Eye-catching black and whites

[lesapandre]

6 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Is that not the sort of lighting allowed in war time? I think pic is post war but obviously some people used the same car and never changed the lights .

Up to the early 1930's there was no legal requirement to have headlamps on vehicles (!) - I think after that a single headlamp was legal for a time (!).

[lesapandre]

A wet day in France - the garage building is still there but is closed and converted to flats. All the signage went long ago alas.

[lesapandre]

Today: 

[martc]

20 hours ago, Remspoor said:

On the left - that wide pillar must be a clue - could it be a 1100, but are those in the future? Wasn't there a French car with a large pillar like that? There's a hint of a boot to it. The one on the right is deceptive you can see both  Renault 8 or Rolls Royce Shadow in it, but it's not going to be them (too small/time traveller) so, as Mr pastry says it's probably a Standard.

All the cars jammed together - could be valet parking. My hire car was parked in a similar manner in Boston USofA. They asked when I planned to be back and roughly stacked them in the order they would be picked up in (see also airport parking). Someone turned up early and there was a lot of maneuvering to get their car out, you know those 3x3 puzzles with 8 movable tiles you shift to make a pattern? well it was like that. And the swearing, in a thick Bostonian accent, was well worth the admission ticket.

[JeeExEll]

Peugeot 403 on the right?  Light coloured one possibly another 403?  Just guessing.  Don't know.

[Mr Pastry]

44 minutes ago, martc said:

On the left - that wide pillar must be a clue - could it be a 1100, but are those in the future? Wasn't there a French car with a large pillar like that? There's a hint of a boot to it. The one on the right is deceptive you can see both  Renault 8 or Rolls Royce Shadow in it, but it's not going to be them (too small/time traveller) so, as Mr pastry says it's probably a Standard.

All the cars jammed together - could be valet parking. My hire car was parked in a similar manner in Boston USofA. They asked when I planned to be back and roughly stacked them in the order they would be picked up in (see also airport parking). Someone turned up early and there was a lot of maneuvering to get their car out, you know those 3x3 puzzles with 8 movable tiles you shift to make a pattern? well it was like that. And the swearing, in a thick Bostonian accent, was well worth the admission ticket.

I'm not so sure about the Standard now and there is a similar one behind it in the close up.   Do we have a date for the photo?- I think no later than 1962.

[martc]

Another thought I had was a Daimler Majestic. Or an Armstrong Siddeley 234?

This is them, even if only for elimination purposes....

Daimler

Armstrong Siddeley.

[lesapandre]

2 hours ago, martc said:

On the left - that wide pillar must be a clue - could it be a 1100, but are those in the future? Wasn't there a French car with a large pillar like that? There's a hint of a boot to it. The one on the right is deceptive you can see both  Renault 8 or Rolls Royce Shadow in it, but it's not going to be them (too small/time traveller) so, as Mr pastry says it's probably a Standard.

All the cars jammed together - could be valet parking. My hire car was parked in a similar manner in Boston USofA. They asked when I planned to be back and roughly stacked them in the order they would be picked up in (see also airport parking). Someone turned up early and there was a lot of maneuvering to get their car out, you know those 3x3 puzzles with 8 movable tiles you shift to make a pattern? well it was like that. And the swearing, in a thick Bostonian accent, was well worth the admission ticket.

These pictures are great for a bit of sleuthing with a cup of tea. I think this is valet parking or at least people directed to a spot by the attendant.

So...

I think we are talking about a lot of quite well off people here attending a single posh event around 1954 - where everyone was arriving and leaving around the same time - some kind of performance or meeting?

I say that because the cars are an unusual mix of expensive at the time recent vehicles - there is an Austin Princess A135, at least two Armstrong Siddeley Sapphires, various Rover P4's, Lea Francis, Daimler Conquest, Triumph Renown etc - more than you would normally find in the average early 50's street scene - there are less cheap cars parked there - you know clapped out vans, Austin 7's, Ford Pops and Morris cars etc normally seen. Many cars parked there are pretty new at the time and very pricey. The kind of cars driven by the comfortably well-off.

[lesapandre]

2 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

I'm not so sure about the Standard now and there is a similar one behind it in the close up.   Do we have a date for the photo?- I think no later than 1962.

One of the P4 Rovers seems to have the David Bache restyled rear window which came out in October 1954...so some time after October 1954...

[Yoss]

The kiosk in the bottom right corner has the word holiday on it three times which would also point to valet parking. Can't make out any of the other words but it makes some sense. 

[lesapandre]

Studebaker Land Cruiser 1950?

[Mr Pastry]

Door handles on the large car are distinctive, and don't quite match anything I can think of.  1955 onwards  Morris Isis? 

 

 

[Yoss]

Do we know where it is? Have I missed that from the original post? I'm sure somebody could tell from the buses, though I realise we don't even know what colour they are. 

