56 replies to this topic

[Gary C]

Very sorry to learn just now of the passing of Alain de Cadanet, racing driver, constructor and latter day TV presenter of things like Victory By Design and of course, THAT Spitfire clip from Goodwood.

[Rupertlt1]

Alain de Cadenet

 

RGDS RLT

[Richard Jenkins]

I feared this day would come as I saw he retired from racing involvement at the end of last year and the only way Alain would retire would be if he was forced to.
What a loss. An incredibly enthusiastic, positive chap. Thoughts with his many family and friends.

[Izzyeviel]

found a documentary on youtube the other week- Alain & Guy at Le Mans ('81 I think). Seemed a lovely bloke & proper racer. https://www.youtube....h?v=5SS0l4sx56A

[Jack-the-Lad]

Oh, no!  I never met the man but saw him race at Revival a few times and always enjoyed his television presentations.  His enthusiasm was palpable, and then there was the famous Spitfire incident!

 

My sincere condolences to his family and friends. 

[Bloggsworth]

Great competitor and highly respected philatelist - RIP.

[Tim Murray]

The famous Spitfire clip:

https://youtu.be/4iOoiEbtf2w

RIP Alain. Sincere condolences to his family and many, many friends.

[BRG]

An old school hero who lived in the modern era.  Twice a winner in the WSC, and 3rd overall at Le Mans in his own car and team.  We need the likes of Alain once in a while to remind us of the values of motor racing that really matter.  Not how much energy drink you can sell, but how you can go racing just for the hell of it and succeed.  

[68targa]

Sad news indeed. A true enthusiast, very hands on.  My condolences to his family & friends.

 

[Doug Nye]

Rest easy Al - what an operator, heart in the right place, a true, true enthusiast.  A surprisingly talented driver on his day, and a much-valued old friend with whom I shared some fondly-remembered good times, and from whom I would never have bought a used car...  Respect! 

 

And my most sincere condolences to his family and many, many friends worldwide.

 

DCN

[LittleChris]

Very sorry to hear this.

[JacnGille]

NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  

[Doug Nye]

Weaverbird has asked me to post this, on her behalf:

 

 

RIP Alain de Cadenet and Peter Gethin, two wonderful figures from a golden era.

 

(There surely must be enough of those boys up there to run a heavenly race).

[cpbell]

Oh dear, that's surprising.  R.I.P to a true privateer.

[Henri Greuter]

Very sad news. I had a lot of respect for this man and what he achieved.

 

R I P

[Jack-the-Lad]

 

Weaverbird has asked me to post this, on her behalf:

 

 

RIP Alain de Cadenet and Peter Gethin, two wonderful figures from a golden era.

 

(There surely must be enough of those boys up there to run a heavenly race).

 

In this picture AdeC is wearing a logo for Speedvision, an American cable network that was about racing and general automotive subjects. I believe it was this network that carried his acclaimed Victory by Design series, which featured famous marques in the context of their race cars as well as prominent road cars.  He hosted a lesser known series called Renaissance Man, some of which was filmed at Brooklands.  I recall programs about the Brough Superior and the Merlin engine, among other subjects.  I think a (perhaps his) London mews garage was also featured.   Sadly, that series was discontinued after only a few shows and I haven’t been able to find any DVDs…

Edited by Jack-the-Lad, 02 July 2022 - 20:40.

[ensign14]

 

^ Getting ready for a run at Goodwood in 2017.  Really sad news, he was one chap I would have loved to see write an autobiography. 

[d j fox]

Very sad news indeed. RIP My strongest memory of him will always be his gallant/ heroic attempts at Le Mans in the 70s in various Lolas driving with the late and much lamented Chris Craft. Condolences to family and friends

[chr1s]

Sad news, there are less and less of his type in this world and its a poorer place for it! RIP.

[AJCee]

Very sad to hear this news. I never met him, but loved the stories about him, loved THAT Spitfire clip with the equally missed Ray Hanna, but most of all admired him immensely for his Le Mans challenges.
Huge condolences to his family and friends as he must leave a huge hole to fill.

[2F-001]

What a sad loss for our world (and, of course, his family and friends) - another proper enthusiast gone.

 

I have fond memories of watching Alain and Des Wilson winning the Silverstone 6 Hours; and, if I recall correctly, they had won the previous round at Monza too.

