27 Apr 2018

Roy Reed’s Reconstructions

Roy Reed is a prolific collector and researcher of ghost signs, and uses his skills as a designer to decipher them. I’ve featured his work previously, on the almost illegible William Walker & Sons sign in Bermondsey. Roy is also a co-collaborator on the forthcoming Clapham Ghostsigns Walk. He has kindly shared some more of his forensic deciphering work, and I’ve selected ten of my personal favourites to present below, including the Rubenstein sign that features on my Stoke Newington walk. You can also find more of Roy’s photography within his extensive Flickr collection.

Here’s how it looks otherwise.

And side by side for context and comparison.

In this example Roy has extended his work beyond the currently visible portions of the sign.

Before…

After, still with some obscured…

In this example Roy has even managed to incorporate the illustrated element with reference to other visual sources.

And square on.

Before…

After…

I was able to help with this one by providing some of the text that I knew of from my own research.

And square on.

Layout developed to accommodate intruding window.

And as it actually appears now.

This one in Islington featured in Harvey’s survey, and it’s great to see it all transcribed.

And in context.

Here the technique has been applied to tease apart the layers of a palimpsest, much as Craig Winslow does for his Light Capsules.

Before…

After…

Thank you Roy for your work on these, and sharing them here on the blog.

• Deciphering
• Reconstruction
• Roy Reed