It all started with a conversation early in 1988 – I think February – when my friend Robin Barr sold his 1986 Citroen BX that he had bought new – and bought a 1950 Slough-built Citroen Light 15 (an English assembled Traction Avant) that he was using as a daily driver. He still owns it and is still a GCCG member.
We had previously met through my Saturday job at Expectations, a fetish and leather shop in Hoxton. One of the other customers, who was also known to Robin, was Steve Bicknell: he owned a 1955 French-built Traction which was his daily driver. This was street-parked in Bethnal Green and then Spitalfields (before they were trendy!). A conversation at the shop ran on and on – it was an extended tea break! I had a Mark I Ford Zephyr at the time. We wondered: if there were three of us, were there others, and how could we contact them?
We decided to put a notification into (I think) Gay News – setting a Sunday date to meet at the Queens Head pub. Two of the arrivals that day are still members of GCCG: Nick Bale, then from Brighton, and Dave Sawtell from Southampton. Dave’s Mark 1 Consul and my Mark 1 Zodiac made a surprising pair! The pub closed so we moved to Battersea Park – had ice creams – and went home but we realised we were on to something.
We organised several early runs. Stewart Sinclair, also still a member, has reminded me of trips to Rye and a Purley-to-Brighton run. I think it was 1989 when I took my pre-booked Zephyr to Pride in Kennington Park. On arrival I was allowed to park out of the way where I could and bagged a spot very close to the main entrance. Through the course of the afternoon around fifty people signed up at £1 per head that covered the post on several mailouts.
Response was mixed so I sent a second mailout saying if no response then no further contact – over 20 replied and that was the proper start to GCCG. A couple of years ater we had five cars at Pride Brockwell Park!
With no home computers and mobile phones at the brick stage, all communication was by post. On many occasions Robin and I collated individual pages of Big End and other mailouts putting in envelopes stamps etc. I got a bit giddy lapping my dining table! Printing was a headache at times and twice I was refused by printers as it was gay related. My main job had a very good photocopier so I came to an arrangement there and Robin used to print after hours at the office where he worked in the City of London at a firm of solicitors
These were very early days and one Paul White (where are you?) was a huge help as he worked in the growing IT industry. Together we worked on early Big End layouts and developed the GCCG logo. Event fliers I cut/pasted/photo copied and mailed out – plenty to do each time.
I recall one event that had a very late cancellation and forced me to hand write the same letter over thirty times to catch the next days post ! Tim Griggs mentioned only nine events in 1995 – true – but by comparison now – very few classic car shows around and these nine events were GCCG only.
So why did the GCCG come into existence? The MG Owners Club had gained unwanted media attention when they allowed a man to advertise in the lonely hearts section for another man to go to events with and gay life in the late 80s could be pretty negative at times so we had to tread very carefully. There were long discussions on how to proceed but the thought of events with like minded people was too much to resist!! Looking at the GCCG regional map now pleases me a lot as my original concept was – in time -to emulate the Lambda car club in the USA where a committee oversees regional events. I never ever imagined what that initial conversation and early long discussions were starting and how things would develop !!
Memory jogger – Robin Barr, Photo Credit – Stephen Clifford