Edited by 2F-001, 02 July 2022 - 23:02.

[ensign14]

I have fond memories of watching Alain and Des Wilson winning the Silverstone 6 Hours; and, if I recall correctly, they had won the previous round at Monza too.

The Italians only had one trophy for the winning team, but whoever won the subsidiary class didn't turn up, so they gave that to Des...

[DouglasM]

Another name from my past gone  They were great blokes, always admired.  

[arttidesco]

One of the great joys of looking forward to Autosport’s Le Mans reports in the '70's was to find out how Alain de Cadenet had done with his privateer effort, towards the end of the 3 litre Group 6 era it was thrilling to see Desire and Alain win the Silverstone 6 hours in 1980, peserverance well rewarded.

Sincerest condolences to Alain's family, friends and many admirers around the world. May he RIP.

[barrykm]

R.I.P. Alain.

 

Condolences to family and friends.

 

How sad, what an enthusiast, what a character. As a previous poster has said, an autobiography would have been a great read

Edited by barrykm, 03 July 2022 - 05:20.

[charles r]

RIP Alain. Much,much more than a gentleman racer.

[Alan Baker]

A sad loss. I once came across him driving an Affa 6C down The Haymarket in London.

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Awww... 

 

Thanks for the memories, Alain.  RIP.

[Clyde Peffar]

The Old Boys are leaving one by one, Craft,Greene and now DC. Great memories of happy times in the old world of sportscar racing with great characters.

 

RIP.

[bradbury west]

I echo the sentiments of the above posters. I spoke to him a couple of times and he seemed a thoroughly good bloke, and I heard a range of stories when I was talking to Chris Craft a few times about involvement with one of his projects which, unfortunately, did not materialise. 
I think it is also necessary to mention that AdC was a world renowned philatelist, stamp collector,  with a fine collection, rather like the late Sir Gawaine Baillie with his collection, sold for some £15 million, I recall.  Whilst these things are not generally  talked about, I always understood that Alain acted as a stamp adviser to Her Majesty The Queen for her private collection.

He will be missed on so many levels.

Roger Lund

[ensign14]

Surprised on that basis he didn't get an honour, but then again philately gets you nowhere.

[Charlieman]

Surprised on that basis he didn't get an honour, but then again philately gets you nowhere.

Sometimes you ponder why capital pun-ishment was abolished in the UK.

 

I expect the Telegraph obit to be a cracker.

[Dave Ware]

I will submit this 21-year-old thread to express what I might have otherwise written today.  It was inspired by MoMurray's thread "I want to be an Argetsinger..."

 

https://forums.autos...l=+want +to +be

[404KF2]

Sad news.

 

He had a TV show in North America called Legends of Motorsport in which he'd try out a vintage racing car or three every episode, which I enjoyed a whole lot. However, my little kids did not enjoy it as much,

 

So I would taunt them when turning the TV on, saying in a faux de Cadenet accent "Legends of Motorsport" is on and they would wail NOOOOOO!

Edited by 404KF2, 04 July 2022 - 00:22.

[Doug Nye]

 I think this is a lovely genuine tribute sent to me by a mutual friend of AdeC and myself.  For me this perfectly encapsulates the wide-ranging emotions within long-term motor sporting people upon hearing of Alain's passing:

 

"Sad - I knew the old rogue for 60 odd years I suppose & survived various deals with him and raced with him too - Never boring & very knowledgeable on many subjects including SEX and, most of all, good fun! RIP".

 

One company with whom he worked - sorry, 'used' - in building one of his cars had a lady accountant who - without meeting him - apparently came to hate the very mention of his name, because invoices vital to the little company's very survival went so long unpaid.  Then one day Al visited, met the lady and in conversation lasting about 20-30 minutes only he explained and apologised so convincingly, and with such enormous charm, that she became utterly converted to his cause and even began defending his continuing delays. If anyone could kick the financial can further down the road it was him.

 

He was in so many ways an endearing operator.  One could become exasperated but anger sparked by or directed towards him would very seldom survive long.  

