Oxford Ghost Signs: Hartwell's Motors & King's Motors, Park End Street
Park End Street was known as “The Street of Wheels”
Both of these businesses had an entrance in Park End Street and an exit in Hythe Bridge Street.
Hartwell's Motors, 14 Park End Street
The letter H of Hartwell's Ltd (Motor Engineers) in a square box survives at roof level on 14 Park End Street
The former Hartwell's Garage at 263–265 Banbury Road in 1956 shows an identical H repeated six times
Hartwell's Garages Ltd opened in Oxford in 1919 when Hartwell's Garages Ltd was incorporated to acquire the business of Hartwell's Garage that was carried on at Horsefair in Chipping Norton. As this photograph shows, it originally occupied a site to the west of the building above:
- POX0106418 (1 May 1922)
In 1924 the above building designed by Gilbert T. Gardner was built to the east (plan no. 3178 NS), and, as the following photographs show, Hartwell's then occupied both buildings at 14 Park End Street simultaneously, with the original building continuing as Hartwell's Garage and the new building above serving as Hartwell's Show Rooms:
- POX0063695 (1920s, viewed from the west)
- POX0097304 (early 1930s, viewed from the east)
Hartwell's is now based in Kidlington, and has ten branches elsewhere in England
Right: Full-page advertisement
for Hartwell's Garages Ltd
in
Kelly's Directory for 1927
The name HARTWELL'S has survived in the terrazzo floor
of the vehicle entrance
Henry Charles Hartwell (1898–1971)
Henry Charles Hartwell who founded the firm was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire on 24 August 1898. The 1921 census shows him aged 22 and described as an out-of-work wireless operator, living there with his father Henry Hugh Hartwell, who was a house decorator, his mother Jane, and his sister Edith (8).
On 25 October 1930 at Stow-on-the-Wold he married Edith Frances Smith, and gave his profession as Company Secretary and his residence as Bourton-on-the-Water.
At the time of the 1939 register Henry described himself as the Company Director and Secretary of an Auto Engineers company, and was living at 7 Sunderland Avenue to the north of Oxford with his wife Edith (born 1902) and Henry R. Hartwell (born 1931).
Henry Charles Hartwell died at 7 Sunderland Avenue on 16 October 1971. His effects came to £16,868.
King's Motors (Oxford), 15 Park End Street
This building is sandwiched between the former Hartwell's Motors at 14 Park End Street (shown at the top of this page) and the Royal Oxford Hotel, and is today numbered 15, but in the past it was not allocated a number. It was built in c.1934.
King’s Motors were motorcycle specialists and were based in this new building from 1935 to 1968.
Their advertisement in the Oxford Monthly of May 1935 can be seen at POX0636181 and includes:
- A photograph of the frontage shown above, described as “The Magnificent Façade, recently built, entirely of Cotswold Stone, which enhances the amenities of the Street of Wheels”
- A view of the sales offices on the ground floor, noting that the general and private offices were on the second floor.
The name KING'S MOTORS has survived in the floor of the entrance (right).
The ghost sign on the front (below) is very faint: in the yellow band to the right of the main entrance is the word MOTORS (with the M almost missing).
Howard Francis King (1883–1967)
Howard Francis King, the founder of this motorcycle firm, was born at 47 West Street, Osney Oxford on 26 June 1883 and baptised at St Frideswide's Church on 22 July. He was son of James Francis King, an office clerk born in Abingdon, and his wife Fanny.
At the time of the 1891 census Howard (7) was living at 3 Bullingdon Road with his family and their servant girl, and his father was an ironmonger's assistant.
In 1901 they were living at 219 Iffley Road. Howard (17) was working as an estate agent's clerk, and his father was still employed as an ironmonger..
By the time of the 1911 census the family had moved to Egrove (then in Berkshire), and Howard (26) worked for his father, who was now a coal merchant, and was living at home with his parents and two sisters Fanny and Mildred, plus their servant girl. In 1921 Howard (37) was still living there with his parents and was assisting his father, who was now a farmer.
On 28 August 1928 at St Lawrence's Church, South Hinksey, Howard Francis King (43), now a motor engineer but still living in Egrove, married Olive Ellen Lardner Beechey (28) of 53 Henley Street in Oxford.
The 1939 Register shows Howard Francis King, described as “Farmer and Company Director”, living at South Lodge on Boars Hill (then in Berkshire) with his young son Gerald Howard King (born 24 May 1932). His spectacular home had been designed for Lord Berkeley in 1905 by Sir Ernest George.
- Estate agent's film giving a tour of King's former house (which sold for £3,100,000 in 2023)
Howard Francis King died at South Lodge, Boars Hill on 8 March 1967. His effects came to £55,408, and his son Gerald was his executor. His obituary appeared in the Oxford Times two days later.