Clark and Lambert of Eastbourne - Triumph car dealers 10

Clark and Lambert Limited of Eastbourne number 10 in an occasional series about Triumph car dealers in the UK.

Clark & Lambert door sill plate

Clark & Lambert Ltd Triumph 2000 1970 advert

A short history of Clark & Lambert

The workshops and stores were on the upper level at Clark & Lambert, and entered and exited via steep, spiral concrete rampways from the ground level. It's fair to say they were 'interesting' to drive up and down, and the walls bore the scars of various vehicles that had bounced off them, including our own Caffyns Minor van!---said boxofbits from the TR Register.

Clark & Lambert -Trinity Place Garage

Clark & Lambert - Trinity Place Garage before and after

The Classic cinema is said to been open between 1938 and 1965. Reading www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/news/local/rolling-back-years-... I wonder if the car dealer and car park operated from premises behind the central cinema portion at first.

The firm is also listed as a Land Rover dealer in 1950.

Trinity Place Garage advertised their car parking in 1950.

Fleet order of Heralds supplied by Willetts through Clark & Lambert

A fleet of 19 Triumph Heralds was supplied by Willetts through Clark & Lambert for British Uralite Co Ltd reported in Standard Triumph Review January 1961.

Show and Service Weeks

Factory staff visited the Trinity Place branch on several occasions to assist the branch with special promotional Show and Service Weeks over the years including 2nd to 6th March 1963 and again between 24th and 28th May 1965. A further Show and Service took place during the week 8th to 12th January 1967.

Clark & Lambert invoice

Clark & Lambert Ltd invoice dated 16 September 1957

Former Cinema converted to showroom

Mrs. M, Lambert, Fyfe Robertson, the Mayor of Eastbourne, and Mr. M. Lambert, Director and a founder of the firm, at the opening ceremony

Fyfe Robertson, the then well-known BBC television personality, opened the new showrooms of Clark and Lambert Ltd, Standard-Triumph Distributors in Eastbourne. The Mayor of Eastbourne and other local dignitaries were also present. The new showroom, illustrated, is a conversion of the former Classic Cinema, immediately adjoining the main premises of the Company. By a fortunate historical coincidence both buildings were designed by the same architect so that the two blend harmoniously.

Clark & Lambert Ltd Eastbourne new 1965 showroom exterior

Before negotiations started for the Cinema premises in May, 1965, the company were able to display only half their stock of cars, and the new premises have added a welcome 4,000 sq. ft.  Clark and Lambert's main building was opened at the end of 1937, and the new showrooms have an interesting history having been erected in 1926 as an indoor riding school and being used for that purpose until the 1930's. It opened as a cinema in 1938 and continued until November 1965. Structural alterations started in February 1965. A feature is the enlarged stage as a show area for a car and the retention of the sloping floor as an aid to display.

Clark & Lambert Ltd Eastbourne new 1965 showroom interior

Herald fleet order

A fleet of 19 Triumph Herald cars supplied by Willetts (Eastlbourne) Ltd through Clark & Lambert Ltd for British Uralite Co Ltd in 1961.

Dealers address and other Eastbourne Triumph dealers

In the 1965 Triumph Service Directory listing for Eastbourne:

Clark & Lambert Ltd, Trinity Place Garage. 'Phone 4660. Distributor
Cornfield Garage Ltd, 21 Cornfield Road. 'Phone 2244. Dealer
Willetts (Eastlbourne) Ltd 85/87 South Street. 'Phonc 2384 Dealer

In 1968/69 only Clark & Lambert are listed for Eastbourne.

In the 1974 the listing the firm is still listed at Trinity Place Garage as a distributor but the name has changed to Clarke & Lambert (Prop. Caffyns Ltd) to reflect the business being bought by Caffyns in 1970.

Plea for information

Have you got information or recollections about Clark & Lambert Ltd? I am looking for photos of window stickers, dealer badges or sill plates etc.  I can be contacted via the comments to this post or on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/TriumphCarDealers

Further information and sources

Link to the other articles in this series.

Link to facebook page: Triumph Car Dealers.

Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr group which includes many photos of Standard Triumph garages etc from my collection and many other contributors .

I have a collection of Standard Triumph car dealer directories: http://vitessesteve.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/triumph-car-dealer-directories.html

Picture credits: Views of the garage building Grenville Godfrey on Flickr; Door sill plate photo from David Bowers; Trinity Place Garage advert from gracesguide.com; other images from the Standard Triumph Review.