 

Classic (and not necessarily true) AdeC stories relate to his having exported his Tipo B Alfa chassis from Argentina as "a ladder" valued at around 7s 6d in proper money, while absolutely true stories include him taking it upon himself to tidy, restore and maintain Sir Henry Birkin's grave at Blakeney on the north Norfolk Coast.  On one anniversary of Moss and Jenks's 1955 Mille Miglia win Al also organised an informal little dinner get together for them at a favourite Italian restaurant in Fulham (or Chelsea? - can't really remember which) at which the menu was precisely that which Mr Ferrari selected in Modena when he entertained 'Tim' Birkin, Earl Howe, 'Johnny' Lurani etc of the MG team at the time of the '33 MM. 

 

There was a good-fun evening bash at the NMM Beaulieu at which a panel of alleged 'experts' presented their personal claims to having been the greatest driver of all time.  Al represented Nuvolari and was not only brilliant, but knowledgeable, and he brought with him a fantastic sculpured, and clothed, c.half-scale model of the man himself, which he had commissioned. I was meant to be Fangio - attempting Spanish in a squeaky voice - and one way and another I think everyone, yes - even the audience - had an enjoyable evening.  

 

Of course there's the famous tale of his early Ferrari Dino 206S which Al had just had bolted together somewhere in Chelsea as a moneyed young London blade in the allegedly swinging 'sixties. He'd painted the poor thing purple, had shoulder-length hair, bright orange flairs and a flowery shirt. As if that, and the V6's exhaust scream, were not enough to demand attention he drove it along King's Road unaware its leaky injection system was spraying petrol onto the road surface, which a stuttering backfire then ignited.  There was no mistaking which way de Cad had gone - just follow the flaming trail.

 

He'd had so very many great cars through his hands that almost any that one cared to mention to him in any context - as in "So-and-so's Maserati" or "Bonhams have X coming up for auction" he would just light up and repeat the very same phrase: "Oh - that was my old car!".  Some of the time it was true.

 

We were once filming a Targa Florio movie together in Sicily. Al had his 8C Alfa there and he'd parked it overnight in one of the roadways through the hotel's sprawling (and beautifully stocked) gardens.  What none of us knew was that the garden looked as lovely as it did in part thanks to the automatic watering system which sprang into life each morning around 6am.  When he went out to his car after breakfast its cockpit was absolutely flooded. And just for once he really didn't see the funny side of it - and the more enraged he became at the hotel manager, in a mixture of Italian, French and Anglo-Saxon English, the more convulsed we became.  Typically AdeC, he turned the incident into an earner...

 

Al just seemed to enjoy life and enjoy people, he certainly enjoyed an audience - he was a first-rate TV documentary presenter, and above all an absolutely first-rate, extremely knowledgeable, motor sporting enthusiast.  He was unique.

 

And he is mourned, and missed.

 

DCN

[Mistron]

The photo in post #24 makes me smile.

 

Dave Card, De Cad's long standing mechanic during the Le Mans years (whilst he also worked for Dan Marguiles) told me the story of the 'Sealink Ferries' sponsorship on the car

 

Apparently they set off to Dover, en-route to Le Mans and on reaching the Ferry Terminal the team were still unsure who had the tickets. Alain hopped out disappeared round the back of the van and then shortly thereafter headed over to the ticket office.

 

As Dave recalls it, the charm went up to 11 as Alain  approached the desk and explained he was there to pick up the teams tickets. When told they had no record of tickets for them Alain became both perplexed and mildly frustrated, how could this be, as Sealink were a major sponsor of the team? The tickets both ways were part of the agreed deal. He then took them outside to show them the car proudly displaying their logo (and perhaps also the van, who knows!) Dave only knew they were definitely NOT there when they left London

 

5 minutes later, they had their tickets, both ways, and got to meet the captain of the ship to boot. 

 

Dave told me he suspected he had a set of Townsend Thorensen stickers somewhere in the van, in case their queues were shorter 

 

I didn't meet him often, but he was always charming, fun, interested and interesting, and yes, he could charm the birds out the trees.

 

Al

[john aston]

Obit in The Times today 

[mariner]

Sad news indeed. 

 

 

As well as his own racing and TV work he gave chances to other people - Desiree Wilson at Monza etc and , of course the aero on his Le Mans Lola was developed by a young Gordon Murray. Motor or Autocar did a big article on the  aero development. 

 

It is a shame that modern spec racing prevents giving yoig designers chance to show their skills through entries like his Le Mans Lola

[Doug Nye]

From the BRDC this morning:

 

We very much regret having to inform Members that Life Member Alain de Cadenet died last Saturday 2 July. He was 76 years old and had been suffering from cancer for some time. Alain had been a Full Member since 1977.

