16 Jul 2024

X Doesn’t Mark the Spot: Revisiting an Islington Ghost Sign

Roy Reed, co-author of Ghost Signs: A London Story, recently returned from a photographic trip to Islington where he got better photos of this ghost sign on Popham Street. (One of mine was used in the book, but the superior quality of Roy’s pictures comes from his years of professional experience.)

Brick wall with a stucco panel set within a scalloped molded border. There is a fading painted sign on the panel which is more visible on the rightmost two thirds due to the leftmost third having a coat of blue paint over it. The text on this sign is "Nazalia, Day & Night Cure for Catarrh & Colds in the Head. Prevents Influenza. Certain, Simple & Inexpensive."
The sign is set on a flat stucco surface, and within a molded, scalloped border. At some point it appears that the rightmost two thirds were covered by a sign board, and the remaining visible third painted out in blue. Photo: Roy Reed.

Using the new photos, Roy was able to plug some gaps in our previous deciphering of the sign, but was left puzzling over the missing word to the left of the last line of lettering. I shared this to Mastodon, which led to its correct identification as ‘Certain’, giving “Certain, Simple & Inexpensive” for the bottom line.

X Doesn’t Mark the Spot

In the discussion under my post, Ray Newman pointed out that this slogan appears in old advertising for the Nazalia brand, rather than X-Zalia which we reference in the book. And he is absolutely right, as Roy’s subsequent analysis of the top portion of the sign reveals.

Detail of the top-left corner of the previous sign. It highlights the traces of lettering visible beneath the blue with a white outline for the letters N and A.
Looking again at the uppermost portion of the ghost sign, it becomes apparent that the letters preceding the clearly visible ‘ZALIA’ are ‘NA’, not ‘X-‘ as previously thought. Photo: Roy Reed.

ABC: Always Be Checking

So how did such a big case of mistaken identity end up in our book? To understand this we have to go back to 2010 when Sébastien Ardouin posted about the sign on his brilliant Painted Signs and Mosaics blog. Sébastien’s work is prolific and forensic, and his deciphering of ghost signs helped us unlock more than one piece of lettering in our research. I also referenced his post on this particular sign in my 2018 survey of Islington ghost signs.

In his discussion of the X-Zalia [sic] ghost sign in Islington, he introduced the American wondercure, which we took forward into our discussion of the brand in the book. I even tracked down some pictures of packaging and advertising for the Boston-based X-Zalia company, although these weren’t published.

Two pictures. On the left is a medicinal bottle with a light yellow label printed with red text. The X-Zalia logotype is visible, and then detailed directions for use in small type below that. On the right is a printed piece that lists the numerous and varied ills that can be cured by the X-Zalia product.
A bottle of the X-Zalia wondercure, and some information about the product from a piece of printed marketing communications.

Given the consistently reliable work that Sébastien put out on his blog, we didn’t question this one, especially as the name was so unusual, and the product was perfectly in line with everything else found on the sign. However, in hindsight, this was our error, and the result is a bad case of mistaken identity in the book. (It seems likely that Sébastien’s blog is also the ultimate source behind the sign’s brief mention on the London Inheritance blog in 2021.)

Introducing Nazalia

It’s entirely possible that the mistaken identity was part of the original Intent from the Nazalia brand: to pass itself off as its better-known X-Zalia rival. Both products claimed to cure Catarrh, and both seem to be plays on words: X-Zalia derived from ‘exhale’ and Nazalia possibly from ‘nasal’. There are various pieces of advertising for the brand here on the Londonerd site, including a few that definitively pinpoint it to the location of the ghost sign.

Print advertisement for the Nazalia brand. On the left is an illustration of a tube of Nazalia in front of a newspaper called Nazalia News. The headline is "Catarrh of the nose and throast" which then goes on to talk about the Nazalia brand's recent successful marketing campaign with details for chemists on how to obtain samples and marketing materials.
The address at the bottom of this print advertisement corresponds with the location of the ghost sign on the corner building at 78 Essex Road, facing Popham Street. Source: The Chemist & Druggist, 31 January 1914 (search ‘nazalia’ or page 328 here).

This advertising for the brand also identifies what looks to be its inventor: H.C. Payne. When we researched the book, I found the following occupants of the Essex Road premises between 1875–40.

  • 1875–1905: John Thomas Ward Wallis, chemist
  • 1910: Richard Langlands Innes
  • 1915: Hilliard Connelly Payne, chemist
  • 1940: George Edward Whineray, chemist

The advertisement above also places Hilliard Connelly Payne there slightly earlier in 1914, which supports a more accurate dating of this sign to the early twentieth century.

Sadly this post will have to serve to set the record straight on this Islington ghost sign, as our book will not be making it to a second edition.

A Poetic Postscript

In 2012, the X-Zalia brand and the ghost sign appeared again in published form. This was in the photography and poetry book, Formerly by Tamar Yoseloff and Vici MacDonald. We reproduced Tamar’s poem in the book with kind permission, which would never have happened with our new Nazalia knowledge. (Their work has previously featured on this blog here.)

Nazalia

Nazalia

Day & Night Cure for

Catarrh

& Colds in the Head

Prevents Influenza

Certain, Simple & Inexpensive

78 Essex Road (facing Popham Street), London N1 [Streetview]

With thanks to Roy Reed for the photography and additional Nazalia research, and to everyone that chimed in on the Mastodon post to correct and deepen our knowledge of this London ghost sign.

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