Petrol Stop

On the corner of a London street is, what was, the site of Central London's oldest petrol station which opened in 1926.  The Ridgmount Petrol Station (also known as Bloomsbury Petrol Station) closed in 2008.  There was a failed attempt to get it listed and today the site is occupied by a burger chain and office buildings. Where the outdoor seating is in the photograph was once the petrol station forecourt which can be seen on Vici MacDonald's 'Shopfront Elegy' blog here.  I haven't been able to find a period photograph of the petrol station but did discover on the way that the history of petrol pumps is called Petroliana and here is a photograph of some 1920s petrol pumps somewhere in rural Britain.     

Of course what attracted my attention in this corner of London was

the eye-catching ceramic mural by the automobile artist Brian James influenced by Art Deco style. The work was commissioned by the Bedford Estate who own much of the land and features a Bedford van and sports car of the 1930s.  The driver is Mary Dutchess of Bedford of whose eventful life a whole book could be written.  She took up flying in her 60s but disappeared at the beginning of a solo flight in bad weather somewhere over the North Sea in 1937.  The colour chosen in the mural was the Bedford Racing colours.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at P here