 

Racing driver, racing team owner, racing car constructor, raconteur, connoisseur of fine wines, collector of fine cars and historic aircraft, philatelist, television and film presenter, photographer, motor racing historian and a most knowledgeable member of the Alfisti, were just some of the roles in which De Cad, as he was generally known, illuminated the world. However, the interest in cars only began in his early 20s after a visit to Brands Hatch when his girlfriend was whisked away from him by a racing driver whereupon, as he used to tell the story, he decided that he needed to enhance his appeal to the opposite sex by becoming a racing driver himself.

 

At the time Alain was working a freelance photographer for the pirate radio stations Radio Caroline and Radio London. His road car was a Ford Zephyr-engined AC Ace 2.6, a rare machine and the forerunner of the AC Cobra. In the mid ‘60s it was not uncommon to drive to race circuits in your racing car, compete in a couple of races, and then drive home, assuming no accident or mechanical damage had intervened. The Ace-Zephyr fulfilled this role admirably but was soon replaced by a Porsche 904 which was much more a purpose-built racing machine although eminently driveable on the public highway. In his quest to become a racing driver, the 904’s attributes appealed to Alain although Porsche had replaced it with the 906/Carrera 6. The 904 gave way to a Ferrari Dino 206S towards the end of 1968 as Alain became more ambitious and started racing internationally. This was the era when good start and prize money were on offer from race organisers throughout Europe, attracting many British teams armed with Ford GT40s, Lola T70s, Chevrons and Porsches. In July 1969 Alain, with Mike Walton as his co-driver, finished a class-winning sixth in the Vila Real 6 Hours, a race won the Porsche 908/02 of David Piper/Chris Craft from the Lola T70 Mk 3B Gt of Mike De Udy/Frank Gardner.

 

The 908/02 replaced the Dino for 1970 as Alain formed a partnership with American steel heir David Weir to become Ecurie Evergreen. Fifth place in the Buenos Aires 1000 Ks in January, with local driver Carlos Pairetti, was the best result with the 908 while the team also ran a 2-litre Lola T210 and a Ford GT40 with limited success apart from an outstanding second place for Chris Craft in the Lola T210 to the Porsche 917 of Jurgen Neuhaus in an Interserie race at Thruxton. Alain started 1971 by sharing a North American Racing Team Ferrari 312P with Nestor Garcia-Veiga and Luigi Chinetti Jr to second place in the Daytona 24 Hours. In early May Alain crashed the little Lola quite heavily in the Targa Florio in which a blow on the head temporarily cost him the sight in one eye. He had done a deal with Ecurie Francorchamps to share a Ferrari 512M with Baron Hughes de Fierlandt in the Le Mans 24 Hours, an opportunity which he was determined not to miss so he succeeded in fiddling his way through the pre-race medical with less than perfect vision. The car retired in the 18th hour with a broken gearbox, but Alain would be back.

 

A month or so after Le Mans Alain took fourth place in the Watkins Glen 6 Hours round of the World Sports Car Championship, sharing the Ecurie Francorchamps 512M with German-American Can-Am front runner Lothar Motschenbacher. However, the season’s excitement was not over yet for Ecurie Evergreen had acquired one of the ex-works F1 Brabham BT33s which was entered in the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup for Chris Craft who finished fifth. The car was then entered for the last two F1 World Championship races in Canada and the USA, engine failure precluding a start in the former and suspension and tyre problems bringing about an early retirement at Watkins Glen.

Alain’s involvement with contemporary Formula 1 concluded with a short spell as team manager for Graham Hill’s newly-established F1 team in 1973 when he was fired during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend for driving the team’s Shadow DN1 from the paddock to the pits, a not untypical practice at the time, but the Brabham BT33 itself was playing a significant role in the next phase of Alain’s career. He had been well and truly bitten by the Le Mans bug. With a 3-litre capacity limit being imposed on the World Sports Car Championship, Alain explored the possibility of acquiring a state-of-the-art Ferrari 312PB only to be told by the factory that a private team like his would not be capable of running such a specialised machine. So why not build your own car to win Le Mans? One of the Brabham factory employees was a young South African – Gordon Murray- who was recommended to Alain as someone capable of designing a car capable of winning Le Mans. The result was that, working in his spare time, Gordon created what came to be known, at least initially, as the Duckhams LM in deference to its principal sponsor, Duckhams Oil, who had contributed £500! The engine was a second-hand Cosworth DFV which was fettled by an aspirational young Kiwi, John Nicholson, while the F1 Brabham was relieved of its suspension and various other components to create a serious Le Mans contender in about six weeks. After running as high as fifth, with a couple of hours remaining, Chris Craft, who was sharing the driving with Alain, was caught out on slicks by a sudden downpour and hit the barriers in the Dunlop curve. He dragged the car back to the Pits where it was repaired sufficiently to take the flag in 12th place.

