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| Carrs Auto Sales Ltd Croydon metal supplier badge |
Mark Hammond a fellow Club Triumph forum member said 11-11-2015
Frank Carr of Carrs Auto Sales Croydon was a well known Triumph Dealer back in the 50's, 60's and 70's. He was well known to Triumph top brass and as we all know the the Herald was named after the boat the Alec Dick owned at the time, well it was Frank Carr who sold him the boat! I'm not sure whether Frank is still Alive, if he is, he'd be terribly old now.
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| Carrs Auto Sales sill plate original |
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| Carrs Auto Sales sill plate restored |
Yes Carrs were a Triumph dealer next door to us. Superb prewar style showroom, parquet wood flooring, red carpets between the vehicles and unusually the showroom had “Concave “ glass windows so that you could view the vehicles without reflections. Salesmen wore three piece suits and were terribly deferential in a most charming manner.
They had a small three pump petrol forecourt National Benzol I think.
They later became Fiat dealer however the site was sold for development during the late 70s or possibly early 80s.
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| Carrs Auto Sales sill plate version 2 |
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| Carrs Auto Sales plate |
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| Carrs Auto Sales new garage building |
Carrs garage Croydon started out as a Hudson and Standard dealer. The company Carrs Auto Sales Limited was established 4 December 1946. In 1954 they were selling the Swallow Doretti as well. In 1962 they were selling Jaguars. At another point in its history it sold Fiat cars but the building still displayed the Standard House name.
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| Swallow Doretti advert from Motor 13 October 1954 |
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| Advert from Motor 25-07-1962 |
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| 1926 advertisement for Carr' Bros |
Standard Vanguard liveried van
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| Standard Vanguard van in Cars Auto Sales livery |
A family controlled business
It was reported in June 1963 Standard Triumph Review that Mr. Arthur Bernard Carr had resigned his appointment as Joint Managing Director with Mr. Frank W. Carr, of Carrs Auto Sales Ltd., and retired from the Company, with a view to turning his interests more actively to to the running and development of the Hotel side of the family interests.Mr. Leslie G. Smith, who had held the position of Director and General Manager for many years, and had been with the Company for some 30 years, was appointed Deputy Managing Director. The constitution of the Board then being:-
Frank W. Carr, Chairman and Managing Director
Leslie G. Smith, Deputy Managing Director
Mrs. Peggy D. Carr, Director
A boat called Herald
There is well known story that: Frank Carr (owner of Carrs Auto Services) was a personal friend of Alec Dick the MD of Standard Triumph. Frank Carr sold Alec Dick his boat called 'Herald', and when Alec Dick was looking for a name for their newly designed car, he thought his new boat name would ideally fit the bill ...... and so came about the naming of the 'Triumph Herald'.Triumph dealers in the Croydon area
There were many garages selling Standard and Triumph cars in 1954 as shown in this advert from Autocar 22 October 1954. |
| Standard Triumph dealers in and near Croydon 1954 |
Carrs Auto Sales Ltd., Standard House, South End, Croydon.- listed as distributor
and these other business listed as Triumph dealers:
Burns, A. N., & Co. Ltd., 281 High Street.
Central Garage (Croydon) Ltd., Fell Road.
K. & T. Services Limited, 274 Wickham Road, Shirley.
Leathwoods Garages Ltd., 3 Selhurst Road, South Norwood.
Moore's Presto Motor Works Ltd., Tamworth Road.
Neill, Norman, Ltd., Park Hill Garage, 11 Addiscombe Grove.
Ratcliffes (Purley Way) Ltd., Purley Way.
In 1969: Carrs Auto Sales Ltd, Standard House, 2 South End, Croydon are listed as a distributor and Carrs Auto Services Ltd Tamworth Road Service Station, Tamworth Road, are listed as a dealer.
In the Standard Triumph Review for June 1968 they are listed as the distributor for Surrey and Kent.
By 1972:
Henlys Ltd, 399/403 London Road, West Croydon CR9 3BY are listed as disributor and
Trirov Ltd, Tamworth Road Service Station, 73 Tamworth Road, Croydon CRO 1XX are listed as a dealer.
Plea for information
If you have any more information or recollections about this garage, 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.weblinLinks and sources
Link to the other articles in this series.Link to face book 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
Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr gallery of images I have found on Flickr.
This is the first in an occasional series about Triumph car dealers. You can download a copy of the Triumph Sales and Service Directory 1968-69 which started me off on the search for info about Triumph car dealers.
Picture credits: Carrs Auto Sales supplier plate - Andrew Smith on the TR Register forum; Carrs Auto Sales sill plate - Dan16V on the Club Triumph forum; Carrs Auto Sales sill plate version 2; Sill plate version 3 is from Rie Kurahashi in Canada; Standard Vanguard van in Cars Auto Sales livery is from Kentishphil on flickr.
I remember Carr's in South Croydon,and remember Mr Carr driving a Rolls Royce. My Dad bought a Triumph 1300 from this Garage which I used to drive when I passed my Driving Test. It always felt luxurious with walnut dashboard etc. They became Fiat dealers,and then closed in 1980? At this point my Family moved to Bristol. We actually looked at some metal shelving they were clearing out. I remember there was a lot of Fiat memorabilia to be disposed of.
ReplyDeleteI worked there in 1972. Above the showroom prepping new and used cars .Mr Carr had a Boxer dog named Choppy .I heard every time he got another dog it was always a Boxer he named Choppy. Being low man it was my job to also get Mr Carrs Sandwiches , walk his dog , and wash his Rolls Royce every day..
ReplyDeleteThis all helped the day go by as I could take long walks with his dog instead of prepping cars..He had a boat named the Molly Francis .Molly being his newest younger wife .
I was getting 17 pounds a week pay there in 1971- 72.
Thanks for sharing your story.
DeleteHi, great bit of info there. I have a 1964 TR4 that was sold by Carrs of Croydon, September/October 1964. I just bought it as part of a 2 car buy from a barn where it has lain for 40 years, remarkably the car is quite solid and very restorable. There is one problem, there is no reg plate or document for the car and the DVLA "cant" trace the registration number from the car VIN. I wonder if anyone out there has access to or knows if the Carrs records exist? A black TR4 with a black interior, quite an unusual colour combination so I'd love to save it if anyone has any tips or suggestions. I have the Heritage Certificate from the BMHI which lists all the particulars from the car based on factory records so that identifies Carrs as the destination dealer. I know this is almost a silly query but no harm in asking.
ReplyDeleteThe TR register should be able to assist you with dealing with the DVLA to try to recover the vehicle registration number. Nowadays the DVLA deal with club specialists. The other Triumph clubs also have club officers to deal with this sort of thing.
ReplyDelete