Yes that was Mobiloil logo.
Cleveland Discol and Blue Star filling stations that I worked at p/t when at grammar school. Blue Star provided my first fuel card (credit cards were rare then) when I worked in London.
Amoco and Texaco two more brands.
Carrefour had two forecourts in the UK before selling out to ASDA
There’s one we pass on the way to Cussy with mopeds and other paraphernalia on the walls etc. I’ll try to get a pic next time we go that way.
You don’t get Gren Shield Stamps at EV charging points.
I used to think like that 'till I started in business with my taxi. The first day I went into my usual Shell it had had the makeover and I had to do it myself. 
I went inside to pay and asked what the discount was, he was non-plussed and I had to explain that previously he was paid to do it and, as I am now doing his job it is only fair that I get his wage too.
He didn’t agree but later I realised that for the first time I could make sure of the calculation as to the consumption of the car. Previously, pumpers had done their best to round up and down.
So I bought a pair of work gloves and have never looked back since. 
Twice a year I used to do an 1800kms round trip to Cape Town as an external examiner at UCT. I’d always drive there instead of flying because the N2 highway along the continent’s south coast is such a great drive. On the way home would always stop at the Storm River service station in the Tsitzikamma Forest for 97 octane petrol, a couple of cans of oil (elderly V8 M-B coupé oil burner) and some of the local farmers’ higher octane witblits.
Warning!!! The above link is to what is possibly the most boring videos I’ve ever seen, firstly ‘cos its maker hasn’t discovered how to edit, secondly cos’ many might find his accent impenetrable and lastly because it’s just generally awful - but still a great place to fill up and have your windscreen cleaned if you’re on the N2
Less exotic - a rather more depressing legacy of Sixties’ optimism for the future at Lancaster Services on the M6. Driven past it countless times in all weathers (usually bad) used to love to see it, but hopefully never again.
And then there’s l’Aire du Viaduc de Millau, which must be familiar to many - we don’t stop there anymore when heading south, the catering has changed from Bras to something standard anonymous, but the view of the viaduct is still a fantastic example of the technological sublime.
In the 1970s the A1 was the principal route from London to Scotland. Today it is a motorway with all the many junctions and cross roads removed. There was a junction south of Retford at Markham Moor with a filling station that had an amazing roof.
The following photo dates from 2006 when the filling station became a Little Chef still with the iconic roof.
Not sure if it is still there but for those who saw it they would never forget.
The steam from the espresso machine appears to have buckled the roof somewhat. 
This is Ed Ruscha’s Sixties follow-up to Hopper’s Gas painting (which incidentally was a composite of several different ones).
I just discovered some lunatics have renamed PE Gqeberha 
Meanwhile, if you google ‘Grahamstown’, you now get ‘Makhanda’. It’s been renamed after a C19th Xhosa ‘prophet’ who told his followers that his magic would make them invulnerable to British bullets, which would 'turn into water. As a result several thousand Xhosa charged the British garrison that is now the main entrance to Rhodes Univ and were massacred.
God knows why the ANC chose to commemorate him in this way!
I’ve been through it on my way up to Durban.
Used to be a nice town with a pretty good international university, a bit of history, lots of culture and the annual National Arts Festival. Loved it, but now glad I was able to escape.
Mind you the N2 going north after G’town could get quite funky, did the drive home once in the night from 'Maritzburg because the rains were too heavy to drive down to the coast from the plateau on the dirt roads to my reserved accommodation at Coffee Bay. Instead it was a scary drive through the night with torrential rain, potholes, cattle straying on the road, fuel getting low - the all night petrol station in East London was a very welcome sanctuary. After that the last leg through the bandit towns of the Ciskei was a breeze.
But what an experience. Life needs thrills.
It used to be this place, next to/handy for Lidl and MediaMart
Directions to anyone needing a top up at the lowest rices I’ve ever seen anywhere - Take the A3 [Madrid] come off at J345, where you see this sign, visible a long way back.
Or High Brough Moor Shell station. It used to be on the A1 but since this section is now A1M it’s on the old road, parallel to the m/way, about a mile south of Scotch Corner.
I did the night shift in the summer hols of 1970. Shell had a promo of plastic World Cup coins - so many coins per galls. The W.C. had finished by then so people were invited to ‘help themselves’. Our stock of coins all went in one go when a bloke, invited to help himself, took the whole box.
The V12 E-Type had just been released. One drew up and the driver lifted the bonnet to check the oil. He needed to top up. The oil filler cap was a large 3-spoke spinner like the wheel nuts for wire wheels. He couldn’t turn it by hand so, fishing a garden spade out of the boot, proceded to bash the spinner round with it.
I was told that if faced with an armed robbery, just to hand over the till - another ‘help yourself’. Nobody did.
My shift was to 08:00 so in June I had 3+hours of daylight. One dawn a car drew up, a bit of a banger, with a full load of wife, small children and lots of baggage. The car was down to running on fumes, they needed to be somewhere miles up north, he had no money but offered his watch.
A pathetic tale. I accepted the watch for a few gallons.
I explained this to the boss when he clocked on. I showed him the watch. He opened a drawer and dropped the watch into it - onto a great pile of other watches.
The 1950s equivalent of moving your station up the Google search results list.
Current favorite is Newhaven Sainsburys, 6p cheaper per litre than the other stations 
Yup - always my last stop before the DFDS bateau on the way over.
Is fuel cheaper in the UK than France?