 

Over the next couple of years, the De Cadenet was developed with victory at Le Mans remaining the principal goal before being disposed of to Colin Hawker who converted it into the DFVW Super Saloon. Alain acquired a Lola T380 with which he and Chris Craft took third place in 1976 behind only the factory Porsche 936 of Jacky Ickx/Gijs van Lennep and the Harley Cluxton Mirage M8 of Jean-Louis Lafosse/Francois Migault. The Lola T380 was replaced for 1977 by another Lola-derived DFV-powered chassis into which Gordon Murray again had significant input, Alain and Chris bringing it home in fifth place overall. With backing from the British Post Office, Alain took this latest De Cadenet Lola to the 1978 Can-Am series, achieving a best result of fifth at Trois-Rivieres. In 1979, with Francois Migault as co-driver Alain finished second in the Silverstone 6 Hours round of the World Sports Car Championship to the Porsche 935 of John Fitzpatrick, Hans Heyer and Bob Wollek while better was to come the following year when Alain, now with Desire Wilson as co-driver, won both the Monza 1000 Ks and the Silverstone 6 Hours WSC rounds, having started the year with third place in the Brands Hatch 6 Hours. With these results behind them, the De Cadenet/Wilson pairing went to the 1980 Le Mans as one of the favourites only for Desire to be excluded from the race when the official timekeepers ‘lost’ her better (of only two) lap times. With Francois Migault as his only co-driver, Alain finished seventh.

 

When his newly-acquired Ford C100 could not be prepared in time for the 1981 race, Alain gave the De Cadenet Lola one more Le Mans outing in unfamiliar Belga livery, sharing with the Belgian brothers Jean-Michel and Philippe Martin. They were running as high as fifth overall in the middle of the night before being delayed by fuel pump problems, the car eventually retiring with engine failure. With his keen appreciation of motor racing history, Alain drove to Le Mans in 1982 in his Alfa Romeo 8C-2300, the very car with which Sir Henry Birkin and Earl Howe had won the race 50 years earlier in 1932. A few years earlier, with the little team’s single Transit van showing the strain of transporting the necessary equipment to Le Mans, Alain had eased its burden by deploying his 1928 Bentley Speed Six to tow the trailer carrying the De Cadenet through France.

 

For his 14th Le Mans in 1983 Alain teamed up with Yves Courage, very much a man after his own heart who passionately wanted to win the Great Race, but their Cougar C02-Cosworth DFL, with third driver Michel Dubois, hit problems early on from which it never really recovered before retiring in the middle of the night. In 1984 Alain and Chris Craft were invited by Paul Vestey to share a Porsche 956 with Australian touring car superstar Allan Grice although they missed the first practice session after being asked to show HM the Queen Mother around a display of historic Le Mans cars at a nearby Abbaye. Come the race, a steady run after early problems seemed to be paying off with the car knocking on the door of the top 10 in the 22nd hour when the engine failed. For his last two Le Mans 24 Hours Alain returned to Yves Courage’s team to finish 20th in 1985 and 18th in 1986 in his 16th race at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

 

By the late 1980s Alain had called time on racing contemporary cars but he continued to be a very active competitor in historic racing, often being entrusted with some very rare and valuable machinery. At some time or other he probably raced most of the F1 cars of the 2.5 litre era including a Vanwall, Aston Martin DBR4, BRM P25, Cooper-Climax T51 and the rest. That said, he was strongly of the view that the races which really mattered and made history were those for modern machinery, the Le Mans 24 Hours being a prime example, while historic racing was enjoyable but of no great significance in the overall scheme of things.

  

In his later years Alain was much in demand as a television presenter for amongst others Speed Channel, ESPN, Velocity Channel and making the Legends of Motorsport and Victory by Design series of programmes. His punctuality may have been less than perfect but his performance once in front of the camera was invariably perfect.

