Help name Britain’s golden garages

25th August 2007

It's in with the old and out with the new for filling stations.

Forecourts are disappearing from the high street at a rate of knots. But bosses at English Heritage say they want to save some of these “glorious gar­ages” from the scrapheap – especially sites such as the Bloomsbury Service Sta­tion, which is the oldest in London.

The organisation is compiling a directory of unusual or attractive vehicle-related buildings – ranging from dealerships to car parks, and roadside cafés to factories – to cele­brate the impact of more than 100 years of the automobile.

It’s asking enthusiasts and clubs to E-mail details and pictures of examples to English Heritage senior arch­itectural investigator John Min­nis (john.minnis@english-heritage.org.uk).

But saving fill­ing station forecourts is the last thing on one campaigner’s mind. Charles Riddle from Brandon, Suffolk, is so angry with spiralling fuel costs, he’s trying to force big players such as BP and Esso to cut prices. Riddle has sent out E-mails petitioning motorists to boycott the firms for the rest of the year, and refuel elsewhere. The idea is that if each reci­pient sends the original E-mail to 10 others, it will reach millions of motorists.