“Tom felt the Marble Run was the best thing he’d created. I love the click-clack sound when kids are playing in the exhibition”
There are plenty of reasons to visit Letchworth, the landmark Garden City. The town is home to the UK’s first roundabout, Sollershott Circus, built in 1909, and it boasts some impressive Edwardian architecture, including the magnificent Spirella building. Letchworth also has strong transport heritage, being home to a division of Borg-Warner and commercial vehicle manufacturer Shelvoke and Drewry.
However, the town is best known to car enthusiasts as the site of Ogle Design, which was founded by David Ogle in 1954. When he was tragically killed in one of his Mini-based SX1000 coupés en route to Brands Hatch, Tom Karen took over as MD. The Ogle team, led by the Austrian-born industrial designer, went on to create an amazing range of products, from Raleigh Chopper bicycles to Leyland truck cabs, innovative Scimitar sports-estate to children’s toys. “It was a fantastic place to work,” recalls former employee Jeff Platten. “The diversity of projects was amazing. They’d be working on an Aston Martin clay model in one corner, and behind a screen would be a full-scale aircraft nose section being shaped. Tom was the best boss I had and changed my career.”
To celebrate Karen’s remarkable design legacy, a special exhibition has been staged by the local Heritage Foundation at One Garden City. It’s just one room, but it brilliantly encapsulates Karen’s character and achievements. As well as transport projects, the display space recreates his home living room and workshop with a brilliant collection of his animal sculptures and toys.
The exhibition was the inspired project of locals Josh Tidy and Brent Smith. “We came up with the idea late last year and everyone has been so supportive,” says Tidy. “We were very keen it didn’t become a room full of cars. Tom felt the Marble Run was the best thing he’d created, and I love the click-clack sound when kids are playing in the exhibition.” But the ‘popemobile’ based on the Range Rover is Tidy’s favourite: “It typifies Tom’s philosophy of a serious design challenge but with a fun result. No popemobile since has matched Ogle’s design, and I love the idea that the pope took one back to Rome.”
Not surprisingly the Bond Bug, one of Karen’s proudest projects, is prominently presented and the tangerine ‘1F2R’ 1970s icon has stimulated a wave of nostalgia among
