UK’s last space-age style Mobil petrol station given Grade II listed status

Posted on by Listify Me

  • White and red canopies have survived ‘remarkably well’
  • 19,000 futuristic designs were built worldwide – but only a handful remain

By
Rick Dewsbury


PUBLISHED:

13:38 GMT, 7 May 2012

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UPDATED:

13:38 GMT, 7 May 2012

To the untrained eye it might look like a UFO filling station.

But these six giant white and red pods are actually a relic from the golden age of motoring.

The iconic Mobil station designed by U.S. architect Eliot Noyes in the 1960s is the last remaining one of its kind in the UK.

English Heritage has now granted the building on the A6 at Red Hill in Leicestershire Grade II listed status.

Iconic: The space-age style Esso petrol station designed by Eliot Noyes in the 1960s that has been awarded Grade II listed status

The structure consists of six large mushroom-like canopies forming a symmetrical cover for pumps on the forecourt.

The futuristic design coming at the height of the motoring golden age fitted perfectly with the awe surrounding the car.

Conservation experts say the station has survived ‘remarkably well’ since being built in the late Sixties.

Architect: Eliot Noyes created 19,000 new and remodeled Mobil stations around the world

The striking design makes it ‘perhaps the most innovative and distinctive petrol station in England,’ they told the Express.

Noyes created the design that was used in 19,000 new and remodeled Mobil stations around the world.

The first one was built in New Haven, Connecticut . The stations were originally accompanied by Noyes’ cylindrical shaped pumps with brushed-aluminum casings.

But over the years the stations have often been refurbished and replaced with new covers.

Many stations have also closed down and been demolished as larger supermarkets have bough up forecourts.

Experts say ‘it is extremely rare to find any remaining canopies of this design’.

English Heritage also granted Grade II status to a the wing-like canopy on a filling station at Markham Moor on the A1 in West Drayton, Nottinghamshire.

Noyes died aged 66 in 1977 having pioneered the integration of business and design. Mobil merged with Exxon in 1999 and in the UK operates under the name Esso.

 

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