Old Garages

[Andrew353w]

Yes, I can confirm it's a garage in Barnet High Street, and is on Hadley Common. The garage used to be a Renault dealership in the 1980s and is now a Pazza Express (recommended!) TheCYMA petrol company owned a number of forecourts in north London in the 1980s and 1990s and went broke in about 1995. The Renault dealers here were good; I bought a number of bits & bobs from them but they suffered the problem of all small dealerships and were swallowed by Renault Enfield.I live in Barnet and can recommend the Pizza Express! If you see a 1971 Wartburg outside I'm probably enjoying a Ceaser Salad and a bottle of Zorin white wine-join me!Andrew353w

[MrRegieRitmo]

Yes, I can confirm it's a garage in Barnet High Street, and is on Hadley Common. The garage used to be a Renault dealership in the 1980s and is now a Pazza Express (recommended!) TheCYMA petrol company owned a number of forecourts in north London in the 1980s and 1990s and went broke in about 1995. The Renault dealers here were good; I bought a number of bits & bobs from them but they suffered the problem of all small dealerships and were swallowed by Renault Enfield.I live in Barnet and can recommend the Pizza Express! If you see a 1971 Wartburg outside I'm probably enjoying a Ceaser Salad and a bottle of Zorin white wine-join me!Andrew353w

My nan lived in Barnet until Jan 96, in Hadley Ridge just around the corner from the old CYMA garage which I used to walk past on the way to the shops (that is if I didn't use the cut through at the end of her road). One thing I used to love doing when I was a child was to go down Hadley wood, with my parents & sister but sometimes just with dad & the culmination of the walk would be down to the railway bridge over the East Coast Mainline where we would wait & watch for trains, with me hoping to see intercity trains shoot past. We'd often hear them long before we got down to the bridge & miss it by the time we got there, or the other way around where we'd hang around for a few minutes, see nothing interesting, start to walk away, then when we were far enough away we'd hear the sound of an Intercity but we'd have no time to run back so we'd miss them that way too. In the early days I was too little to see over the bridge, so dad would have to lift me up (without dropping me over the side). Ahhh memories..... There was a similar thing going on when we would visit some close friends of ours that live in Harpenden & they also lived not far from a railway bridge where the Midland Mainline passed by. So I'd always try & fit in a little walk upto the railway bridge hoping to see the Intercity trains pass by.It's all boring for trains down here on the South Coast, their idea of a 'mainline' is a double track & the nearest Intercity / Cross Country services run from Brighton or Portsmouth to the North.

[Mash]

Here's one from my neck of the woods, just of the M62 at Howden near Hull. The garage sold BL/Rover for years right up to the bitter end and had some of the last new cars in the area. They still sell used ones and, as you can see, the showroom is still BL blue and white. Pic was taken about this time last year

 

[Mr Lobster]

Bloody hell, thats a proper place! Quality

[Ratdat]

I had to go down to Somerset yesterday and spied a cracking place at Bridgewater buy annoyingly the batteries on my camera had died. If anyone is down that way, check out the old Crypton Tuning HQ. It's on the A38 (Bristol Road) north of bridgewater and is a pretty cool art deco style building called Crypton House. It has the old Crypton logo high on the wall at the front. if anyone down that way can get a pic and post it up that'd be cracking as I'm gutted I couldn't get a pic.Here's the location...http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=51.14216 ... 12&src=msl

[Mash]

Whilst not strictly a garage in the sense of this thread, I thought this charming old place in Peel on the Isle of Man may be of interest. No prizes for guessing what its use is....

 

 

[andrew e]

A related subject perchance?

 

http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/index.html

[Guest Kyle]

I had to go down to Somerset yesterday and spied a cracking place at Bridgewater buy annoyingly the batteries on my camera had died. If anyone is down that way, check out the old Crypton Tuning HQ. It's on the A38 (Bristol Road) north of bridgewater and is a pretty cool art deco style building called Crypton House. It has the old Crypton logo high on the wall at the front. if anyone down that way can get a pic and post it up that'd be cracking as I'm gutted I couldn't get a pic.Here's the location...http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=51.14216 ... 12&src=msl

It's about 4 miles from my house. Next time I have to venture that way, I'll take the camera.

