Short answer
What the Vauxhall logo symbol means
Vauxhall uses a griffin, a creature with a lion's body and an eagle's head, because it is traditionally tied to Falkes de Breauté, a thirteenth-century soldier under King John whose London house, Fulk's Hall, gave the Vauxhall district its name. Vauxhall Iron Works adopted the griffin as its emblem to stress those local roots. The attribution is not firm, though: the arms that the chronicler Matthew Paris drew for Falkes show a cinquefoil, not a griffin.
Quick read
Vauxhall logo at a glance
- Symbol
- The griffin, a winged lion with an eagle head
- Traditional source
- Arms said to belong to Falkes de Breauté
- Name link
- Fulk's Hall became Fawkes Hall, Foxhall, then Vauxhall
- Company founded
- 1857, Vauxhall district of London, by Alexander Wilson
- Moved to Luton
- 1905
- Documented arms of Falkes
- A silver cinquefoil on red (Matthew Paris)
Interactive logo decoder
The Vauxhall Griffin Roundel
The red roundel
The circle holds the whole emblem in one compact shape. Wikipedia notes the badge used to be square and became round to fit the recess made for Opel's circular emblem.
Highlighted on the logoThe griffin
A winged lion with an eagle's head, shown in profile as a solid red shape. It is said to come from the coat of arms of Falkes de Breauté, whose house gave the district and the company its name.
Highlighted on the logoThe V flag
A white V on a flag appears at the griffin's left, a detail carried over from the older black griffin that held a flagged pole. The V stands for the Vauxhall initial.
Highlighted on the logoThe wordmark
The VAUXHALL name is set in wide, heavy navy capitals below the roundel. It is the only part of the logo that is not red.
Highlighted on the logoWho was Falkes de Breauté and what is his link to the Vauxhall griffin?
Falkes de Bréauté was a Norman soldier who served King John in the early thirteenth century and was granted the Manor of Luton. His house on the south bank of the Thames was known as Fulk's Hall. Over the years the name drifted to Fawkes Hall, then Foxhall, and finally Vauxhall, which is the district where Vauxhall began in 1857 as a maker of pumps and marine engines.
When the company built cars, it borrowed the griffin that is popularly said to have been Falkes's device. The company moved to Luton in 1905, and the story often told is that the griffin thereby returned to the town of its supposed owner. That last point is a neat narrative rather than a documented decision about the badge.
Was the Vauxhall griffin really his emblem?
Probably not in the way the badge implies. The arms attributed to Falkes in Matthew Paris's thirteenth-century Chronica Majora are a silver cinquefoil, a five-petaled flower, on a red field. The griffin is only popularly said to have been his device, and the sources used here do not show a thirteenth-century griffin tied to him.
So the honest summary is in two parts. The name link between Falkes and Vauxhall is well documented. The idea that the company's griffin copies his coat of arms is the company's tradition, repeated by writers for a century, and it is not supported by the heraldry that survives.
The Vauxhall flag with a V and the round badge
The oldest griffin in the archive is a black figure holding a pole with a flag marked V, and the 1924 badge above already shows a griffin with a V flag. The V stands for Vauxhall. Reports on the 2026 redesign say the flag had been part of the Griffin since the 1950s, but the exact date it first appeared is not settled in the sources used here.
The shape of the badge changed too. Wikipedia reports that the emblem used to be square and became circular to fit the recess made for the round emblem on cars shared with Opel. The griffin has been redrawn many times: Wikipedia counts nine redesigns since the 1920s, while Vauxhall's own 2026 announcement, as reported, calls the new design its thirteenth Griffin. The counts differ, and the sources do not list each version.
The 2026 Vauxhall griffin logo has no flag
Reports published on 1 October 2026 say Vauxhall has revealed a flatter, more angular griffin without the V flag, to be shown on the STX concept at the 2026 Paris Motor Show. Vauxhall links the change to its “Bold and Pure” design language and to badges that have to work when backlit. The archive on this site still shows the 2020 version, a flat red roundel with the flag, so the new emblem is not covered here beyond those reports.
Logo archive
Vauxhall logo versions through the years
1857 The black griffin with a flag 
1983 The red square 
2003 Glossy red and silver 
2009 Chrome ring on red - 2020 Flat red and navy
Frequently asked questions
Vauxhall logo symbol questions answered
Why does Vauxhall have a griffin?
Vauxhall Iron Works adopted the griffin to stress its local roots. It is popularly tied to Falkes de Breauté, whose London house, Fulk's Hall, gave the district and the company its name.
Is the Vauxhall griffin Falkes de Breauté's coat of arms?
That is the company's story but it is not certain. The arms drawn for him by Matthew Paris show a silver cinquefoil on a red field, not a griffin.
What does the V on the Vauxhall flag stand for?
It stands for Vauxhall. The flag has been carried by the griffin for decades, and the 2026 redesign reported by the press removes it.
Is the Vauxhall griffin the same as the Saab griffin?
No. Both are griffins, but they have different origins. Saab's griffin comes from the coat of arms of the Scania region, while Vauxhall's is tied to the Vauxhall district of London.
Why did the Vauxhall badge become round?
Wikipedia says it used to be square and became circular to fit the recess made for the round emblem of Opel, the sister company under General Motors.
Keep reading
More logo meanings
References
Sources for the Vauxhall logo story
- Wikipedia — Vauxhall Motors
- Wikipedia — Falkes de Bréauté
- Wikipedia — Andrew Betts Brown
- autoevolution — Vauxhall griffin logo redesign without the flag (1 October 2026)
Vauxhall logo and history. Logo images are an educational reference archive.