The Emancipation Run from London to Brighton in 1896 celebrated the recently passed Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 which liberalised motor vehicle laws in the United Kingdom exempting vehicles weighing less than 3 tons unladen from the restrictive Locomotive Acts of 1861, 1865, and 1878 and increased the speed limit to 20mph.  Since 1865 the speed limit had been 4 mph in the country and 2 mph in the town,  with a man  required to walk 20 yards ahead of the vehicle. 

The first race took place on 14th November 1896. The event started with breakfast at the Charing Cross Hotel, which included the symbolic tearing in two of a red flag. The organisers of the Emancipation Run had made much of their claim that the man who walked ahead had to carry a red flag. The 1865 Act required this,  but the provision had been repealed by the 1878 Act.

The competitors gathered outside the Metropole Hotel (now  the Corinthea Hotel  London) with the cars accompanied by a “flying escort ” – estimated by one witness as ” probably 10, 000 “- of pedal cyclists, recreational cycling having become popular with the English in the final decades of the 19th century. 

After the initial Emancipation Run, in during the next few years Commemoration Runs took place between Whitehall Place and Sheen House,  covering a distance of about 8 miles. 

The London to Brighton Run was not staged again until 1927. Since then it has run annually, except from the onset of the Second World War up to 1947 owing to petrol rationing and in 2020 due to the Covid- 19 pandemic.  With all this considered, it is the World’s  longest running motor event. Since 1930 the event has been controlled by the Royal Automobile Club. 

How important was Sheen House in the early days of motoring in this country?   Probably in two ways:

First by providing a venue for the finish which could accommodate the motor vehicles taking part and the ” flying escort” of pedal cyclists accompanying them,

Secondly, by hosting the subsequent Commemorative Runs in the years following the Emancipation Run the concept was kept alive which led to the revival of the London to Brighton Run in 1927 which continues to this day!

Thanks to Graham Kench, Mortlake Resident, for his research and contribution.