Multiple Brands - Downend Cafe and Garage, Grenville Road, Lostwithiel, Cornwall PL22 0RB circa 1949
I was expecting to find more images of this place both on Flickr and further afield online, but it would seem only Richard and I have ever taken photos of it. Well, us and of course Mr George W F Ellis and whoever took the adjacent one. I'm imagining there are more old postcards of it out there still to find. This is the oldest image and I think would date from about 1949, maybe a little later but certainly pre-war. As can be seen it went on to be a Shell branded site by the 1970s and ended its days selling Regent petrol. One imagines that Shell lost interest in this site by the end of the 1990s at the latest, there may have been another brand before Regent, if there was it would most likely have been a minor brand.
Sadly about ten years ago petrol sales ended here, the pumps were removed, and more recently the site was sold to a developer. The good news is that as things stood in the most recent Streetview from September 2023, the cafe has re-opened and the building looks relatively unscathed.
Here, back in the late 1940s, a lone car is filling up with a limited range of brands on sale for the era, just Shell and Esso globes are seen although there are two older pumps in between. Other points of interest include the advert for Craven A cigarettes, and the car, I can't say what the model is, maybe a Standard Flying Nine, but it looks pretty modern for the era, they were produced 1936-40, so I think this image is between those dates.
(Edit Update:- Alan's comment, see below, suggests the car is an Austin 10.)
Below can be seen an early 1970s image of it when branded Shell, Richard's image of it from 2013 just before the pumps were removed, and then my 2016 image when the pumps had gone.
Here's the location.
Multiple Brands - Downend Cafe and Garage, Grenville Road, Lostwithiel, Cornwall PL22 0RB circa 1949
I was expecting to find more images of this place both on Flickr and further afield online, but it would seem only Richard and I have ever taken photos of it. Well, us and of course Mr George W F Ellis and whoever took the adjacent one. I'm imagining there are more old postcards of it out there still to find. This is the oldest image and I think would date from about 1949, maybe a little later but certainly pre-war. As can be seen it went on to be a Shell branded site by the 1970s and ended its days selling Regent petrol. One imagines that Shell lost interest in this site by the end of the 1990s at the latest, there may have been another brand before Regent, if there was it would most likely have been a minor brand.
Sadly about ten years ago petrol sales ended here, the pumps were removed, and more recently the site was sold to a developer. The good news is that as things stood in the most recent Streetview from September 2023, the cafe has re-opened and the building looks relatively unscathed.
Here, back in the late 1940s, a lone car is filling up with a limited range of brands on sale for the era, just Shell and Esso globes are seen although there are two older pumps in between. Other points of interest include the advert for Craven A cigarettes, and the car, I can't say what the model is, maybe a Standard Flying Nine, but it looks pretty modern for the era, they were produced 1936-40, so I think this image is between those dates.
(Edit Update:- Alan's comment, see below, suggests the car is an Austin 10.)
Below can be seen an early 1970s image of it when branded Shell, Richard's image of it from 2013 just before the pumps were removed, and then my 2016 image when the pumps had gone.
Here's the location.