The approval of the change of use for the petrol station within the landmark Lyon’s Place building along Edgware Rd to an electric charging point station at last weeks City of Westminster planning Committee, should herald a new age in electric infrastructure in London and the demise of the council’s Petrol station preservation Transport Policy.
Starting with the latter, this decision should see the death of Transport Policy 17 in the Westminster Council UDP to preserve petrol stations. So it will be very interesting to see what now happens to other developments where the Council insisted that they have petrol stations incorporated into them like the one along Cleveland St, Fitzrovia. As it is noticeable that we have been losing petrol stations in Central London for the past 10-15 years anyway.
This while its clear to me that we have been losing petrol stations in Central London for sometime, as car ownership drops amongst local residents and those with cars still are prepared to travel further away to “tank up” the car. As it is noticeable that we have been losing petrol stations in Central London for the past 10-15 years anyway. And in the Church St ward that Lyon’s Place building finds itself in, we have car ownership dropping down to 35 per cent since the beginning of the century when it stood at 50 per cent.
So this landmark development won’t just be the place we have the big red retro-petrol pumps making it stand out along the Edgware Rd but also be the first place where we saw a petrol station converted into a major electric charging point station. Marking a major advancement in the electric infrastructure of London for the new future of electric cars and buses on the streets of London.
Petrol filling station has now been removed from Cleveland Street development by planning permission for electric charging station; then that was subsequently removed with another planning application to an on-street charging station nearby (approved or pending decision).
Lyons Place is the recently built residential / retail development at 466 Edgware Rd. That site was previously occupied by the Hamilton Motors building, which was erected, I believe, in the 1930s, and was recently demolished. It was a Vauxhall and Bedford main dealer. Hamilton Motors also operated a driving school and Esso station on the site. I was employed at Hamilton Motors in 1975-1976. I worked the pumps, as well as accepting, preparing and delivering new Vauxhall cars. At that time, there was one line of petrol pumps directly in front of the building along Edgware Rd. Vehicles entered the station on Edgware Rd. and exited on Orchardson St. Petrol pumps delivered 2, 4 and 5-star, plus unleaded for U.S. military member private vehicles (we also had an account with the U.S. Embassy). There were two diesel pumps (derv), located on the property along Orchardson. The Esso station was open 24 hours / 7 days, except it was closed for 8 hours for the overnight Sunday shift. We had a small shed in the line of pumps housing the cash register. We served lots of black cabs (derv). The petrol station manager wanted to install another derv tank in order to increase sales volume, but Hamilton Motor’s family owners declined to make that expenditure. Some time later, the Esso station was moved to the north side of the site, and the original station was cleared away, leaving an open forecourt for the dealership.
Thank you for the history of the pumps Richard before the new development and the new electric points for cars