Description

65/0/10007 MONKS LANE
11-NOV-02 Monks Lane Filling Station

II

Petrol Filling Station, now service station. 1934. R.A. Wickens, Newbury for Messrs. Murray and Whittaker. Rendered brick behind concrete porte-cochere with flat roof and hipped pantile roof.
EXTERIOR: One-storey, flat-roof range with taller pyramidal hipped roof to centre, advanced to form porte-cochere. Porte-cochere supported on square plan piers with wide elliptical spandrels to each of the 3 open sides. Central hipped roof with green pantiles, flaring slightly upwards at base. Long green pantiles form continuous trim along flat roof of flanking wings with corner piers formerly carrying lights, 1 light fitting in situ. 3 pedestrian entrances, to centre and to each side of porte-cochere section. To right, wide garage door, to centre and left side display windows, each outlined in slightly advanced plain architraves. Petrol pumps and entrance piers do not survive.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORY: The Monk's Lane Filling Station was opened on the southern edge of Newbury in March 1934, promoted as an electrically operated filling station [as opposed to hand pumped], which was a new technology in the early-1930s. Petrol filling stations developed from the 1920s, before which time petrol was mostly sold in cans from car servicing garages, and then from roadside pumps erected without the benefit of planning regulations, which created a rather chaotic road-side environment. The passage of the 1927 Roadside Petrol Pumps Act and the Petroleum Act the following year outlined model bye-laws for controlling the appearance of the buildings from which petrol would be sold. This legislation, as well as campaigns by organisations such as the Council for the Protection of Rural England, prompted the development of acceptable styles and arrangements that were suited to their rural sites. While the earliest stations were often disguised in domesticity and picturesque detailing, this petrol filling station in Newbury is a good example of the first generation to clearly announce itself as a functional building, self-consciously devoted to the service of the automobile. A contemporary newspaper article, 'Petrol Pumps and Good Taste' highlighted the attractiveness of the station as well as the variety of services it offered, placing it firmly in the first generation of these buildings that newly paid careful attention to both.
SOURCES: Tony Calladine and Kathryn Morrison. Road Transport Buildings. Royal Commission of Historical Monuments of England, 1998.
22 March 1934. Newbury Weekly News.

A 1934 electric petrol filling station with known designer and patron, that is mostly intact in a distinctive style. It is a relatively uncommon survival that contributes to our understanding of this type of building that played an important role in the early-C20 landscape.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26633543

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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