Grissell and Peto

Grissell and Peto was a civil engineering partnership between Thomas Grissell and his cousin Morton Peto that built many major buildings and monuments in London and became one of the major contractors in the building of the rapidly expanding railways of the time.

Thomas Grissell (1801–1874) had originally been apprenticed to his uncle, Henry Peto. Once his apprenticeship was finished Grissell was invited to join his uncle in a partnership.

Samuel Morton Peto (1809–1889), normally known as Morton Peto, had also been apprenticed to his uncle, Henry Peto. His apprenticeship finished a short time before Henry Peto died in 1830.

On the death of Henry Peto, Thomas Grissell and Morton Peto formed a partnership, Grissell and Peto, that operated between 1830 and 1847.

The first contract that Grissell and Peto won was for the rebuilding of Hungerford Market at Charing Cross in the Strand, London. At the time Peto was only 21 years old and his youthful appearance seems to have caused some concern amongst the committee considering the tenders. Peto met with the committee when the tenders were opened and Grissell and Peto found to be the lowest by £400. The Earl of Devon, the chairman of the committee, asked Peto to leave the room, and on being recalled the Earl informed him that the committee were greatly concerned about giving such an important contract to so young a man. Peto replied that if they wished he would fetch his partner, who looked old enough for anything; adding that is his youthful looks were a problem, he would, “take to wearing spectacles, or adopt some other mode of giving myself an appearance of increased age.”

Peto wrote:

“We have very much to contend with — a large business and circumscribed capital present many discouraging circumstances; but you know we must ‘Press Forward’ (the motto of the Grissell family). We have made a tender for the Hungerford Market — our amount was £42,400; it was accepted; but we do not feel dismayed, the payments are very good — three-fourths every three months, and two years to complete it in.”

The early difficulties of the firm were overcome. Their first contract proved a very remunerative one, and they became one of the most important building firms in the kingdom. Writing nearly 40 years later, Peto recalled, “A building business is a very good one if a man thoroughly knows it. When I was with Mr. Grissell, our ordinary business coming regularly from the large breweries and fire offices, and the work of our own connection with the architects, netted on the average £11,000 to £12,000 a year, and with only £50,000 capital engaged in that department.”

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