PastImperfect: Petrol stationsIt seems that petrol stations are becoming rarer on the landscape as the value of the land on which they were built - particularly in urban locations - rises and they succumb to re-development. Petrol stations have been a part of the landscape now for so long that it's hard to imagine what it was like before them. To find the answer, we have to go back to that famous piece of automotive legislation, the Locomotives on the Highway Act 1896.
This law raised the speed limit and allowed cars to be driven without the need for it to be preceded by someone on foot with a red flag. Less well remembered is that it also allowed motorists to store 40 gallons of motor spirit, providing it was kept in special tanks holding 20 gallons each.
Thus, in the early days of motoring, the fuel companies delivered to the customer's house or to a local rail station from where the motor spirit could be collected. Motoring then being purely a recreational pursuit, a small supply such as this was sufficient.
The first premises from which petrol was sold were bicycle shops, chemists and ironmongers, with hotels also finding it worthwhile to make supplies available to touring motorists.
Concerns about the storage of petrol led to amendments to the legislation which required all containers for "conveying or keeping" petrol to not exceed two gallons in capacity.
The result changed the appearance of cars almost overnight, as motorists took advantage of the convenience offered by carrying a two-gallon can on the running board.
The success of these two-gallon containers brought about the first "petrol promotion", when Anglo-American offered five shillings for the return of 100 of the lead seals used to prevent the cans being opened prior to use. Such a sum would have been unlikely to influence most car owners, but for a chauffeur it represented a sizeable proportion of their weekly wage. By 1913, the numbers of cars had grown dramatically and it was clear that some sort of bulk storage system of distribution was required to meet the needs of motorists.
One of the first petrol "pumps" to appear in Britain or Ireland was at Rawlings Belgrave Garage in London, which opened for business in 1912 and clearly showed the way forward. It was not until 1920 that the first dedicated filling station opened in Britain, and this was run by the AA who operated the station for the benefit of their members and made no profit on the sale of petrol.
This station, at Aldermaston, was the prototype for all that were to follow with underground storage tanks, an air compressor and toilets. The petrol station had well and truly arrived.