All Electric Garages of Harborne, Birmingham - Triumph Car Dealers 9

This is the ninth in an occasional series about Triumph car dealers in the UK.

All Electric Garages rear screen sticker

All Electric Garages round sticker

All Electric Garages are still trading and on their website this is what they say about themselves:

The All Electric Garage was the first garage in England to be equipped with electric petrol pumps in 1915 - hence the name!
Amazingly enough All Electric opened in 1968 at a site opposite in High Street Harborne, the country’s first self- service petrol station.  This became All Electrics second site.
The original garage was based in Greenfield Road Harborne and it was this garage site that John Leek purchased in 1967.  It was then an MG and Triumph dealership.  John’s background was a trainee mechanic with Evans and Kitchen in Birmingham, gaining engineering qualifications and hands on selling experience in establishing the following franchises with his first employer -  NSU, Skoda, BMW, Volga, Saab, all of these prior to 1967!  This gave John the appetite for multi franchising and All Electric in the 70’s and 80’s became the first business to operate multi-franchise sites in the Midlands.
All Electric grew organically through the 70’s 80’s and 90’s into a 14 garage operation selling Volvo’s, Mazda, Hyundai, Austin Rover, Morris, Skoda, Citroen, Peugeot, Suzuki, Chrysler Jeep, TVR and many others
Due to management shrewd property decisions the group has weathered many of the downturn fluctuations that have hit the economic structure of the country and particularly the motor trade.  At its peak All Electric employed nearly 300 people and the company has been steered to stable waters and still employs over 100 colleagues. Over the last couple of years we have moved away from the large show rooms and steered in the direction of the internet where we have found prices are most competitive.  In fact 75% of All Electrics used cars are sold over the internet, followed by a showroom visit.
The group sells and services thousands of new and used vehicles annually and in these turbulent times is proud to offer an oasis of stability for employees, management and customers.  Our customers like the fact that faces stay the same and year after year they can deal with people they know and trust.

The round sticker is on sale new but unfortunately I lost details of who from.

The All Electric Garage are listed in 1968/69 directory as a dealer in 270 High Street, Harborne, Birmingham, In 1974 listed as at ALL ELECTRIC GARAGE LTD.,
Greenfield Road. Harborne, Birmingham B17 OEB.
The business in Harborne was previously listed in 1965 as Harborne Motor Co., 270 High Street, Harborne.

All Electric Garages PLC rear screen sticker

All Electric Garages PLC are still selling cars.  My Friend Ray has this on his 2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser.

All Electric Garage used car advert 1992

Plea for information

If you have any more information or recollections about All Electric Garage or any other Birmingham area Standard Triumph dealer such as photos of window stickers, dealer badges or sill plates etc please let me know. I can be contacted via the comments to this post or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stephen.weblin

Further information and sources

Link to the other articles in this series.

Link to other posts about Birmingham area dealers 

 Link to my post about P J Evans Ltd

Link to post about Cranmore Bros Ltd 

Link to Spot Garage (Northfield) Limited

Link to facebook page: Triumph Car Dealers.

Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr group which includes many photos of Standard Triumph garages etc from my collection and many other contributors .

I have a collection of Standard Triumph car dealer directories: http://vitessesteve.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/triumph-car-dealer-directories.html

Picture credits: Round sticker John on Flickr; All Electric Garages PLC rear screen sticker Ray;  All Electric Garage used car advert 1992 posted to facebook by Jonathan Catlow.

Standard Atlas Van - Motor Trader 1960

Standard Atlas Van - first page from Motor Trader article 351

Originally published in the trade paper Motor Trader 351 on 5 October 1960, this article is about the Standard Atlas Van. This 8 page guide to the service data includes diagrams of the engine, suspension, wiring and gearbox.




You can download the article from here.

You can see my existing collection of Motor Trader articles at http://vitessesteve.co.uk/MotorTrader

Harry R Fisk and Kitchen Bros - Triumph Car Dealers 8

This is the eighth in an occasional series about Triumph car dealers in the UK.

