The Red Hill filling station on the west of the A6, Loughborough Road, approximately north of Red Hill Circle in Birstall near Leicester, became a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 2012. The

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic c ...

filling station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Ga ...

is an example of the futuristic "Pegasus" design created by

Eliot Noyes Eliot Fette Noyes (August 12, 1910 – July 18, 1977) was an American architect and industrial designer, who worked on projects for IBM, most notably the IBM Selectric typewriter and the IBM Aerospace Research Center in Los Angeles, California ...

for Mobil in the mid-1960s. Noyes may have been inspired by the design by Danish architect

Arne Jacobsen Arne Emil Jacobsen, Hon. FAIA () 11 February 1902 – 24 March 1971) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. He is remembered for his contribution to architectural functionalism and for the worldwide success he enjoyed with simple we ...

for

Skovshoved Petrol Station The Skovshoved Petrol Station ( da, Skovshoved Tankstation) is a historic, still-operating filling station in Skovshoved at the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. First opened in 1936, it was designed by Arne Jacobsen and is an example of ...

in 1936, German designer ’s new garage in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

from the 1950s, and the distinctive forecourt fittings used by

AGIP Agip (''Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli'', en, General Italian Oil Company) is an Italian automotive gasoline, diesel, LPG, lubricants, fuel oil, and bitumen retailer established in 1926. It has been a subsidiary of the multinational petroleu ...

in Italy in the 1960s. The flexible format originally included circular canopies, illuminated from below and supported by tapered central

pylons Pylon may refer to: Structures and boundaries * Pylon (architecture), the gateway to the inner part of an Ancient Egyptian temple or Christian cathedral * Pylon, a support tower structure for suspension bridges or highways * Pylon, an orange mar ...

, covering cylindrical steel and black petrol pumps on the garage forecourt, accompanied by a simple brick office, and minimal signage other than the Mobil red Pegasus logo. It was designed to be instantly distinctive and recognisable as a Mobil garage, without distracting signs or poles, and was used on nearly 20,000 new and refurbished filling stations around the world until the 1980s. Changes in ownership meant that eventually many were operated by petrol companies other than Mobil. The six remaining circular canopies at the garage in Leicester, now operated by BP,https://www.bp.com/en_gb/united-kingdom/home/products-and-services/find-your-nearest-bp.html Search Birstall, Leicester are thought to be the last surviving examples in the UK.

References

External links

American Gas Station: History and Folklore of Gas Stations in America
Michael Karl Witzel, p. 139
Fill 'er Up!: The Great American Gas Station
Tim Russell, p. 123-5

Leicester Mercury, 8 May 2012 {{coord, 52.667664, -1.12965, display=title Buildings and structures in Leicester Historic filling stations in the United Kingdom Grade II listed buildings in Leicestershire