Griffin House, currently Vauxhall Motors headquarters site on Osborne Road, Luton, is being sold off. They are telling us the Heritage centre currently on the same site will be moved to another location in Luton.
The site is being sold for housing development.
This is a very sad day for me. I served my apprenticeship here - at what is currently Griffin House. In those days it was Vauxhall Motors & Bedford Commercial Vehicles product development, engineering and styling department.
Before me, my father worked at Vauxhall Motors in Luton from 1958 to 1978 - before being promoted to regional dealer management across the country until he retired from the company in 1999. When Dad joined Vauxhall the PA Cresta was new. He worked for Vauxhall Motors for 42 years.
Griffin House and the Heritage Centre is the last vestige of a once great British marque. Built in 1963 Griffin House is all that remains of the companies heart, although Vauxhall Motors as an autononous British motor manufacturer really ceased to exist in 1978. Everything produced since then has just been badge engineered Opel or other GM brand product badged as 'Vauxhall' for the UK market.
The Kimpton Road, Luton, Vauxhall factory has already been sold off to such a large extent that only the Vivaro van line at what used to be AA block now remains. 90% of the Luton factory has already gone.
I'm afraid Vauxhall Motors is now effectively consigned to history in all but name. It joins the pantheon of other historic British and GM marques. Very sad, but the world moves on. It's now the 21st century and Vauxhall was very much a 20th century flowering of British motor engineering. Only the name remains - on badge engineered world cars and vans - and I'm saying a last farewell to my childhood and youth.