Harry R Fisk - Fisks for Rover rear window sticker

Harry R Fisk Ltd - Norwich

Harry R Fisk - Triumph car dealer image 1

Harry R Fisk window sticker - Triumph car dealer image2

Harry R Fisk were listed in 1968/69 as a Triumph dealer based in  Stoke Holy Cross at  Norwich Road Garage, NOR SSW.

Still trading as a an Austin Rover garage in 1987.  The garage building were taken on by Averill's Garage.  Alan Marsh, married Monica Fiske in the mid 60's. He became manager of the garage when Harry died in 1964. Ownership was passed to him when Monica sadly died in 1995. He leased the site to David Averill for 3 years, and then sold the site to a developer.  Alan Marsh died in 2004 of motor neuron disease.

After writing this article I found an article online at  http://www.poringlandarchive.co.uk/stoke-holy-cross/norwich-road which includes several more images.

Fisk's Garage - showing the rear of the workshop's in 1959/60 and vehicles inside awaiting repair.

Fisk's Garage vehicles in for repair

Fisk's Garage rear of workshop 1959/60

Two old invoices from the garage images by Derek Bales.

Harry R Fisk invoices from Poringland Archive

Before the garage was knocked down.

Fisks forecourt 1998

The demolition in 1999..

Fisks demolition 1999

The site of this garage is now occupied by houses.  Fiskes Court, replaced the garage, pictured in August 2011 by Mike Fordham.

Fiskes Court, Norwich Road

                                                         

Kitchen Bros - Diss

Kitchen Bros of Diss - Triumph car dealer sticker

Not listed in the 1965 or 1968/69 dealer booklet. Listed in 1974 as being based at Bedford Garage, Victoria Road, Diss with proprietors called DH and RR Kitchen. The advert above dates from 1977 and was scanned from Diss Town Guide 1977/78 by Spottedlaurel.

The 1965 and 1968/69 Triumph car dealer list shows: Brockdish Service Station, Brockdish, Diss as a dealer.

After Derek Kitchen died in 2008 his rusty old Standard 12 was sold at auction for just over £500.00.  The Standard 12 was said to be a one-off, possibly built for the 1933 Motor Show.  Derek Kitchen was a former partner in the Kitchen Bros business.

Kitchen Bros Wurlitzer organ

The garage was known as a place to go to a Wurlitzer organ concert. The Organ is since at least May 2011 said to be in storage in Northampton.

In 1964 David Pawlyn embarked on restoring the organ. He had heard that the Paramount Cinema, Newcastle, was to discard its fine Wurlitzer, a large three-keyboard, 19-rank organ which had been installed in 1930. Together with Graeme Wright he approached the cinema’s owners, Odeon, and managed to buy the instrument in its entirety.

Over several weekends it was dismantled, packed up and moved into storage. Eventually it was sold to the Kitchen Brothers at Diss, Norfolk, who ran a motor showroom and garage. Pawlyn spent many months restoring it and reinstalling it in the garage showroom, where it sounded almost as it had in the theatre, albeit with a little more reverberation. The organ premiered in its new location on 15 October 1972.

Kitchen Bros Organ music album cover

Plea for information

If you have any more information or recollections about these garages, photos of window stickers, dealer badges or sill plates etc please let me know. I can be contacted via the comments to this post or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stephen.weblin

Further information and sources

Link to the other articles in this series.

Link to facebook page: Triumph Car Dealers.

Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr group .

I have a collection of Standard Triumph car dealer directories: http://vitessesteve.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/triumph-car-dealer-directories.html

Picture credits: Harry R Fisk Fisks for Rover rear window sticker photo posted to flickr by Nivek.Old.Gold; Walter Gunston concert ticket.  Spottedlaurel on Flickr for Harry R Fisk image 2 + the Kitchen Bros images. Phil Overton on Facebook for Harry R Fisk image 1; Fiskes Court by Mike Fordham; Kitchen Bros Organ music album cover image from https://www.discogs.com/Geoff-Stephenson-At-The-Organ-Of-Kitchen-Brothers-Garage-Diss-319-Wurlitzer/release/7764124.

Triumph TR6 - Motor Trader 487 December 1969

Triumph TR6 Motor Trader article front page from 1969

A Triumph TR6 article that was originally published in the trade paper Motor Trader on 24/31 December 1969. This 8 page guide to the service data includes diagrams of the engine, suspension and gearbox. 



You can download the article from here.

You can see my existing collection of Motor Trader articles at http://vitessesteve.co.uk/MotorTrader