was best known for its Rolls and Bentley conversions, and while the celebrities of the day were attracted to the Mini’s essential modernity and its ‘classlessness’, they were not likely to put up with its basic conception.