130 Years of London to Brighton
HOME » Magazine » May 2026 » Bits and Pieces » 130 Years of London to Brighton
This year’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run commemo- rates the 130th anniversary of the 1896 Emancipation Run, which heralded the freedom of the motor car in Great Britian. Entries for the 2026 event opened in late March with organiser, the Royal Automobile Club, anticipating a strong field of ‘horseless carriages’ from the dawn of motoring to take to the roads this autumn, on Sunday, 1 November.
The annual showcase is the world’s longest running motoring event and continues to bring enormous pleasure to veteran car owners and the tens of thousands of onlookers who always line the historic route from capital to coast.
Photo RAC
Last year’s Run attracted some 400 pre-1905 vehicles gathering in Hyde Park, creating an impressive sight and a unique ambiance, for the traditional dawn start. More than 100 entrants travelled from overseas.
The so-called Emancipation Run took place in November 1896 – 130 years ago this year. It effectively ended the horse-drawn personal transport era and celebrated the parliamentary signing of the Light Locomotives on the Highway Act, which allowed the speed limit to be raised from 4mph to 14mph and removed the
need for a person to walk ahead of a vehicle with a red flag. Early motorists drove from London to Brighton en masse, and British motoring was born. The Run today follows an almost identical route each year in commemoration. It honours the watershed removal of those draconian regulations with the ritual tearing up of a red flag at daybreak before the start.
Full booking details can be found on the official veterancarrun.com website.
These stories are all from the pages of Historic Motor Racing News. Some have been abbreviated for this web site. If you'd like to receive the full version, please visit our subscription page where you will find postal subscriptions available. A full subscription also entitles you to access the current issue online (available soon), so you can take it with you and read it anywhere, and we are working on providing full access to our archives of back issues exclusively for our subscribers.