226 Garages and Service Stations

Photographer Philip Butler has travelled the length and breadth of Britain photographing diverse, eccentric and idiosyncratic garages and service stations. From the Mock-Tudor fad of the 1920s via the Streamline Moderne of the 1930s, to the simple Modernist rationalism of post-war Britain, each era has produced a distinct automotive architecture. With the introduction of the Ministry of Transport (MOT) vehicle test in the 1960s, demand accelerated still further, with a diverse array of structures utilised- from churches, cinemas, railway arches, to fire stations, shops and factories, all versatile enough to find second lives as garages.