H. E. 'Doc' Green
Author
Bryan ClarkeAccording to his family, H. E. Green got the nickname Doc Green from being the first aider for the 29th Wheelers, long before the launch of 'Dixon of Dock Green' in 1955 and not the result of any clever word play.
Doc’s career as a frame builder began as a filer for Claud Butler after leaving the RNVR as a telegrapher during WWII. He progressed to become an apprentice frame builder at A.S.Gillott where he came into contact with a young Ron Cooper. Ron said he learnt a great deal from him in these formative years. But the immediate post war years were a boom for cycling and in 1948 ‘Doc’ felt confident enough to go it alone. In 1952 he opened a shop at 171 Dawes Road Fulham S.W.6. and started building frames in 1953. Later, in partnership with Harry Humphries (a founder member of the Morden CRC), he opened a second shop at 8 Cinema Parade, Morden in South West London opposite the Underground station. As he and Harry Humphries shared the same first initials, both premises were to become branches of H E Cycles.
and Pete Russell (?) in doorway
John Dodson who frequented Doc’s shop at Fulham in the days before this area and Chelsea were to change irrevocably in the ‘swinging sixties’ provides us with a flavour of the place in the mid 1950s.
"When
I was a member of
the Actonia Cycling Club in the mid 1950's the bike of choice was a
W.P.Newton. I, too, would have had a Newton but a cycling
friend
who had the enviable job of being the Saturday boy at
H.E.Green's
Fulham shop (and owned an H.E.Green), persuaded me otherwise.So, Doc Green made my first frame. Nervex professional lugs, 6" chrome forks and rear stays, painted in a magenta flam with gold lug lining. I think it cost £15 - (money saved from a morning paper round and a Saturday job pushing a trades bike for a wine merchant).
Frame building was done out the back in a room that connected the shop to the back yard. Whenever I called there after school, (which was as often as I could, especially when my frame was being built), Doc was happy for me, and I imagine other cyclists to wander out the back to talk to him while he was at work.
There used to be a dartboard on the back of the door which connected the shop to the workshop, and Doc always had a set of darts on the work bench. You'd say to him "double top Doc” and he'd stop whatever he was doing, pick up a dart and throw it at the board - double top!
(Left) An Actonia rider on a H E Green from the early 1960s.
(From Graham Lambert (Ex Actonia CC in the early sixties): Under the H E "Doc" Green section, you show an Actonia CC rider on one of Doc Green's frames. Although I haven't seen the rider or the frame for 46 years, I remember it well. The rider was Tony Bobbett and the photo was taken in 1962 by the club photographer, Bryan Gwyther. The frame was powder blue with chrome Prugnat long point lugs and 3/4 chrome forks and stays. Bit of a surprise to come across it in Australia, where I live, after all these years.)
Pete Russell was Doc Green's assistant. He didn't build frames but served behind the counter, did repairs and bike builds. I remember him leaving, sometime in the late 50's, to open his own shop - Velo Sport in the Wandsworth Road near the Nine Elms shunting yards. Pete sold his own frames, badged Velo Sport. I wonder if Doc Green made them? Oh well, happy days!
According to John, Pete was also skilled in ‘butchering’ Brooks saddles, a process of customisation that was popular at the time but expensive. He later advertised these as special Velosport saddles in the Sporting Cyclist. The frame built for him by Doc in 1953 had an interesting paint job of dark gunmetal lustre that had a green head tube and a seat panel of ruby, white and green, with gold lug lining, which must have looked stunning.
Doc offered eleven lug patterns (see Price List), from
Nervex pro to hand
cut lugs. There are also two reports of him building with
customers‘ own hand-cut lugs. One belonged to Mike Barry, who
left these shores to race in Canada and the USA in the 1960s and has
owned a bike shop in Toronto for over thirty-five years. With its
unique lugwork he spotted the bike again many years later on a visit to
Europe. Doc also built for Algurn Lightweight Cycles in Garrett Lane,
Wandsworth. According to Len Ingram who interviewed Doc around 2001,
frames took up to 11 hours to produce and a seven day week was not
unusual. In 1953 a basic frame with Nervex lugs would cost
£11-10s, with chrome £14-00s, and hand-cut spear
points at
£16-00. This included a two-colour paint job with lug lining.
