Oh, Mr Porter! Back on the New Gerrard tale…

Well it’s pretty cold down here in the ‘sunny’ south but I’m guessing it’s colder in Auld Reekie…

I wrote a fair bit about Jock Porter and the Edinburgh-built New Gerrard on here a few years back ( posts New Gerrard News and Happy New Year – oh, ah don’t tap on this thinking it’s ‘a link’ – that’s too com-puter-licated for me,  you’ll have to look them up!) but a recent question from John Fergusson about manufacturer and works rider Porter reminded me of some more information that has come to light on New Gerrard.

I always knew that Porter’s Motor Mart was at the top of Leith Walk in Edinburgh and I’m sure I was told that it had still been going into the 1950s – perhaps when Jock passed away in November 1952; he was only 58 and is buried in the cemetary at Comely Bank – but I was also told that the building was demolished when the big roundabout/ multi storey Greenside Car Park was built. I have since learned that this is not the case.

Here is Porter’s Motor Mart in 1923. That’s Jock, fourth from the right. He’s listed as the Scottish agent for Massey Arran and maker of the New Gerrard. In case you think the ‘Arran’ part of Massey Arran makes it another Scottish marque,  it doesn’t. Massey Arran were originally based at Bell Barn Road, Birmingham. The road still exists, in name at least although not in a form recognisable to company head E.J.Massey. Massey (the man) went on to various roles; he was involved with Howard Davies in forming HRD in 1924, was also a cartoonist of note, providing regular caricatures of motor trade personalities for the Motorcycle and Cycle Trader in the later ’20s and became sales manager for OEC in 1930.

Jock Porter opened the Motor Mart back in early 1914,  at 25 Greenside Place and the photo below, from November 1921 not only shows a Massey Arran – the black bike with disc wheels behind what looks like a Triumph Model H, it also celebrates his taking over the shop next door, which had obviously once been all one building anyway, increasing his shop frontage to 25 to 27, Greenside Place, as we see here.

The numbers are shown as 27 – 25 because the centre of town is to the right of the photo and to the left is the famous ‘fit o’ the walk’.

Well, it’s still there – now the famous Theatre Royal Bar but still very recognisable – although progressive road widening hasn’t left much room for the bikes to  park outside. Apparently the extra premises offered extensive cellar space which opened into Greenside Lane, alongside and round the back. The idea was to use this as extra showroom and workshop space and I wonder if it’s where, so my friend Martin Shelley told me, a brand new JAP engine turned up in a box sometime back in the 1970s.

I also wonder if that extra showroom space was behind the ‘pleasure cars for hire’ side of the business, advertised outside the shop. Certainly there wouldn’t be much room in the shop for cars and Porter’s workshop over the other side of the Walk in Gayfield Square must be where the New Gerrards were made.

When I lived in Edinburgh often wondered where Porters workshop might have been; Gayfield Square is mostly residential – apart from a large and fairly modern Police Station, so I concluded that ‘the Nick’ had probably been built on top of Porter’s garage; not wanting to look closer via a night in the cells I gave up on it. But once again I was wrong; the address was 11 Gayfield Square which is outsode the Square itself.

Pity I didn’t realise that it was his building, still standing and being used as a public space. It’s quite large but then it would need to be if itwas the New Gerrard factory. In reality it was more an assembly shop – only the frame and tanks would have been specifically New Gerrard; engines gearboxes, forks, wheels etcetera would all have been proprietary – bought in – parts, as was normal for smaller manufacturers then. It was a hangover from the turn of the century days of blacksmith built bikes; you could get lugs to make a frame, buy everything else, put it all together and stick your name on the tank. People often decry Brough Superior as being built up from other people’ stuff but to be fair that’s just how it was then.

Anyway I was excited at last to have discovered where the New Gerrards were made…well, prior to 1924 when demand increased to a level where Jock did a deal with Campion in Nottingham to take over production. But I’d say there’s little doubt that Jock’s TT bikes were built here.

But unfortunately the workshop was demolished a few years ago in favour of this masterpiece of modern day young executive lifestyle.

Not far away is a monument to Embra’s celebrated son Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of  Sherlock Holmes; as a matter of fact there’s another one near here in Crowborough, East Sussex – he got about a bit did old Arthur. Sad to think that nobody has bothered to commemorate John Adam Porter, engineer, manufacturer TT winner and employer of local people…but hey, motorcycles have never been a majority interest.

Here’s to you, Jock!

Cheers R