The coach was commissioned on 4 April 1757 by the Lord Mayor Elect, Sir Charles Asgill and completed in good time for his inauguration on 9 November that year. Each Alderman contributed £60 toward the cost, and the Lord Mayor himself £100, the total cost being £1065. The architect of the coach was Sir Robert Taylor and the coachmaker Joseph Berry, of Leather Lane near Holborn.Since then, the coach has been used regularly, generally once a year, by successive Lord Mayors. It has been more or less regularly maintained over two and a half centuries of use, and periodically regilded. The last major overhaul was in 1952, when the carriage was entirely stripped down and cleaned, with parts repaired or replaced where necessary and the wood preserved and strengthened, before being regilded, revarnished reupholstered and reassembled.