The Journey Matters by Jonathan Glancey

Author:Jonathan Glancey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Books

TEN

Bristol to Paris: Bristol 405

3rd–5th October 1955

Wrapped in my overcoat, I’m eating breakfast alone on the terrace of the Avon Gorge Hotel, with its irresistible view of Brunel’s suspension bridge, when a telegram arrives. FERRY NEW BRISTOL FILTON HÔTEL LE BRISTOL FOR 6TH OCT? REWARD. TOM +

Tom is an old friend on secondment to Paris, who knows I’ve been in meetings with the Bristol Aeroplane Company at Filton, twenty minutes from the hotel by taxi, and plan to be in Paris within the next few days to visit Dassault Aviation at Saint-Cloud. I’m looking forward very much to meeting M. Dassault himself. Refusing to collaborate with the Vichy regime, he landed up in Buchenwald in ’44. He was not expected to live, yet made a more or less full recovery after liberation. Born a Jew and originally named Bloch, M. Dassault’s new surname was adopted from his elder brother’s Resistance nom de guerre ‘Chardasso’, a play on char d’assault or ‘tank’. Although anything less tank-like than Dassault’s dart-like Mach 1.6 prototype Mystère-Delta jet fighter is hard to imagine.

My plan was not to fly to France but to take the Bristolian to Paddington and the Golden Arrow from Victoria. But Tom’s telegram promises a new adventure. As Bristol’s car division is next door to the aircraft factory at Filton Aerodrome, I finish breakfast and ask reception to call a cab. Half an hour later, and over a cup of tea, I’m in conversation with Mr Dennis Sevier, head of engineering at Bristol Cars, and Mr Dudley Hobbs, the company’s chief designer and stylist. An aerodynamicist by training, Mr Hobbs spent several years developing wings for Bristol Aircraft before joining the car division here, in what used to be the Filton laundry.

Tom’s new car, a four-door Bristol 405, is ready for immediate collection. I telegram Tom to say I’ll be at the Hôtel Le Bristol in Paris for dinner on Thursday. Mr Hobbs says they can ring Silver City Airways and make a booking for a flight tomorrow from Lydd to Le Touquet. If I leave today, I could be in Paris in time for dinner, but as I don’t have to be there till Thursday, I could stop overnight in Kent or the Pas-de-Calais. The latter sounds the better option. I know the Hôtel Windsor at Le Touquet, and a small restaurant nearby serving the kind of delicious meal all but impossible to get in England beyond Soho, Mayfair and the grander London hotels.

My meeting at the aircraft factory is at 11 a.m., so, very kindly, Mr Hobbs takes me on a brief tour of the factory before introducing me to Tom’s distinctive gunmetal 405. The model was first shown at the Earls Court Motor Show last October. Its wind tunnel–shaped body begins with an aero engine–like air intake and ends with a rounded and well-glazed rump, adorned with a pair of residual fins. It’s an attractive yet slightly curious design, with its front doors notably smaller than the rear doors,

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