Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Ray White]

[Leather Seats]

VMT for the recent comments.

Yes, Gilbert Peacock’s office and lock-ups were in Matlock Road. The picture of GP and his Standard was taken in Derwent Road; the building with the brick pillars was a gymnasium patronised by the many private schools in that part of Eastbourne (Meads). There were scores of private schools from Victorian times to the outbreak of WW2. Most did not have space for their own gym but there were at least two privately-run gyms … one in Derwent Road. During WW2 this old gym became a store for furniture from bombed buildings; after the war, a shirt factory. In the 60s it was demolished and replaced by housing.

Glen Mackay, my g/f, was killed on 7 March 1943 when a bomb landed on the shops and houses between 22-28 Meads Street.

The picture below from Street View shows two alleyways off Matlock Road: the one to the right is a service access for the shops in Meads Street. The one to the left gave access to Peacock’s office and lock-ups. (Now the site of a private house.) The rusty bracket atop the dividing wall once held a glass globe advertising Pratts petrol. I suppose Peacock had a pump at the top of his alleyway … probably disused from the outbreak of WW2. This pump was, no doubt, the cause of his agitation when the office caught fire.

https://goo.gl/maps/SSheukmmXM2zXmwG7

The glass globe was almost certainly broken by flying debris at the time of the bombing of Meads Street … its rusty bracket the last vestige of Peacock’s private hire business.