Stuart (lanciab20),
I meant to respond to this at the time, but got distracted and then forgot.
I was interested to know that Mike’s car is ex-you and ex-John Maltby, and was graced by what was probably a long rest in the care of Tony Amato.
I was amused by the idea that at some time in the 70s “Tony rang to say the area was being redeveloped and his workshop was to be demolished”. The truth is that Tony Amato never had a telephone of his own – whenever he needed to contact by phone he used the phone downstairs at the Step Inn (greasy-spoon on New Cross Road) where he took all his meals. The story about the workshop being threatened with demolition was a joke and as of last year the decrepit old stables lock-up is still standing.
During the 80s when I spent a lot of time with Tony it sometimes fell to me to telephone customers to tell them their car was ready, or more frequently that it was time to pay some money – the pressure being that the workshop is due for demolition and they had better get a move on.
Somewhere I have photos - must dig them out.
Happy days…
Colin
