Alcohol

Playing Hangman With Aplins’ Ghost Sign

The mystery of a docklands ghost sign, apparently advertising spirit and liqueur merchants Aplin’s, but with a twist in the tale.

19 Apr 2021
A Sly Fox (& Sons) on Hither Green Lane

Unlocking the mystery of the Fox & Sons ghost sign on HIther Green Lane, Lewisham.

22 Mar 2021
When Haig Finally Became Vague (RIP)

When Haig finally became vague, documents the one-time ghost sign at Milkwell Yard in Camberwell, which was cleaned to oblivion in 2017.

22 Feb 2021
Two Paris Beauties Under Wraps

A couple of years ago these two well-preserved ghost signs were revealed in Paris (see Streetview), presumably by the removal of billboards that covered and protected them. [Update via Caroline’s Miscelleny: The uncovering was in 2012, and the works can be seen underway in the legacy Streetview.] The first adverises Ripolin, a paint brand, which […]

7 Dec 2018
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
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
S Errington and some other South London Ghostsigns

This is a detail from one of my all-time favourite ghostsigns. It’s on Dulwich Road in South London and already features in the History of Advertising Trust Ghostsigns Archive. I had never actually seen it ‘in the flesh’ so it was a great surprise addition to a trip down south to meet Mari Boman and […]

22 Sep 2013
Hand-painted Asahi beer sign at the Earl of Portobello

Regular correspondent Ross Corben sent me this newly painted sign for Asahi beer on the side of the Earl of Portobello pub in West London (close up below). It’s an unusual brand for a piece of hand-painted advertising in my opinion, at least in light of the synergy between other users of the medium such as Jack […]

24 Nov 2012
Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet in Paris, 1983

I had to share this as it is a brilliant example of the classic ‘Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet’ campaign with illustrations in the hand painted form. It was captured by Scott Phillips in Paris in 1983 and, on his blog, he describes how he was able to create this wonderful image. The original artwork for the 1932 campaign was produced by French artist A. M. […]

25 Aug 2012
French ghostsigns blog: Les murs peints s’affichent

Les murs peints s’affichent is a blog written by Philippe Célérier on the topic of ghostsigns in France. He adds updates quite regularly and it is well worth following if you are interested in hand painted signs on buildings from this country which seems to have so many. The image above is taken from this post […]

29 Jul 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
Fuller, Smith & Turner: Chiswick Ales & Stouts

This new hand painted sign on the building housing the Union Tavern was sent to me by regular correspondent Ross Corben. It is advertising the famous Fuller, Smith & Turner brewery from nearby Chiswick and has clearly been produced to have a dated look, in keeping with some of the ‘faux’ ghostsigns discussed previously. It […]

7 Jul 2012
Declarations of Independence campaign from Jack Daniel’s

Today is Independence Day in the USA. Last year, to celebrate, Jack Daniel’s worked with letter-press experts Yee-Haw Industries and the team at Colossal Media to first produce poster designs and then to scale these up into large scale pieces of hand painted advertising around New York. The videos at the end of this post […]

4 Jul 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
HAT Archive: January 2012 Additions

A number of new additions have been made to the History of Advertising Trust Ghostsigns Archive. Some of these are new photos of signs already covered in the archive but many are completely new material for the collection. Here are a handful of my favourite new additions, the rest can be found by searching for […]

31 Jan 2012
Hemingway’s Ales (RIP)

This wonderful gable end sign for Hemingway’s Ales (Big Ben’s brand) ceased to exist as of 9th March 2011. It was a truly remarkable ghostsign and featured as the backdrop for my interview with John Seargent in the piece broadcast on the One Show. Incidentally I notice that it isn’t currently featured in the archive […]

15 Jan 2012
49 New Signs

Since handing over day-to-day responsibility for the archive to the History of Advertising Trust there has been a steady influx of new material. 49 new signs have been uploaded to the online galleries and this means that c.750 are now documented through the collective efforts of photographers across the country. I’ve listed the codes for […]

5 Aug 2011
Fresh lick of paint

I received an email this morning from a mural artist with an interest in working to restore/repaint Ghostsigns in the UK. She found me via a great project being run by the London Mural Preservation Society. I started drafting a response and then realised I’ve never written specifically about this topic and thought a blog […]

7 May 2011
Jack Daniels Update

Sheffield, Photo by Nicky Roberts My Aunt captured the above picture in Sheffield recently (Westfield Terrace, just off West Stand). This adds to the growing number of locations in this nationwide campaign by Jack Daniels (see previous posts). Photos of those discovered so far are below (Brighton, Bristol, Leicester & Newcastle), and, awaiting photographic evidence, […]

29 Apr 2009
Production Process

Click here for some interesting notes on the production of Ghost Signs from the USA Museum of Beer Brewing. It implies that the sign writers (or Wall Dogs in USA) used sheets of paper to create a dotted chalk outline on the wall which they could then use to guide the application of paint. I […]

27 Jun 2007
Dewars (New York)

Colossal Media I came across an old email from Faris that he sent me after he got back from New York. It had this picture attached with has been painted onto a concrete blocked out window. It was on North 6th, Williamsburg, New York City but I wonder if it’ll have the staying power of […]

23 Jun 2007
Colossal Media

The art of large scale sign writing lives on in New York, USA through the work of Colossal Media A full gallery of their work is available on their site but here are a couple of highlights, one more old school and one much more modern in terms of both product and design. These ads […]

20 Jun 2007