Len Street Chelsea

[JimE]

Julian. Would love to see the old photos. Jim

[Mazzini]

I second that!

[Charliebr25]

A few photos of my fathers place where he worked as a lotus agent in the 60’s having worked with Len and Olly at Len Street previously.

[Charliebr25]

Couple more pics

[jabingb]

Great stuff, thanks from across the pond!

[vstibbard]

Len Street supplied me with everything I needed to run and subsequently restore my first Elan S4SE DHC, they were nice guys who were very generous with technical advice and a helping hand. Seemed to recollect a rather nice little pub down round the nearest corner!

That car last I heard was residing in Melbourne Rohan, its a red S4SE with Stromberg head with D type cams, Ed Winter (anyone remember him, he lived in the town not far from the original Kelvedon Motors site) rebuilt and flowed it for me, I rebuilt bottom end, with 10:3 comp and had it run in on Ken Snailham from QED's Dyno. I'd met Ken at Le Man's where he'd taken his hillclimb Elan to the Mulsanne Cafe, pre race day it was a popular location for interesting cars and hot headed owners to gather, put some money on the table to challenge each other to a 1/4 Mile drag. As aLotus Elan owner I took great pleasure in seeing Ken blow most into the weeds, my side bets paid for the head work and dyno time!!!

Good times

Vaughan

[Elan45]

That yellow Elan made me reminisce about the poster of Jimmi Hendrix leaning against a yellow Elan. But JH would have come onto the scene after Tara's birthday.

Roger

[Charliebr25]

What an amazing era it must have been . Can you imagine it nowadays ,some rich young socialite knocking around with a load of car mechanics . According to my mother Tara would occasionally lend Dad his white Ferrari to drive home to north London whilst Tara would drive home to Chelsea in an old van from the yard. !! The book about Tara by Paul Howard is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in London in the 60’s.

[andyfrancis]

I am pretty sure the photos above are taken in Porchester Square Mews which is where Len Street service department was before the move to Drayton Gardens, Chelsea. I worked for Len Street's auditor and frequently visited the mews. I have fond memories of your father, Ron, but I have no specific memories of him at Drayton Gardens so did he leave Len Street's to set up his own business in one of the premises vacated by Len Street's. That would have been a good business decision as any Len Street customers who showed up unaware of the move to Chelsea would have been potential customers for your dad, and may have even known him from the Street days.