[pompei]

I 'ate you, Butler!

 

[Mr Lobster]

Lets dig this thread up and have a few more shall we?

 

 

 

Holmefield Garage in Rossendale for those who know it....

[trigger]

Just came across a link on THIS SITE to this garage at Prees Heath in Shropshire, If anyone lives near by i think we need some more photos!, There's even a Marina pick up in the yard and the pub next door is boarded up!

 

 

[brammy777]

Blimey! That is a find right there. Was that complete luck there Trig...?

[trigger]

Sadly not, I just saw a story about it on oldclassiccar.co.uk and then went google hunting for it!

 

This garage is in Colchester, It's never changed for as long as i remember though i do remember it when it used to sell petrol still, There was a Vauxhall Viva in the window for years up for sale as well, I'm sure it was way overpriced at the time.

 

[brammy777]

I remember a few years ago coming back from Edinburgh on the A1/M1, and right before, or just as you joined that road, there was a garage with loads of old tow lorries parked up, just rotting away. There was a LAD cabbed Albion, an Ergo cabbed something and a D series, from memory. Anyone know anything else? Most probably cleared now. It seems like yesterday when every little village on these main routes had some form of ancient garage with little gems either rotting or marked up hilariously parked outside.

[trigger]

What, You mean like this garage in Upton Upon Severn...

 

 

I remember when garages were like this as well, back in the good old days....

[bigstraight6]

Blimey, this thread is going back a bit! ironically saw this old garage in the village of Galhampton in Somerset today....

[autofive]

since this thread has been revived i will add a few

 

near st boswells, south scotland

 

 

Isle of Whithorn, west scotland, 1998

 

and Morpeth

 

 

scanned from old copies of Insught, the Ford technicians Journal

 

 

 

[HillmanImp]

Isle of Whithorn, west scotland, 1998

 

Whats going on there? I cant be that drunk? Is that for real?

[pbottomley]

spotted other day didn't have my camera but by the powers of woogle stripper view:

 

 

On the road out of Burton on Trent heading towards Ashby

[Tayne]

.

[Timewaster]

Whats going on there? I cant be that drunk? Is that for real?

You're not drunk, its just an old photo.That's why the prices are so low.

I think Hillman, like me, was wondering how that building is standing up?!It seems to defy gravity in a Pisa-esque way.

[autofive]

Isle of Whithorn, west scotland, 1998

 

Whats going on there? I cant be that drunk? Is that for real?

Former boat shed, when i first visited in 1994, was a running shop, off licence, fishing supplies, and petrol. Inside all the walls were all crooked and shelves sloping. Two elderly women ran the shop.

 

when i returned in 98, shop was shut, and empty

 

in 2002 the place was demolished

[Guest]

There's a garage with an old fashioned pump hidden away in a backstreet in Hale, which amuses me greatly. It's still a working repair shop, so I've had a great deal of difficulty getting a picture of it.In Comberbach (just outside Northwich) there's an attended filling station which I want to go back to. Alderley Edge has a crazy 60's monument that still sells cars and looks for all the world like an upturned speaker cone.If you're cruising down the A537 any time soon there's a fabulous old Ford garage with the old style typeface and a Mini City inside, a dead XJ6 round the back and a shagged Reliant Rialto van as ballast. There's also some kind of holding compound adjacent featuring cars as disparate as a Nissan S-Cargo and a Daimler SP 250.I must get a better shot of Morfa Garage near Conwy where I keep the Volvo. The last time I was there a crossply shod Rover P4 was sat under the canopy, looking for all the world like it hadn't moved in years.

[Mr Lobster]

If you're cruising down the A537 any time soon there's a fabulous old Ford garage with the old style typeface

This one presumably?

 

 

Drove past there quite a lot when I worked down that way. Nice to see that places like that still exist.

[uk_senator]

Aha! I knew this thread was out there somewhere. While spotting cars I've also spotted a couple of suitable establishments.

