J R Inwards Ltd, Ruislip - Triumph Car Dealers 80

J R Inwards Ltd feature in this post about a Standard Triumph car dealer in Ruislip.

Inwards, High Street, Ruislip

J R Inwards Ltd were located at High Street, Ruislip, Surrey from (at least) 1931 until 1979. They sold Jaguar, Morris, Riley, Rover, Standard and Triumph over the years and finally from 1977 to 1979, Datsun.

In 1935 the company was selling and servicing Morris cars. In addition to the High Street, Ruislip garage they also had a works at Ickenham and another premises in Ruislip. The earliest evidence of them selling Standard cars is this advert from the coronation edition of Autocar from 30 April 1937.

J R Inwards Ltd, High Street, Ruislip advert from Autocar 30 April 1937

The Gracesguide.co.uk website is a brilliant source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. From the digitised "the 1953 Who's who in the Motor Industry directory".

Inwards Ltd. Car and Light Commercial Vehicle Stockists. 57/59, High Street, Ruislip, Middx. Telephone: 3033/4/5. Directors: J. R. Inwards. R. A. Inwards. P. R. Davey. General Manager and Secretary: B. J. Hardacre.

Triumph dealers in Ruislip

I have directories showing them listed as a Standard Triumph dealer in October 1955, August 1961

 August 1961: Ruislip Motors Ltd, West End Road phone 4340 and 8325.

Ickenham Middlesex

Inwards was started in 1925 by Jack Inwards from a garage at Swakeleys Road, Ickenham Middlesex.  This location is listed as Standard Triumph dealer.

Jack Inwards in the centre outside his garage.

J R Inwards forecourt

J R Inwards Swakeleys Road 1930's

Purple Parking

The business started by setting up a car storage business for London car dealers called Secure Storage Ltd. At its peak, the company was storing about 15,000 vehicles and in 1990 Michael Inwards started Secure Parking Ltd, an airport park and ride service for Heathrow.

With the advent of the internet and subsequent expansion across most UK airports the company was rebranded as Purple Parking.

At its peak, Purple Parking employed 800 staff and had 18,000 car parking spaces at Heathrow and Gatwick and other airports across the UK.

Purple Parking, had to call in the administrators after amassing debts of £2 million.

Plea for information

If you have any more information or recollections about J R Inwards Ltd or any other Ruislip 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 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: J R Inwards Swakeleys Road 1930's Chris Barker on flickr; Purple Parking image from their website; Jack Inwards in the centre outside his garage.+ J R Inwards forecourt photos from a facebook post by Ed Coldrick.