Dawn of a new age: the first London to Brighton run

Very few British people had seen motor cars in numbers, and the novelty is alleged to have drawn “fully 500,000 sightseers” to the Run’s start outside the Metropole Hotel in London’s Northumberland Avenue, although it’s very doubtful that such a crowd so vast would have left any room for the cars.

According to contemporary reports, the weather was wet and the road surface in Northumberland Avenue was “soft and muddy” – a polite way of saying it was liberally coated with the droppings from the many thousands of horses that provided the primary means of propulsion in 1890s London. Ironically, many people welcomed the arrival of the “horseless carriage” because it promised uncontaminated streets.

The idea was to drive from the London Metropole to its counterpart in Brighton. At 10.30am, after a leisurely breakfast, Lawson led the cavalcade away in his Panhard et Levassor. According to bystanders, the din of the participants’ motors “made speaking impossible”.

Reports vary on exactly how many cars made the run. There were 58 listed as starters, but some were there strictly to make up the numbers and dropped out after a short distance. Reports suggest that around 33 genuinely set out for Brighton.

A few (allegedly battery-powered models among them) are believed to have been loaded into rolling stock and taken to Brighton by rail, there to be spattered with mud so they looked as if they had driven all the way. Others simply broke down. Best estimates have it that 13 or 14 cars legitimately made it to the Brighton Metropole under their own power.

To celebrate ‘Emancipation Day’, Sturmey published a special Red-Letter Day issue, its colour chosen to match that of the mythical man with a red flag. Sales were extremely strong – an excellent indicator of the public’s growing interest in cars. And despite the poor reliability of the Run’s many entrants, their very appearance piqued the interest of many others.

Within months, British motor manufacturing had begun in earnest and the UK began its long climb to becoming a global car manufacturer.

But the problems weren’t over. A Motor Car Act of 1903 introduced vehicle and driver licensing but also imposed a nationwide speed limit of 20mph, which many believed imposed a severe curb on car testing at a time when 50% of the world’s cars were being made in France.

Enter wealthy Surrey landowner Hugh Locke-King, who became so concerned by the embryonic industry’s inability to test cars at speed that he built Brooklands. The pioneering banked motor circuit soon became a focal point for early motorsport and aviation, too, but most of all, Brooklands helped car manufacturers catch their European rivals – but that’s another story.

The London to Brighton run through the years

The importance of the 1896 Emancipation Run to the growth of a British motor industry was not lost on its organisers, who admonished entrants to “remember that motor cars are on trial in England and that any rashness or carelessness might injure the industry in this country”.

Even so, there was no return to the London-Brighton route for more than 30 years. A few shorter commemorations were held, but it wasn’t until 1927 that a ‘full’ event was staged, sponsored by the Daily Sketch newspaper, which, prompted by The Autocar, became curious about how many cars over 21 years old were still running. Surprisingly, 51 cars were entered, 44 made the start and 37 finished.

From then until now, the run has been held annually for pre-1905 cars, with breaks only for the 1939 to 1945 war years, 1947 because of petrol rationing and 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the years, the starting and finishing locations in London and Brighton have varied slightly, and the 50-mile route itself has had minor changes. More recently, the Run has started in Hyde Park and ended at Brighton’s Madeira Drive, with a ‘control’ point in Preston Park, on the city’s outskirts. Long ago, it became the world’s oldestmotor sporting event.