The Royal Aquarium Hall, Westminster about 1876The Crystal Palace, Sydenham 1854The Royal Agricultural Hall 1861, view from Liverpool Road. Now the rear entrance to theBusiness Design Centre
In its first decade it was organised by the Stanley Cycling Club and held at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster specially for "the votaries of wheeling". From the 1886 exhibition it was arranged not by the Stanley Club but by a committee of manufacturers and Stanley Club members. This 1886 exhibition displayed a strong emphasis ondwarf or safety bicycles. There were signs that tandems were replacing the wider and more unwieldy sociables.[1]
1888's display included a prominent exhibit byCoventry Machinists Company, styled a Hansom Cab Coolie Cycle. Built for the Sultan of Morocco with a full-size cab body in front, where His Majesty would be able to sit in comfort and control the steering and braking, this machine was propelled by four cyclists at the back. There were other notable displays by: Hillman Herbert & Cooper of Premier Cycles, Rudge Cycles – a bicycle for military purposes, Marriott & Cooper – a tandem, Eureka racing bicycles by Bayliss Thomas & Co. and many others including an electric tricycle and "roadscullers" using a rowing motion for propulsion.[2]
The Stanley was always a winter show. In the summer of 1896Harry Lawson ran a competing International Motor Exhibition at theImperial Institute, Kensington.[3]
The Stanley Show Committee's first automobile exhibition was held atEarls Court. Opened on 15 January 1905 in very cold weather Earls Court's unheated buildings drew the comment from newspapers that it was well-attended considering the weather conditions. A month later an automobile exhibition atOlympia (the third International Exhibition of theSociety of Motor Manufacturers and Traders under the auspices of theAutomobile Association of Great Britain and Ireland) drew crowds that were "enormous and interested".[4][5]
The Stanley Committee's last show was in November 1910.[6]
Olympia's International Motor Show and Motor Cycle Show
The Olympia Motor Cycle Show held in November 1911 supplanted the old-established Stanley Cycle Show. The new Motorcycle Show pushed forward by two weeks to the beginning of November the great International Motor Show also to be held at Olympia that month.[7]
