Sam Roberts

Writing on the Whale and Other Novelties

Joe Thompson emailed me these fascinating photos of lettering on unusual objects, namely a dead whale (1919) and a shipwrecked oil tanker (1926). They are from San Francisco, recently donated to the Western Neighbourhoods Project. Read more about the photos and the project on SF Weekly News. As a bonus, an exploding whale video below. […]

4 Feb 2015

Restoration Period in the Monotype Recorder

Last year I was invited to contribute an article on ghostsigns to the reincarnation of the Monotype Recorder periodical. It focused on issues of protection and restoration which I have covered regularly on this blog and continue to maintain an active interest in. A couple of weeks ago I brought these issues to my first […]

23 Jan 2015

R.N. Cattle & Son in Harvey Gould’s Soho

This fascinating video about Soho features longtime resident Harvey Gould talking about the people and places that he remembers from the area. At 10:48 he discusses the painted wooden sign for R.N. Cattle & Son in Portland Mews. He then heads up the mews itself to reveal the ghost of cricket stumps once painted onto […]

21 Dec 2014

Ancient Indonesian Cave Paintings

Here is the latest discovery relating to the ancient history of paint on walls around the world. This time the image above and others depicting human features and animals have been found in Indonesia and dated to 35,000 to 39,000 years old. This is comparable to the oldest in Europe which are in Spain. Read […]

10 Dec 2014

Signs of Cambodia: Free London Exhibition

This weekend I’m bringing a collection of original painted signs from Kratie, Cambodia, and photography of others across the country to A.S. Handover in Stoke Newington, London. The exhibition is completely free and I’ll be there all weekend to discuss the material and sign copies of my book, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie. Here are the […]

3 Dec 2014

Ghostsigns of Mildura, on the Edge of the Outback

Stuart Walsh got in touch from Mildura, on the edge of the Australian Outback, following the ghostsigns feature in the Guardian. What he sent me really caught my eye and he has kindly let me share some of his photos here on the blog. Here’s a little of what he told me about the city, […]

26 Nov 2014

Perspex Protecting Ghostsigns from Barcelona to Sydney

This ghostsign for Peters Ice Cream in Sydney was photographed and shared by Mike Meyer while in Australia running signwriting workshops with Better Letters. It has been covered by a perspex sheet, presumably to protect it from vandalism and, to a degree, the elements. It is not a new approach but one that I think […]

18 Nov 2014

Ghostsigns in Coventry

Last week I was invited to give a talk about ghostsigns to students at the Design & Visual Arts department of the Coventry School of Art & Design. While I was in the area I thought I’d look up any ghostsigns that I could find in the History of Advertising Trust archive, and the flickr […]

12 Nov 2014

Ghostsigns in the Typographic Universe

A new book from Steven Heller and Gail Anderson features a handful of my ghostsigns photos from around the world (London, Cambodia, France and Australia). Typographic Universe documents a variety of ‘found’ letters in the environment, people and animals, alongside the creation of letters from everyday objects. These are split across ten themed sections with […]

5 Nov 2014

Ghostsigns in Amsterdam & Some Repainted

Last month I visited Amsterdam as part of my work on Better Letters. (Read more about it here, including lots more photos of lettering and signage.) While there I saw a number of ghostsigns, including many that have been repainted as part of the work that features in the book Tekens Aan De Wand. Below […]

29 Oct 2014

Ghostsigns Walking Tours: One Year On

This time last year I was setting out with my crash test dummies on the first ever Ghostsigns Walking Tour in Stoke Newington, London. It went well enough for me to continue running them and I’ve now taken the walk 24 times, with 220 people, leading to 42 (not so bad) ratings for the tour […]

20 Oct 2014

Fading Ads of Philadelphia by Lawrence O’Toole

This ghostsign advertising Roxy’s Hunting Goods did for Lawrence O’Toole what the Stoke Newington Fount Pens sign did for me. It sensitised him to the presence of ghostsigns in the urban environment, and started a programme of activity that would lead to the publication of his book, Fading Ads of Philadelphia. He still regards it […]

