96 & 98 King Street Cambridge

96 (50), Belmont Cycle Works, King Street

History of 96 King Street

1861 (50)

William Jackson, 41, grocer, b Cumberland

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1871 (50)

William Jackson

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1881 (50)

Robert Dawson

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1891 (50)

Joseph Naylor

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13 June 1899 – Frederick Lawrence and the Belmont Cycle Works

Frederick Lawrence of Belmont Cycle Works, King Street, was prosecuted for “furious driving” after driving a motor car at about six miles per hour in St Andrew’s Street. Although Lawrence argued that the vehicle could travel no faster than eight miles an hour in its current gear, the magistrate ruled that six miles an hour in busy traffic still constituted dangerous driving and imposed a fine of £1.

Belmont Cycle Works was among the Cambridge firms that embraced the transition from bicycles to motor vehicles at the end of the nineteenth century. In June 1899 its proprietor, Frederick Lawrence, appeared before Cambridge magistrates charged with “furious driving” after taking a motor car along St Andrew’s Street. Lawrence explained that the vehicle was travelling at only about six miles an hour and could not exceed eight miles an hour in its current gear. The magistrates nevertheless ruled that, in the crowded streets of Cambridge, even six miles an hour could constitute dangerous driving, and imposed a fine of £1. The case provides an early illustration of the legal and social challenges created by the arrival of motor traffic in Cambridge, at a time when the city streets were still shared with pedestrians, cyclists and horse-drawn vehicles

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1901 (50)

not occupied

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22 March 1904 – Belmont Cycle and Motor Works advertisement
The Belmont Cycle and Motor Works used imaginative advertising to promote its expanding business at the beginning of the twentieth century. In March 1904 readers opening the newspaper were greeted with the dramatic headline “Big Fire at ‘Belmont'”, only to discover that the apparent disaster was merely an attention-grabbing advertisement. The firm explained that it manufactured Royal Belmont bicycles, tricycles, tradesmen’s carrier tricycles and delivery trucks, all built to order at its King Street and Belmont Place premises. The advertisement reflects both the competitive nature of Cambridge’s cycle industry and the growing diversification of local engineering businesses as demand expanded beyond the ordinary bicycle.
Source: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge King Street Scrapbook 1897–1990, summarising

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1911 not listed

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1913

Belmont Motor and Cycle Co’s showrooms

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1962

Elizabeth Robinson, dressmaker