226 Garages and Service Stations

Small garages and service stations are a vital – but fast disappearing – part of Britain’s automotive landscape. Often independently owned and sited in idiosyncratic buildings, they are rightfully celebrated and sensitively documented in this essential book. You might use a local garage to change a tyre or replace your exhaust, but when was the last time you pulled over and took a good look at the building itself? In the spirit of Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), photographer Philip Butler has done just that. Over six years, he’s travelled the length and breadth of Britain photographing these diverse, eccentric and idiosyncratic buildings. As motoring became popular in the early 1900s, the need for mechanical expertise to service, repair, refuel, and sell vehicles soared – and the ‘garage’ was born.