The rise of motoring in the early 1900s created a surge in demand for mechanical expertise to service, repair, refuel and sell vehicles, giving rise to garages and service stations. Architectural responses varied: inter-war eclectic styles adopted watered-down ye-olde-English details like mock-Tudor cladding, while 1930s modernism introduced streamlined, flat-roofed designs evoking liners and aircraft. Redundant or unusual buildings—churches, cinemas, railway arches, fire stations, shops and factories—found second lives as garages and filling stations. Some small petrol stations were adaptively reused as tearooms. The introduction of the Ministry of Transport vehicle test in the 1960s further expanded demand for testing and servicing.
As motoring became popular in the early 1900s, the need for mechanical expertise to service, repair, refuel and sell vehicles soared and the garage' was born.In the spirit of Ed Ruscha's Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), photographer Philip Butler has travelled the length and breadth of Britain photographing these diverse, eccentric and idiosyncratic buildings.All photographs: Philip Butler. 226 Garages and Service Stations is published by Fuel
Perhaps the most inescapable example of this was the enthusiasm for black mock-Tudor beams cladding the upper floors of a property, and to ensure new garages in the area would comfortably gel with their surroundings, they often followed suit By the 1930s the modernist movement pioneered in Europe was starting to have an influence on British architecture. Futuristic structures with smooth streamlined forms and flat roofs became calling cards for the trendiest businesses.
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