Chinese Garage
Encyclopedia
Automobile repair shop
An automobile repair shop is a place where automobiles are repaired by auto mechanics and electricians.- Types :The automotive garage can be divided in so many category....
and former petrol station situated in Beckenham
Beckenham
Beckenham is a town in the London Borough of Bromley, England. It is located 8.4 miles south east of Charing Cross and 1.75 miles west of Bromley town...
in the London Borough of Bromley
London Borough of Bromley
The London Borough of Bromley is a London borough of south east London, England and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in the borough is Bromley.-Geography:...
, on a roundabout
Roundabout
A roundabout is the name for a road junction in which traffic moves in one direction around a central island. The word dates from the early 20th century. Roundabouts are common in many countries around the world...
linking Beckenham, Eden Park
Eden Park, London
Eden Park is a place in the London Borough of Bromley, England. It is a suburban area between West Wickham, Elmers End and Shirley.The Bethlem Royal Hospital is found nearby.-Recent developments:...
and Shortlands
Shortlands
Shortlands is a ward of the London Borough of Bromley, located less than a mile from Bromley town centre. Historically, Shortlands was known as Clay Hill. It became known as Shortlands around 1800, after the fields which, at this point of the Ravensbourne river, ran at right angles up the slopes...
.
History
The garage was built in 1928 to a design by Edmund B. Clarke and built in the style of a JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese pagoda
Pagoda
A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...
on land adjoining Stone Park Farm which was part of the Langley Court Estate. At that time Stone Park Avenue had not been laid out and the main traffic route was north - south between Beckenham and West Wickham; this accounts for the alignment of forecourt.
Local folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
suggests that the Langley Court's former owners, the Bucknell family, were shipping magnates that underwrote the Titanic. Subsequently when it sank
Timeline of the sinking of the RMS Titanic
These are the detailed events of the night of Sunday 14 April 1912 and into the early hours of the following day, when the ocean liner RMS Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg in one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history with 1517 lives lost.Titanic was approximately two-thirds of...
they financially sank too, hence the sale of their estate. It is further reputed that during their travels, the Bucknells regularly visited the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
and Japan and brought back many exotic plants for the Estate which is said to have inspired Clarke to build the Garage in its distinctly Japanese style
Japanese architecture
' originated in prehistoric times with simple pit-houses and stores that were adapted to a hunter-gatherer population. Influence from Han Dynasty China via Korea saw the introduction of more complex grain stores and ceremonial burial chambers....
. However, no traces of such planting survive today on the Estate to substantiate this claim. It may well be that the design was purely the whim of the architect and his client.
Because of its oriental appearance it became known locally as The Chinese Garage although the official name was Langley Park Garage until 1989. It is now a Grade II listed building.
The building is now part of a Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
car dealership
Car dealership
A car dealership or vehicle local distribution is a business that sells new or used cars at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. It employs automobile salespeople to do the selling...
and is no longer used as a petrol garage but retains much of its historic character and the grounds and adjoining roundabout are planted in a complementary manner.
Architectural awards
The Chinese Garage was the winner of a Better Petrol Stations competition organised by the Daily ExpressDaily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
and the Gardeners' Guild in the 1930s and in 2001 was voted the most unusual garage in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
External links
- P.P.P. - A study near Beckenham A story about "Picturesque Petrol Pumps". Silent newsreel footage. Pathé Pictorial, 2 September 1929.