18 Feb 2010

Roofads

Tyler & Coates Builders & Contractors

Church Street, Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Photo: rebalrid

As I get increasingly close to the material gathered for the archive I start to notice little subtexts, themes and oddities within the collection. The latest of these is a series of what I have tentatively called ‘roofads’. These are signs painted directly onto the roofing tiles of buildings, ghostsigns but not as we typically know them. The first of these that I ever became aware of was for The Dove pub in Hackney’s Broadway Market which I’d visited many times without knowing about it’s big white lettering on the roof (see picture below).

Here’s a little collection of examples of this form, interestingly they are all for pubs/inns and builders merchants. I’d be interested to know if any more are out there that I haven’t come across yet…

Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, TS3
Photo: Nekoglyph

Broadway Market, London, E8
Photo: sarflondondunc

Marsh Road, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, TS3
Photo: Nekoglyph

Derby Road, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4
Photo: rebalrid

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