It was founded in 1810 by Samuel Chappell in partnership with music professors Francis Tatton Latour and Johann Baptist Cramer. Cramer was also a well-known London composer, teacher and pianist. The firm's premises included large showrooms for pianos and other musical instruments and sheet music on several floors and became a prominent landmark on Bond Street. Chappell was active in forming the Philharmonic Society. The firm's reputation grew fast, and in 1819, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote to a colleague regarding a piece that he wished to publish, "Potter says that Chappell in Bond Street is now one of the best publishers." Chappell died in 1834, and his oldest son William Chappell took over, managing the firm on behalf of his widowed mother, Emily Chappell née Patey. Around 1843, William left to join Cramer & Co. and later to found the Percy Society and the Musical Antiquarian Society. His younger brotherThomas Patey Chappell then took charge. Originally concentrating on music publishing and concert promotion, the firm started manufacturing pianos in the 1840s. Thomas extended the publishing business of Chappell & Co. and focused the publishing company on musical theatre, a specialty that is still important to the success of Chappell today. The firm promoted concerts, operas and other events that might create a market for music sales. Thomas conceived of and sponsored the Monday and Saturday Popular Concerts at St James Hall, which was partly owned by the family. The concerts were successfully managed by a younger brother, Samuel Arthur Chappell, until they came to an end in 1901. One of Tom Chappell's successes was the publication of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas and other music of Arthur Sullivan, as well as, earlier, Gounod's Faust, Balfe's The Bohemian Girl. He was also one of the original directors of the Royal College of Music and one of the original governors of the Royal Albert Hall. Thomas died in 1902. Thomas was of the founding members of the Music Publishers Association and became the Association's first Chairman and held the office between 1881 and 1900. William Boosey wrote, During the 20th century, Chappell became one of the leading music publishers and piano manufacturers in Britain. The firm was bought by the Dreyfus brothers in 1926. In 1964, the building was destroyed by fire but was subsequently rebuilt. By the late 1970s, the firm had become a worldwide music publishing leader famous for publishing musical theatre works, including Rodgers and Hammerstein. In 1980, Chappell sold its retail activities to concentrate solely on music publishing. Its premises on London's Bond Street were bought by Kemble Pianos, a large distributor of Yamaha pianos, who operated the music store under the name of Chappell of Bond Street. The Chappell & Co. publishing business was later acquired by PolyGram. In 1984, PolyGram sold off Chappell to a group of investors, who sold the company 1987 to Warner Communications for $200 million, which merged its music publishing firms to form Warner/Chappell Music. It is currently owned by Warner Music Group after Time Warnerspun off its music business in 2004.
