Ghostsigns

Cars and Ghost Signs by Tom Pawlesh

Tom Pawlesh got in touch and shared his cool collection of images composed by juxtaposing ghostsigns with a variety of classic cars. He has currently amassed almost 50 in total and I was happy to hear that Tom is already in contact with Dana Forrester who has drawn a similar connection between ghostsigns and cars. […]

13 Dec 2016

New Book: Ghost Signs of Bath

Ghost Signs of Bath has been a book waiting to happen for many years, and I have written about the city on a number of previous occasions. Fortunately Andrew Swift and Kirsten Elliott of Akeman Press have seized the opportunity and created a publication that takes local historical research into ghostsigns to new levels. I […]

28 Nov 2016

Ghostsigns with the Gentle Author on Spitalfields Life

I’ve recently had the pleasure of meeting the Gentle Author, creator and driver of the incredible daily posts on Spitalfields Life. We explored the routes of my North and South London Ghostsigns Tours, which have been documented on the blog (here and here). As with my public walks I enjoyed seeing the signs through another’s […]

17 Oct 2016

More Glasgow Ghostsigns

In July I headed to Glasgow to deliver a workshop, screening and talk for the Merchant City Festival. (A write-up of what happened can be found over on the Better Letters blog.) While there I got to see lots of new ghostsigns, and other forms of historic and noteworthy signage, much of which I collated into my […]

23 Sep 2016

The Ghostsigns Tours App is Out Now

The Ghostsigns Tours App, and the Bankside Ghostsigns Walk within it, are now available from iTunes and Google Play (for Android). The app brings the popular Ghostsigns Walking Tours to your mobile device, for enjoyment at street level, or from the comfort of your own home. A mixture of contemporary and archival photography is used […]

16 Sep 2016

RIP: Black Cat Cigarettes

I’m often asked what is my favourite ghostsign. There are many to choose from, but, since first discovering it in 2007, the Black Cat Cigarettes sign on Dingley Road in London is the one I usually go for. When giving my Top Ten London Ghostsigns to Londonist I said this about the sign: “This is […]

13 Sep 2016

Light Capsules from Craig Winslow

Craig Winslow is an experiential designer who has recently turned his gaze towards ghostsigns, and the creative possibilities offered by applying his expertise in light projection mapping. The idea first came to him during a trip across America and has grown since. In essence it involves recreating the fading signs through a process of typographic […]

7 Sep 2016

Fading Ads of Cincinnati

Fading Ads of Cincinnati by Ronny Salerno is the latest in the series of books from The History Press. Documenting the ghostsigns of his hometown, Ronny offers up some beautiful examples, complimented by detailed local history research that places them in context. Versus others in the series there is slightly less generic material on the […]

23 Jul 2016

Yager’s: The House of Value Revealed

Previously covered by billboards, this wonderful ghostsign advertising Yager’s has just been revealed in Stamford Hill. Following many tweets (via @ghostsigns) and emails concerning the sign, I had to go and have a look for myself. Thank you to everyone that got in touch, here it is back in 2009, with the billboards still in […]

12 Jul 2016

‘Phantoms’ by Michelle Madsen of the Poetry Takeaway

The Poetry Takeaway is a fun, interactive rapid poetry unit, and I was lucky enough to get one written for me a couple of weeks ago when I met the team at Here London. After a high-energy chat/interview with poet Michelle Madsen, I left her to it, and she came back with ‘Phantoms’ which you […]

24 Jun 2016

RIP: H. Callcut & Son

The H. Callcut & Son sign that once adorned this house front has now been whitewashed (see below). It was on Blackstock Road in North London, close to my old primary school, so I was quite sad to see this familiar landmark lost to property development. The photo above, and the details below were taken […]

20 May 2016

Ghost Letters of Vienna

Ghost Letters of Vienna is a project to photographically document the wide range of fading fascias, and other forms of redundant lettering, on buildings in the Austrian capital. I met with the project leader, Tom Koch, during his recent visit to London, and have offered a Ghostsigns Walking Tour as one of the prizes in […]

18 May 2016

Ghost Signs of Dublin by Antonia Hart

Last year saw the publication of Ghost Signs of Dublin, to my knowledge the first book covering the subject in Ireland. It is the latest in the growing set of titles from The History Press, previously focused on the UK and USA. (See: Birmingham Alabama; Liverpool; New York; Phildelphia; St. Louis). Versus other titles in […]

16 Nov 2015

Signs & Frescoes in Pompeii & Herculaneum

When I give talks on the history of signs painted on walls I often refer to their ancient history, going back at least as far as Roman times. Evidence for this comes from the ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum as seen before on these photos shared with me by Will Collin five years ago. (Ancient […]

11 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

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

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

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

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

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

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