The
most expensive frame, the ‘Fleur de Lys’ (see lug-drawing on right)
cost
£20 –00s and was not unlike the equivalent Gillott
model of
the same name but had many more cut-outs. Not surprisingly, it has been
observed that there are a number of similarities with Gillott that
included the frame numbering system, frame details and the design of
the transfers although there was never a head badge. However, a one-off
special seen recently does have one cut from sheet brass. He built
exclusively in Reynolds 531 butted tubing so there was often no need to
add a tubing sticker. It is clear that he built a great many frames in
‘Nervex Pro’, which was the fashion at the time and
by the
early 1960s, an ‘Italia’ model using Prugnat lugs.
(see
photos)
From a personal point of view, I have owned an ‘Italia’ road/path for over 25 years, ridden mostly in ignorance of the builder but a valuable introduction to riding ‘fixed’ on the road. It was bought from Ray Young’s branch of Youngs Cycles in Trafalgar Road, Greenwich and I fell in love with the magenta over chrome paintwork. Youngs were famous for their Grandini frames built initially by Bill Philbrook.
It is clear from this model and one built in 1954, acquired by the writer more recently which has hand-cut lugs, that Doc liked to build with a steeper seat angle and shallow (72 deg) head coupled with a shortish fork rake. Although very different in size, design and BB height the ‘Italia’ has angles of 72 –74 and the one with hand–cut lugs 72-73 rather like a Frejus. The result is a peerless response and handling, justifying Ron Cooper’s description of him as a ‘master framebuilder’.
 1954 H E Green Spearpoint
headlugs
|
 H E Green Italia
|
 H E Green Special
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From the carbon copies in receipt books that survive from the early 1950s and the early 1960s (ones are missing from the late 50s) the number of frames built reflects the highs and lows of the lightweight cycle trade at that time. Whilst 78 frames were built in 1954 this declined to just 17 a decade later. Doc was forced to sell up in 1965 to start a new career with British Oxygen but remained a keen cyclist, gaining medals as a vet. He died in 2005.
Frame numbers start with 5301, the first two digits representing the year of build coupled with a sequential build number. This is normally found on the left rear fork end (dropout). The last recorded frame is 65655 and cost £18.0.0.
The head and seat transfers feature the letters H.E.G above ‘HANDBUILT LIGHTWEIGHT ‘ with the Dawes Road address in the section below. Frames purchased at Morden had simply MORDEN SURREY as the address. Down tube transfers were in an attractive script or as a block (see images below).
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Bryan Clarke adds some new information about H E Green frames
In pursuit of transfers and information about his H E Green frame VCC member Chris Hutchinson has provided me with new information about the marque from Morden CRC secretary, Graham Hutchings. Chris bought his bike secondhand from Rory O’Brien in 1973 and wanted to restore it and obtain the proper transfers. Like my own ‘Italia’ model, his frame had the number stamped under the bottom bracket and not on the left side of the rear dropout, the normal location on Doc Green frames. Even more mysterious was that his frame number bore no relationship to mine or so we thought: mine being 13691 with Fulham transfers and his 71336, having transfers with the Morden address when he first bought it. However, it was felt that the dies and their position on the bottom bracket were identical and the build qualities were also similar. The mystery was solved when Graham wrote to Chris telling him that both were made by Bill Gray when he worked at the back of George Stratton’s shop in Battersea, seemingly after Doc gave up building frames in the mid 1960's (see Len Ingrams report in N&V 287). The Fulham address on my bike suggests that Doc was complicit with this arrangement – but perhaps not.
Harry was able to provide Chris with the correct transfers for his frame from the few that remain in his possession and continues to be the president of the Morden CRC. I must thank Mike Barry for suggesting to me that I contact Graham for information some years ago and I am suitably red-faced for not doing so myself, but by passing it on to Chris much new information has come to light.
Bryan ClarkeNovember 2008 I would be particularly interested in receiving photographs and your memories of the Dawes Road and Morden shops and of course your ‘Doc’ Green frame. Please send them to me through the webmaster.