15 Oct 2014

Puck Matches: Archival Photo of a Gable End

This fascinating archival image is part of a larger collection of outdoor advertising captured photographically in the early 1930s and donated to the History of Advertising Trust (HAT) by Alan Bristow. This particular gable end in Pendleton features a painted sign advertising Puck Matches, which was once a Bryant & May brand. Both Puck and […]

9 Oct 2014

Dr Bells: A Stunning Ghostsign Reveal in Paducah

Rob Estes of Brushstroke Signs took the photograph below which reached me via Cornbread of the Walldogs. It’s of a recent ghostsign revealed in Paducah, Kentucky, and has elements that have survived in excellent condition, protected by an adjacent building that has now been demolished. (It follows hot on the heels of another recent doctor, […]

2 Oct 2014

Red Hackle: Scotland’s Best Whisky

Derek sent me a link to this discussion about lost streets on Urban Glasgow because he spotted the prominent Red Hackle Whisky sign in this photograph. The picture is from the 1960s and was taken on Holmhead Street, now known as Cunningham Street. The brand is no longer with us but evidence of it still […]

24 Sep 2014

Dr King: The Story of a Melbourne Ghostsign by Nick Gadd

This Melbourne ghostsign is a recent reveal and was captured by Nick Gadd, the writer behind Melbourne Circle. Nick’s research into the sign was recently published in an anthology of papers titled ‘Melbourne Subjective‘. He investigates the sign and creates a tentative hypothesis about who Dr King was with reference to a fictitious, but plausible, […]

17 Sep 2014

Ghostsigns of Rochester

Last weekend I attended ‘What the Dickens’, a Letterheads event in Rochester, Kent. You can read more about it, alongside 50 or so photos here. I spent most of the weekend indoors, either in the Corn Exchange at the event, or in pubs in the evening. However, on my walk from the station I did […]

10 Sep 2014

Cars No Longer Wanted: RIP

This car dealership sign has been recently whitewashed, as discovered while cycling past today. However, was it ever a ghostsign, given that the dealership remains in business at the same location? The sign had clearly fallen into disrepair, but was not completely abandoned. This has always been one of my London favourites, mainly due to […]

3 Sep 2014

Who You Gonna Call?

This was the scene on Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington, on the morning of Monday 28 July. The photo was snapped from the top floor of flats overlooking this famous ghostsign for John Brown Whiskies. I received it via email with a message concerned about the fate of the sign, in light of the forthcoming building […]

27 Aug 2014

Skirting the Edges of a Ghostsign in Washington DC

Here is a new (to me at least) approach to respecting ghostsigns while undertaking building renovations/property development. The host wall of this sign in Washington DC has been painted, with a careful distance left around the surviving lettering for this veterinary hospital. It could well be twinned with this one in London’s Belgravia and adds […]

20 Aug 2014

Ghosting with Ghost Signs: An Experiment in Risography

One of the things I most enjoy about my work on ghostsigns is getting involved with student projects using the signs as a springboard into other creative processes. I’ve helped on a number of these, most recently the work of Gloria Soria at London College of Communication. She has now completed her studies and took […]

13 Aug 2014

London Shop Fronts on London Live

Following last week’s post about Shopfrontelegy, here’s a short film from the Secret London section of new TV station London Live. It’s based on the work of Emily Webber who writes the London Shop Fronts blog.

6 Aug 2014

The Fantastic World of Shopfrontelegy

I’ve recently subscribed to Shopfrontelegy, a post-per-day blog from Vici MacDonald, the photographer and publisher behind Formerly. Given my recent interest in ‘fading fascias‘ the blog has been compulsive reading/viewing, with a collection of shopfront photography going back many years. It should probably come with a health warning about the hours you’re likely to lose […]

30 Jul 2014

Ghostsigns Restorations in Cambridge

This is the third and final post in a series documenting recent ghostsign restorations across the UK. It follows coverage of the Palladium Cinema restoration in Morecambe, and the repainting of the Larkspur Soft Drinks sign in Bradford. The focus this time is Cambridge and a slightly different approach to those previously covered. The Bulls […]

23 Jul 2014