In 1906 the enterprise which was to become the Bentley Piano Company was founded in London by Douglas Grover, already the third generation of Grover piano makers, as his father and grandfather also produced Grover & Grover pianos. The earliest references date this business to 1830, and at its peak the annual output exceeded 500 instruments. A Grover & Grover from 1872 stands in the Geffrye Museum in Shoreditch.

The company was now known as the Stroud Piano Co. Ltd., and production expanded in the 1920s, as construction of keyboards began in 1921. In 1930, Douglas, now joined by his son Richard, launched a fresh overstrung design to be sold under the new Bentley name, followed four years later by a 4-foot 6-inch (1.37 m) grand. The Bentley models were an immediate success, so that during the 1930s the company became a major producer.

In 1991, the Bentley Piano Co. Ltd. celebrated eighty-five years of business, benefiting from a family tradition extending back five generations to the first part of the last century.

In 1993, the Bentley Piano Co. Ltd. was acquired by another prestigious company, Whelpdale Maxwell & Codd Ltd. Production was moved to the Clapham Park factory, where Bentleys were made, and follows the original specifications that create that unique Bentley sound.

On Monday, 7th April 2003, the British Piano Manufacturing Co. Ltd. went into voluntary liquidation, taking with it Bentley pianos. InterMusic of Pool Dorset, England have bought the Bentley piano name.