An Early Garage

Sir,

The historic photograph that you printed in the March issue spurred me to send the enclosed picture. It is of a firm, just a few doors up the road from us, Allan Taylor (Motors) Ltd., in Wandsworth High Street.

My father tells me that the picture was taken in about 1920 and shows some of the firm’s Directors. It is especially interesting to me because two of the cars in the picture belonged to my grandfather and were always driven by my father. The first car he ever drove is inside the showrooms facing the camera. It is an Italian SPA of pre-1914. This was so “clapped” that it would consume three gallons of the thickest sump oil on a weekend run to Hastings and back. These trips to Hastings must have been quite hair-raising, as the family usually travelled late at night and the SPA was far from reliable.

The car in the foreground of the picture is the second car they owned and is a 1914 Napier. My father recalls that this was a much more reliable vehicle, which ran for many happy miles. One drawback was all the brass work, which took “all afternoon to clean” and on a muggy evening would go dull in half an hour.

Wandsworth, SW 18 P. Child

(W. G. Child & Sons Ltd.)