THE RISE AND FALL OF THE FILLING STATION

WIESLOCH might have been the site of the first fuel stop, but it certainly wasn’t the last. In the UK, it took 25 years of motoring before petrol stations became readily available. The first was in Aldermaston, Berkshire, and was opened by the Automobile Association (AA) in November 1919 – a year after the conclusion of World War One. By 1923, 7,000 pumps were in use.

Over the rest of the 1900s, petrol – and latterly diesel – boomed, with filling stations popping up all over the place. However, there has been a marked shift in recent years, and fuel pumps are now on the decline.

Over the past four decades, the UK has seen 75 per cent of pumps close – down to 8,600 from 37,500 in 1970 – and the lack of stations is perhaps a reason 800,000 drivers run out of gas every year.

The oldest remaining site – Bloomsbury Service Station in Central London – closed in 2008 having first opened in 1926. Less than a mile away, one of the last petrol stations within the capital’s Congestion Charging Zone, under the BT Tower, shut its doors a little under three years ago.

Conversely, the number of electric charging points is on the up, and there are now around 60,000 points – more than six times the number of petrol stations – and that’s set to grow, too. Nissan believes the car itself will be the fuel station of the future, as wireless charging becomes a reality.