Print, Dr Church's London & Birmingham steam coach

Colour print. Dr Church's London & Birmingham Steam Coach, 1833. Reproduced from a print lithographed and published by Josiah Allen in 1833.

Dr William Church was an American inventor. His first inventions were typesetting machines. Church moved to the UK after securing patents for his inventions. At some point around 1830, Church turned his attention to steam coaches. Despite patenting designs for his steam carriage in 1832, it does not seem as though any coaches were built until a few years later.

The steam coach in this image doesn’t appear to have actually been made, though there are some accounts that suggest that it did run between London and Birmingham for a time.

Steam coaches were experimented with between the 1820s and 1840s. They initially had some success however, a number of factors led to them falling out of favour. Heavy road tolls made the ventures expensive, and journeys on the uneven roads were less comfortable than on rails.