 

Alain was married twice, first to Anna with whom he had a daughter Amanda and a son Alexander, and then to Alison with whom he had a second son Aidan. Note the preponderance of the initial letter ‘A’! The BRDC offers its most profound condolences to Alain’s family and many friends at the loss of a remarkable enthusiast – truly a Renaissance Man.

 

DCN

[ReWind]

In the “Gone but not forgotten” thread of mine I have a column for noting the “major achievement” of the deceased.

I would welcome suggestions for Alain de Cadenet’s entry; given the limited space no more than forty characters, please. 

 

[Doug Nye]

Third at Le Mans 1976 then winning not just one but two FIA World Championship-qualifying races in 1980 - every time as a private entrant/constructor - perhaps?

 

Otherwise simply being remembered as essentially one of the good guys.

 

DCN 

[Perruqueporte]

Very sad news. What an extraordinary and charming man; and with a memory to match.

I lived one street away from him in Chelsea for a while in the ‘70s, and walking back from the newsagents one Sunday morning I came across him sitting on the pavement outside his place, fettling his Brough Superior. We chatted about such things for a while during which I told him about the two Brough Superiors I had acquired in the ‘60s when I was at school - one for £35 and the other for £25.

Fast forward 30 years or so…. I had been flying from Goodwood in a chum’s Tiger Moth, and on our return as we were pushing the Moth back to its hangar, we came across de Cadenet fettling his Stearman biplane, and fell into conversation. I told him that the only time we had met was one Sunday morning many moons earlier, when he had been playing with a Brough Superior on the pavement outside his place in Chelsea. He stared at me for a moment and said “You’re the chap who bought two Broughs for a song when still at school”. That really impressed me.

Christopher W.

[Sterzo]

I lived one street away from him in Chelsea for a while in the ‘70s, and walking back from the newsagents one Sunday morning I came across him sitting on the pavement outside his place, fettling his Brough Superior.

 

I wonder if you know in which London mews the Duckhams / de Cadenet was built, perhaps even the address (if you're comfortable with revealing it). No-one is going to put up a blue plaque, but maybe one day a photo could appear on the forum.

[Perruqueporte]

I don’t know where the mews was, I’m afraid. His home was in Upper Cheyne Row, and the flat I shared at the time was round the corner in Lawrence Street next to the old Cross Keys pub.

Christopher W.

[Allan Lupton]

I can't cite a reference, but I think it was AdC who had a "Nuvolari sat here" plaque on the steering wheel of his Tipo B Alfa Romeo . . .

[Dave Ware]

I wonder if you know in which London mews the Duckhams / de Cadenet was built, perhaps even the address (if you're comfortable with revealing it). No-one is going to put up a blue plaque, but maybe one day a photo could appear on the forum.

The documentary that Izzyeviel mentioned has a few brief scenes of a downtown garage, perhaps a London lockup, in which the 1981 car is being prepared for Le Mans.  Perhaps someone who knows the area can determine if this is the same garage in which the car was built, and where it's located. 

[Roryswood]

The Duckhams / De Cadenet and the Lola for 1975 were prepared at 17 Queensgate Mews.

[Myhinpaa]

17 Queensgate Place Mews on Google Streetview. (June 2021)

 

Edited from 17 Queensgate Mews to 17 Queensgate Place Mews. (Ref post #50)

 

Gregor Fisken opposite at No.14

Edited by Myhinpaa, 12 July 2022 - 12:22.

[Mistron]

Not Queensgate Mews, but Queensgate Place Mews. If you go on streetview, you might just see a certain 8C, and a 356 (apparently getting an oil change in the street - good Effort, DeCad   )

 

And if you use the time travel button back a few years, you'll see a Certain Mr J Clark's Elan outside a well known purveyor of dreams just up the mews.

 

Al

[SamoanAttorney]

Not Queensgate Mews, but Queensgate Place Mews. If you go on streetview, you might just see a certain 8C, and a 356 (apparently getting an oil change in the street - good Effort, DeCad   )

 

And if you use the time travel button back a few years, you'll see a Certain Mr J Clark's Elan outside a well known purveyor of dreams just up the mews.

 

Al

Is that not the street that Gregor Fisken runs his excellent operation from?