EP / European, Whitehall Service Station, Ramsgate, Kent, 1967
Following the previous European / EP photo, here's another site (also with Conder Flying Wing canopy) showing both the European and EP logos on the pumps. The European globes (was the text black or dark blue? hard to see) are the most interesting bit, but this particular format of EP globe (with prominent rubber seal between the two halves?) is also interesting, if a bit ugly. The "EP: save 6d." sign does make me wonder what the comparison was with, especially if European was (intentionally) sold as a more expensive "luxury petrol".
Whitehall Service Station is now Whitehall Service Centre goo.gl/maps/uWv63JNLAJwNQh3h9
Looking at old newspaper ads and stories, it seems as though this might have been a Murco company-owned station (Murco bought EP in 1967). Whitehall Service Centre held a grand opening of the forecourt and car care centre in September 1967, with "a skirl of Scotish pipers", according to the East Kent Times and Mail (I feel as though EP would have preferred girls in bikinis—and more demure 'debutantes' to represent the more sophisticated European brand), free gifts, 1s off on all purchases of more than four gallons, and quadruple Green Shield stamps. It changed over to Murco branding just a year later, in 1968, according to an advert for another "grand opening"!
Ramsgate, and Thanet more widely, seems to have been full of interesting brands and discounters in this era, from MW (Richard ffrench-Constant's photo) to Jentex, Clift (a bit later), Eagle, Trolene, and so on. In the late 1980s / early 90s, Ramsgate Motor Museum, now sadly closed, would be home to one of the finest collections of unusual (mostly post-war) petrol pump globes, part of the Sharpe Family Collection.
EP / European, Whitehall Service Station, Ramsgate, Kent, 1967
Following the previous European / EP photo, here's another site (also with Conder Flying Wing canopy) showing both the European and EP logos on the pumps. The European globes (was the text black or dark blue? hard to see) are the most interesting bit, but this particular format of EP globe (with prominent rubber seal between the two halves?) is also interesting, if a bit ugly. The "EP: save 6d." sign does make me wonder what the comparison was with, especially if European was (intentionally) sold as a more expensive "luxury petrol".
Whitehall Service Station is now Whitehall Service Centre goo.gl/maps/uWv63JNLAJwNQh3h9
Looking at old newspaper ads and stories, it seems as though this might have been a Murco company-owned station (Murco bought EP in 1967). Whitehall Service Centre held a grand opening of the forecourt and car care centre in September 1967, with "a skirl of Scotish pipers", according to the East Kent Times and Mail (I feel as though EP would have preferred girls in bikinis—and more demure 'debutantes' to represent the more sophisticated European brand), free gifts, 1s off on all purchases of more than four gallons, and quadruple Green Shield stamps. It changed over to Murco branding just a year later, in 1968, according to an advert for another "grand opening"!
Ramsgate, and Thanet more widely, seems to have been full of interesting brands and discounters in this era, from MW (Richard ffrench-Constant's photo) to Jentex, Clift (a bit later), Eagle, Trolene, and so on. In the late 1980s / early 90s, Ramsgate Motor Museum, now sadly closed, would be home to one of the finest collections of unusual (mostly post-war) petrol pump globes, part of the Sharpe Family Collection.