 

This place was still functioning until quite recently but seems to have developed eastern european car wash syndrome.

 

 

I remember this as a showroom but can't remember what make. It was derelict for some years before getting turned into this restaurant. At least the building is still mostly intact.

 

 

Just down the road is this ex Mobil petrol station, still being used as a garage. Again I remember this as it originally was from my childhood. I might have even once bought fuel there when I was 18 or something.

 

I know I`m a few years late, but I thought I`d mention a few things as I`m a `local`!

 

The first one is still operating as a car wash, seems to do a good trade too, the reason it died as a petrol station is because it was always generally around 10-15p a litre more than everywhere else locally (I`m not exagerating either). Yes it had a pump attendant, but even so, 10p a litre more?

 

The second one wasnt a car dealer to my knowledge, it was an `Iceland` then an M&S when I worked at the Mann Eggerton/Inchcape Rover dealer next door to it in the early 90`s, which is now an Audi dealer.

 

I know the Mobil garage too, they were always expensive as well which is why its now a garage (who used to specialise in VAG`s when I knew them.

 

You missed the ex-Total petrol station about another 1/8th of a mile down from the Mobil which is now a car rental firm.

 

There was also the Datsun/Nissan dealer on the A406 at East Finchley & another one opposite which was turned into an alloy wheel/tyre place in the 80`s when the North Circ was still just a 2 way road with a fire station on the corner of it.

 

I also worked at Broadfields Land Rover/Lancia in Cockfosters which also had a petrol station within it, although I only saw an aerial picture of it with the station on the wall of the office section, I think it closed in the mid 80`s. That was also a BMC dealer going back to at least the 50`s. Its now been flattened along with the pub next door (which used to have a yellow Fiat 128 estate there regularly parked outside) to make way for yet another flat development...

 

Do you remember Blatter Oakthorpe at the corner of Oakthorpe Rd Palmers Green on the A406 when it was a Ford dealer?

 

There was also the Skoda dealer in central Palmers Green & BMC (Bruce Motor Group) Lada at Bruce Grove that I nearly bought a new Riva 1.6 SLX from... Oh, & a Lada dealer in Mare Street Bethnal Green....

[VWPowered]

taken by my tanned hand

 

[Father Ted]

This is the best I can offer locally - everything else has gone and been re-developed into a Tesco Express.

I like the Red Diesel on pump at the back.

[Spottedlaurel]

There was also the Datsun/Nissan dealer on the A406 at East Finchley & another one opposite which was turned into an alloy wheel/tyre place in the 80`s when the North Circ was still just a 2 way road with a fire station on the corner of it.

Hiya!

 

Would that dealers have been Lambs of Finchley? Is the building still there?

 

A few that I've seen or scanned:

 

 

Got a few other old Colt ones to scan, from old in-house magazines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above all in North Suffolk, where things move fairly slowly.

 

 

Quite a few empty sites around Ipswich as the Co-Op/Sterling seemed to have got rid of a lot/all their franchises.

 

 

Scan from an old copy of Motor or Autocar. Possibly Norwich?

 

 

Former Kenning's, Norwich.

 

 

Yugo, FSO and Dacia sold from here in the '80s.

 

 

This one now does Kia.

 

 

Former Lada dealers in the middle of Bury St Edmunds.

 

 

I also like finding shots like this. The 240Z still exists! It’s an exhibit at the Haynes Museum – I don’t know if they’re aware of this little article from an old copy of Datsun Dealer, must get in touch one day. The Japanese makes seemed to attract a few larger-than-life dealers and minor celebrities.

[Mash]

spotted other day didn't have my camera but by the powers of woogle stripper view:

 

 

On the road out of Burton on Trent heading towards Ashby

What a star!!

 

I went past this place one evening as a passenger on a trip somewhere for work when we had to take a detour of the motorway. It was dark but I got a fleeting glimpse of this Art Deco palace and I've been trying to remember where it was ever since. By massive coincidence I was just about to ask if anyone knew where it was

[Dave7601]

This place is just north of Wooler,Northumberland.

Looks like the pumps havent been used for many years,but now they have been removed.