'226 Garages and Service Stations', by Philip Butler
FUEL Publishing, 2025. Hardback, 252 pages, ₤26.95. ISBN: 978-1-7398878-9-6. https://fuel-design.com/publishing/
Photographer Philip Butler (author of London Tube Stations) has travelled the length and breadth of Britain photographing striking examples of garages and service stations.
Although primarily a coffee-table picture book (and the photos are excellent), Butler provides an interesting written introduction to the subject.
The book covers sites from the early days of motoring, when existing buildings — even churches — were converted to garage use, through the glamour years before the Second World War, to more recent constructions.
London is well represented including well-known examples like East Sheen Filling Station (the oldest surviving operational public petrol station in the UK), the Park Langley 'Chinese' Garage in Beckenham, and Michelin House in Chelsea. Also pictured are several lesser known examples, providing a stunning visual record of the era of the combustion engine which may soon be drawing to a close.
The breadth and diversity of the sites featured begs the question, is enough being done by industrial archaeologists to record this aspect of motoring history? Most of the sites covered are not even listed.
If you want to visit some of the sites, here's a list of those in Greater London:
- Michelin House, Chelsea
- East Sheen Filling Station, Richmond
- Former Park Langley 'Chinese' Garage, Beckenham
- Chu's Garage, London Fields
- Putney Bridge Body Shop, Putney
- Frame Right Auto Engineers, Bethnal Green
- Mercury Motors, Twickenham
- Gee & Co Park Service Station, Feltham
- Marlborough Service Station, Archway
- Dollis Hill Garage, Dollis Hill
- Roberts Motorworks, South Woodford
- Former J C Brodie Ltd, Fulham
- Former Daimler Hire Garage, Bloomsbury
- Southfields Tyre & Battery Services, Wandsworth
- Wealdstone Motors, Harrow
- Chelsea Cars, Wandsworth
- Former Harvey Hudson's, South Woodford
- Furlongs, Woolwich
- Former Athenaeum Service Station, Islington
- Former Cooper Motor Works, Surbiton
Also of interest to readers, by the same publishers check out London Estates: Modernist Council Housing 1946—1981 (2024) and London Tube Stations: 1924—1961 (2023).