[J W Pepper]

21 hours ago, adw1977 said:

What's going on with the car on the right?  It seems to have only one headlight, really low down.

Perhaps it was either in an accident, or fell off or was something to do with WW2

[busmansholiday]

2 hours ago, Yoss said:

Do we know where it is? Have I missed that from the original post? I'm sure somebody could tell from the buses, though I realise we don't even know what colour they are. 

Bolton bus station. Deckers are maroon with cream. Bus on far left looks to be a Ribble SARO (Saunders-Roe) bodied Tiger Cub which were new in 1954. 

[lesapandre]

Hmmm...having looked at this again - I'm guessing the owners of the cars are attending  an event at the Bolton Albert Halls - capacity 600. Given that some of the cars visible are introduced in late 1954 - I'm going to date this daytime spring/summer 1955 by the lack of deep shadows. So all we need is a copy of the local paper for 1955 and we could probably identify an event to attract the well-heeled.

Well definitely maybe...

There are three Armstrong Siddeley Sapphires in the car park - I'm guessing some kind of wool/cloth merchants or clothing manufacturers jamboree. 

There is also on the far left a very raffish Ford Consul or Zephyr convertible on whitewalls...somebody cut a real dash in that in the early '50's.

[Remspoor]

London post the expansion of the ULEZ. Classic vehicles are exempt.🤣

[lesapandre]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

London post the expansion of the ULEZ. Classic vehicles are exempt.🤣

Austin Westminster A99 peeping out from behind the Wolseley.  Looks like the North Circular.

[High Jetter]

A40 & Ford Classic behind, and an Anglia

[somewhatfoolish]

11 hours ago, Remspoor said:

London post the expansion of the ULEZ. Classic vehicles are exempt.🤣

The rocker seems to be riding something villiers powered judging by the egg-shaped crankcase, throwing out a destroyer-sized smokescreen too. What's the sporty number behind the Wolseley 1.5?

[J W Pepper]

14 hours ago, Remspoor said:

London post the expansion of the ULEZ. Classic vehicles are exempt.🤣

Would be good if that happens, but highly unlikely

[lesapandre]

6 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

The rocker seems to be riding something villiers powered judging by the egg-shaped crankcase, throwing out a destroyer-sized smokescreen too. What's the sporty number behind the Wolseley 1.5?

That's the Westminster I think - the distance and dip in the road making it look lower and sporty - crisp bit of Farina styling though. Think what the history of BL might have been if they'd kept on with Italian styling.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

That's the Westminster I think - the distance and dip in the road making it look lower and sporty - crisp bit of Farina styling though. Think what the history of BL might have been if they'd kept on with Italian styling.

Ahem….

 

[lesapandre]

Ahem ahem...

https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/morris/ital/

It  was Harris Mann and some apprentices at Pressed Steel Fisher pretending to be Italian. Ital weren't pleased.

[JeeExEll]

2 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Ahem ahem...

https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/morris/ital/

It  was Harris Mann and some apprentices at Pressed Steel Fisher pretending to be Italian. Ital weren't pleased.

The aronline link to the Chinese 'Itals' which were made into the late 1990s is interesting.

[lesapandre]

1 hour ago, JeeExEll said:

The aronline link to the Chinese 'Itals' which were made into the late 1990s is interesting.

It's funny you know - the Marina and Ital estates had quite a different image to the cars. Work-a-day but quite classy in a utility way . The kind of car driven by the local vet or farmers wife etc.  Sold quite well I recall.

A very late Ital with the revised suspension set-up sounds interesting.

[lesapandre]

Priceless.

A comedy line-up...and the Two Ronnie's.

[artdjones]

On 5/10/2022 at 11:11 PM, sheffcortinacentre said:

Think that was supposed to be a police car.

A friend of mine had an ex police 2.5PI in about 1979 that had those plain hubcaps. 

[Remspoor]

9 hours ago, lesapandre said:

That's the Westminster I think - the distance and dip in the road making it look lower and sporty - crisp bit of Farina styling though. Think what the history of BL might have been if they'd kept on with Italian styling.

The car is way to low. look at the head of the driver v the top of the windscreen. It is some sort of large sports car. the roof also looks as if it is fabric.

After your comment I looked up similar looking cars (with twin vertical headlamps. I thought it might be a Facel Vega. However, they do not have chrome strips. Plus the overriders on this car are not the same either.

 

[DSdriver]

On 5/11/2022 at 12:38 PM, lesapandre said:

Newest cars I can spot are a Ford 100E or Phase 2 Vanguard which would make that 1954 or just after. 

Pre-MoT days when a lot of really old cars hung on Post-War.

When you say "really old" consider what a 1904 car would look like an my 1973 Citroen DS which is coming up for its 50th birthday!