1896 London-Brighton Run

1896. Participants.

1896.

1896.

1896. Stopping at The White Hart.

1896. The Duryea Leaving Reigate.

1896. "The Present Times"

1896. Harry Lawson and the Lord Mayor.

1896. Replenishing the Duryea.

1896. H. O. Duncan taking a rest.

1896.

The first London to Brighton run was organised by the Motor Car Club and held on the 14th November 1896.

The proceedings started with a luncheon at the Grand Banqueting Hall at the Metropole Hotel in London where some 150 guests dined.

Thirty-two cars were at the start (some estimate this to be around half of all those in the country at that time). Some of the cars that took part were:-

• Panhard and Levassor Daimler carriage which won the 1895 Paris-Bourdeaux-Paris Race containing Harry Lawson and Otto Mayer
• Daimler barouche containing Frederick Simms and Gottlieb Daimler
• Panhard and Levassor carriage that won the 1896 Paris-Marseilles-Paris Race
• Three Bollee motor tandem cycles riden by Leon Bollee, Amedee Bollee and H. Duncan
• Daimler omnibus, victoria, wagonette, parcels van (belonging to Peter Robinson),
• Omnibus (belonging to Harrod's Stores, etc.
• Two Duryea motor carriages
• Roger motor dog-cart
• Arnold motor dog-cart
• Pennington four-seat tricycle driven by Edward Joel Pennington

The weather was not good, with wind and rain and around twenty vehicles finished the run.

There was a dinner in the evening at the Metropole Hotel in Brighton. The planned parade of cars for the next day (Sunday) was abandoned owing to the bad weather.

Some interesting comments in a letter by Charles T. Crowden.

See Also

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Sources of Information

• The Early History of Motoring by Claude Johnson
• The Motoring Century – The Story of the RAC by Piers Brandon. Published 1997. ISBN 0 7475 3034 3