Sign Stories

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

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

Larkspur Restoration by Brian the Brush

This is the second of a series of three posts on current ghostsigns restorations in the UK, following last week’s piece on the Palladium Cinema sign in Morecambe. (See this This sign for Larkspur Soft Drinks is on King Street in Drighlington, West Yorkshire. The building it is positioned on was once home to Scott’s […]

16 Jul 2014

W.A.Higgs & Co: A Stoke Newington Beauty

Walking past Tatreez, the Palestinian restaurant, I spotted this beautiful Victorian sign on the inside. It is clearly a shop fascia which got me wondering why it isn’t on the front? I did some digging at the Hackney Archives and found out that W.A.Higgs & Co. was an importer of tea. They had premises at […]

21 May 2014

Time Travel with Google Streetview

This fragment of a ghostsign for Daren Bread in Stoke Newington is one of the stops on my walking tour in the area. Now, thanks to Google Streetview’s new ‘timelapse’ feature, we are able to visit the location as it was in 2008, prior to the removal of the mounted sign for Lemongrass. This clearly […]

29 Apr 2014

D. Appell Fascia Revealed by the Valentine’s Day Storm

Ghostsigns are regularly revealed by property development and the updating or removal of billboards. This is the first instance I’ve come across of the weather, in this case the wind, leading to a shop fascia becoming visible once again. The ‘Valentine’s Day Storm’ last Friday ripped the Roti Stop sign off this corner building, leaving […]

19 Feb 2014

History Repeating: A Stunning Reveal on Bethnal Green Road

While creating this beautiful new signage for Casa Blue, Ash Bishop of The Brilliant Sign Co. alerted me to an astonishing discovery inside the premises of this newly converted bar. It is a fragment of some Victorian painted lettering, which Ash proposes dates from the 1880s or possibly 1890s. Check it out below or, even […]

29 Jan 2014

Ghostsigns in the Family: Henry Dunn of Deal

This mid-1800s photograph shows a painted sign on the wall in Deal, Kent, advertising Henry Dunn and his various trades of cabinet maker, upholsterer, paper hanger, undertaker, broker and more. Born in 1818, Henry Dunn is my Great Great Great Grandfather, so I was chuffed to discover that he shared my appreciation of the hand-painted […]

15 Jan 2014

Beanfeast: Ghostsigns at Type Tasting

This is my/Ghostsigns’ submission to an inspiring project from Type Tasting, part of this year’s London Design Festival. It will be displayed alongside works from myriad designers and artists, including Alan Kitching and Ralph Steadman (Wow!), at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 14-19 September. The brief was to create a word that completes the sentence […]

1 Sep 2013

Liminal Space: past/presence by Mari Boman

Mari Boman, a photographer, took ghostsigns as the subject matter for her project titled ‘Liminal Space: past/presence’. The result is this series of nine beautiful images of some of London’s most well known ghostsigns. Not only that but the titles offer cryptic clues as to the stories these signs tell us about London’s history and […]

25 Aug 2013

Ghost of the British Legion in Ypres, Belgium

This intriguing English-language ghostsigns is found in Ypres, Belgium, and has been identified for protection given its historical significance. I was alerted to it by regular correspondent, Daniel Lohmann, who has also done a bit of digging into this unusual ghostsign specimen. Firstly is the ghostsign itself and an explanation for it’s language, location and […]

18 Aug 2013

RIP: Midford Fox

This photo from the early 1900s comes from the Akeman Press Archive and shows a family posing with their car outside this former tavern in Midford, Somerset. Kirsten Elliott from Akeman informs me that the last remains of the sign have now been rendered and painted over, making this a recent addition to the growing […]

10 Oct 2012

Two brilliant ghostsigns from Bath

I was recently interviewed by Kirsten Elliott of Akeman Press for an article in a forthcoming magazine launch scheduled for later this year. We’ve since been in email contact as a result of our shared interest in ghostsigns and those from Bath in particular. (Regular readers will remember my little photo essay of a visit […]

5 Aug 2012

Vote Against Prohibition Ghostsign in Baltimore

This is the first ever example from the modern era that I’ve come across of hand painted advertising on buildings used for political purposes. There are the ancient ghostsigns of Pompeii which I’ve written about before and also the murals of places like Nicaragua and Northern Ireland. This photo from Samuel Adam Johnson caught my eye […]

23 Jul 2012

Owl Cigars ghostsign mystery in San Francisco

Kasey Smith of the Perception Filter blog has just posted this fascinating piece of investigative research into the origins of the Owl Cigars ghostsign on Meacham Place, San Francisco. Can you think of any other theories that would explain its unlikely position given the evidence that Kasey presents?

15 Jul 2012

The stories behind some of the intriguing ghostsigns of Clapham and Battersea

A few years ago I spoke with Russell Norris who, at the time, was writing an article on ghostsigns for  a local free circular publication in South London.  Like him I was waiting for its eventual publication which never came until this week when Russell took matters into his own hands and published it on […]

6 Jun 2012

Farewell and RIP to the Hammersmith Palais

[Update, November 2020: This sign is still visible, and the demolition works appear to have only affected the building immediately behind this wall.] Thursday, 10th May 2012 marked the final destruction of the once proud Hammersmith Palais, home to this underground-platform-long ghostsign. Dances were once twice daily but the evidence of this now only remains […]

11 May 2012

London Remembers searching for clues about mystery girl painted onto wall in Belsize Park (@LondonRemembers)

Click here for more information and to add any leads to the case.  (London Remembers’ homepage is here.)

11 May 2012

Vancouver Arts Profile the Grandma’s Boy Reveal

This sign continues to win affections, and now there is this new material and analysis from Vancouver Arts.   See the story so far on this post and this one.

9 Apr 2012

Record Breaking Roofad

I’ve been sitting on this for such a long time that I almost completely forgot about it. In fact, Mark sent me details of it back in June 2009 so hands up for my complete slackness on that front! It is another example of a ‘roofad‘ but one with significant exposure, being situated on top of […]

11 Feb 2012

Draft Chapter (Food & Drink)

I’d love to get your feedback on a draft chapter for a possible book to accompany the archive. If this gets published then it will help raise funds to support the ongoing work of the History of Advertising Trust in this area. As usual please leave comments below or get in touch. NB. The images […]

8 Jan 2010

Who was Little Miss Barber?

Check out these West Midlands signs featuring a character called Little Miss Barber. But who was she? She appears on painted advertisements for Barber’s, Orantips and Twinings teas but besides these photos there seems to be no record of this energetic tea promoter. More images can be viewed in this Flickr gallery, any help finding […]

8 Jan 2010