A BELOVED family-run car garage has shut down after almost 50 years of servicing motors for loyal customers.
Brad Stevens had worked at Stevens Motors in Wanstead, , since 1976, when he joined aged just 19.
But after 48 years of tiring work at the garage, he finally decided to put his overalls down and close the for good.
Brad said it felt “strange” to retire after working at the site for such a prolonged period of time.
He added: “I’ve been there every day of working life since I was 19 and I don’t think I’ve ever been away from the garage for more than three weeks in a row.”
Brad said he enjoyed working on cars, despite the stresses of dealing with the – introduced to Wanstead in 2021 – as well as .
He explained he had to take out “a lot of ” in order to fund himself through this period, but could now finally retire after paying off the loans, reports the Ilford Recorder.
Brad's daughter Leigh even flew home from to surprise her dad for his retirement celebration on March 22.
She called the shuttering “the end of an era”, explaining that there were four small family-run garages in Wanstead when Brad joined the mechanics in 1976.
As time went on, all of these other closed, the latest prior to Brad's being Browns in 2015.
Now, with Stevens Motors closing, the era of all four of these successful local mechanics comes to an end.
Stevens Motors was founded by Brad's father John Stevens in 1949, with the original shop being in nearby Forest Gate.
In 1968, Brad's two brothers took over the business, moving it to Wallington Road in Wanstead.
Then, eight years later, after Brad finished school, he joined the team – he took over the business in 2006 when his brothers retired.
Brad explained he had also lost touch with the more modern mechanics of cars.
He said: “I’m not very computer literate so it’s been a struggle to learn and keep up.
“I don’t know anything about the now so I think it's time for me to retire and let the youngsters get on with that.”
While Stevens Motors will close, Brad will still continue to work part-time, picking up the phone in Dipsticks Garage in nearby South Woodford to ensure his previous customers continue to be looked after.
Brad said he wants to “make sure things are done for my customers the same way I've done them for years.”
This comes just months after following a longstanding parking row, which left the owner “completely broken”.
Tony Evens, who ran Mount Street Garage, in Bishops Lydeard,, for the last 20 years, was forced to shut up shop after a parking row escalated and left him with fines of £400.
The mechanic had parked customerawaiting collection in the car park across the road for years but the Village Hall Committee, which owns the car park, no longer allowed him to park cars there.
It also erected ANPR cameras in the car park, resulting in Tony's customers receiving fines on their cars.
Despite numerous back and forth with the committee, the situation was not resolved and now Tony said, in February, that he was done.
The mechanic, who suffers from , told: “I’m done, they have jeopardised my business and they don’t seem to care.
“I’ve had to close the workshop because of this and I am broken.“
