226 Garages and Service Stations

Small garages and service stations are a vital – but fast disappearing – part of Britain’s automotive landscape. Often independently owned and sited in idiosyncratic buildings, they are rightfully celebrated and sensitively documented in this essential book.

You might use a local garage to change a tyre or replace your exhaust, but when was the last time you pulled over and took a good look at the building itself?

In the spirit of Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), photographer Philip Butler has done just that. Over six years, he’s travelled the length and breadth of Britain photographing these diverse, eccentric and idiosyncratic buildings.

As motoring became popular in the early 1900s, the need for mechanical expertise to service, repair, refuel, and sell vehicles soared – and the ‘garage’ was born. From the Mock-Tudor fad of the 1920s via the Streamline Moderne of the 1930s, to the simple Modernist rationalism of postwar Britain, each era has produced a distinct automotive architecture. With the introduction of the Ministry of Transport (MOT) vehicle test in the 1960s, demand accelerated still further. A diverse array of structures was utilised – churches, cinemas, railway arches, fire stations, shops, factories – all proved versatile enough to find second lives as garages.

As the era of the combustion engine draws to a close, Butler’s enchanting photographs of 226 Garages and Service Stations document the charm and personality of these survivors of the petrol age.

Published: September 2025 on FUEL

CONCRETE JUNGLE - An Introduction to Dudley Zoological Garden's Pioneering Geometric Tectons (zine)

Opening its doors to the public in May 1937, Dudley Zoological Gardens is home to not only a vast array of exotic creatures but also a remarkable collection of unique concrete structures known as Tectons. Designed by an architectural group headed by the renowned Modernist Berthold Lubetkin, these structures represented a pioneering approach to zoo architecture that pushed the boundaries of conventional design. They offered both a new visual aesthetic to the viewing public and a modern approach to housing captive species.

Despite most of them no longer being suitable for their original intended purpose, twelve of the thirteen Tectons built have survived, all having been listed by the built heritage group Historic England. Nearly 90 years since the zoo first opened, this book serves as a photographic tribute to these structures.

Annotated contemporary photos by Philip Butler take the reader around the site, structure by structure, documenting their forms in the Twenty-First Century.

Published: October 2023 by ADM

London Tube Stations 1924 - 1961

This book catalogues and showcases the surviving stations from this innovative period and later examples influenced by it. Contemporary photographs by Philip Butler, annotated with a station-by-station overview by Joshua Abbott, will guide you through the network's Modernist gems.

London Tube Stations 1924–1961 presents each period of development, Line by Line, with contemporary photos of all the surviving stations. All the key stations have a double page spread, with a primary exterior photo with one or two supporting images. A broader introduction, illustrated with photos from the London Transport Museum, gives historical context, while a closing chapter lists the demolished examples with further period images.

Published: April 2023 by FUEL

This is a revised, redesigned second edition of Tube Station Anthology featuring additional photos.

Tube Station Anthology 1924 - 1961

Charles Holden's designs for the London Underground from the mid-1920s to the outbreak of World War II represent a high point of transport architecture and Modernist design in Britain. His collaboration with Frank Pick, the Chief Executive of London Transport, brought about a marriage of form and function, civic service and commerce, which is still celebrated today.

This book catalogues and showcases the surviving stations from this innovative period and later examples influenced by it. Contemporary photographs by Philip Butler, annotated with a station-by-station overview by Joshua Abbott, will guide you through the network's Modernist gems.

200 p/p hardback casebound, lithographically printed on 170 gsm silk paper, limited edition run of 500 copies.

Published: May 2022 by ADM: SOLD OUT

Small Hours

Small Hours is a collection of photographs taken in around the small town of Malvern to document the peaceful cinematic atmosphere that isolated points of artificial light create after the sun has set. Read more..

Cover Buckrum wrapped, screen printed with image insert.
60pp hardback book on 170gsm paper.
HUV printed.
Stitched binding.
216mm x 216mm.
Limited to 300 copies (50 available signed with a numbered 5×7 C-type print of an image not included in the book)

Published: November 2020 by ADM

ODEON RELICS – Nineteen-Thirties Icons in the Twenty-First Century

Hardback book collecting together Philip’s contemporary photo-series of the surviving cinemas built by Odeon during their early years.  An introduction by architectural writer Jason Sayer sets the scene, illustrated with a number of period photographs from the Historic England Archive by John Maltby. Read more…

144pp hardback book on 170gsm paper.
225mmx225mm.
ISBN: 9 781999 759612

Published: October 2019 by Art Deco Magpie (ADM)