Paul Jolly: The London street famous for 'wheeler-dealers'

Euston in London can fairly claim to have been the original regional hub for car dealers, with Warren St, just around the corner, becoming the epicentre and infamous ‘Wheeler Dealer’ street.

Famous for cash and car deals on street corners and cash and hookers up the stairs above the garage premises. The close proximity to Euston and Kings Cross stations made this perfect for traders once a deal was struck.

Car businesses boomed in the post-WW2 years, often springing up on empty bomb sites all over the city whilst property developers sought to prosper with much-needed new housing.

One such character, Joseph Levy, quietly went about acquiring houses by the hundreds in and around Euston and negotiated the redevelopment of the Euston Tower Office Centre in exchange for land with the GLC. They desperately needed to improve roads in the area with the new proposed underpass, so Levy made his fortune in the early 1960s and cleaned up.

Being parallel to the Euston Road, Warren St was used as a rat run for traffic, and anyone needing a new set of wheels soon knew where to go for a deal.

Typically, traders would arrive throughout the day, doing deals with each other, almost always in cash, with unscrupulous practices, including moving stolen cars, being a common event. Cars would be resprayed in the afternoon and back on the street the next day with new number plates.

This continued well into the 1980s, by which time housing and office space values meant the traders moved out. I bought one car here in my time but only alongside a much-respected and highly experienced trader who did the ‘deal’, ensuring all was above board. An experience never to be forgotten.

Bernie Ecclestone started his career here in the 1960s before venturing into Formula 1 with his purchase of the Brabham team. The image of dodgy dealers with sheepskin coats and trilby hats out in all weathers originated here in Warren St.

Happily, the motor trade has changed out of all recognition from this era for the good of all concerned.