Bovril

Bovril’s Windrush Square Legacy

Windrush Square in Brixton is home to this, one of the most famous ghost signs in London. While the Bovril sign is still very prominent, less well known is that beneath it are the remains of what was once a painted advertisement for Butlin’s. While researching the Butlin’s sign, Roy Reed happened across this wonderful […]

29 Jun 2018

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

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

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

My Leicestershire Digital Archive

Colin Hyde from the Centre for Urban History at Leicester University sent me an email with a fascinating link today. It is to a project he has been curating over the last couple of years which features an unrivalled collection of Ghostsigns from the county of Leicestershire. What is most interesting about the c.250 images in […]

16 May 2011

Anchor

Photo: Creative Review Photo: Creative Review Creative Review and a few others have spotted this new outdoor campaign for Anchor Butter.  When I first saw the photos I assumed they were genuine hand painted ads but they are actually printed billboards which, in the case of the press shots, are cleverly cropped to suggest otherwise. […]

5 Aug 2010

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

Surrey Mirror

The appearance of this sign in Redhill, Surrey acted as a catalyst for an article on the subject of ghostsigns in the Surrey Mirror.  This was kindly sent to me by David Griffiths as it wasn’t published on their website. Some pictures of the other signs that get referenced can be seen here. Click on […]

14 Nov 2009

Bovril Update

Alex sent me this photo of the remnants of a Bovril sign in the Redhill area. In much the same way as the Ekco sign that Duncan sent me, this sign appears to have been revealed during some recent construction work involving the demolition of the adjacent building or extension. This is a huge factor […]

26 Apr 2008

Bovril & Greys

Andy sent me this great double sign from Bedford in response to my appeal for world record contenders.  Although it isn’t a multitude of signs, the quality of preservation is exceptional. Either they’ve been retouched or they have been preserved by a billboard/adjacent building. redgrittybrick says of the Greys signs: ” I believe the “Greys” […]

19 Oct 2007