London

Rain reveals Mazawattee Tea ghostsign at Sydenham station (via @DrMatthewSweet)

Photo: Dr Matthew Sweet Evidence of the weather revealing what might otherwise be hidden.  I’m sure I’ve seen a Mazawattee Tea sign elsewhere, perhaps with an illustration of some sort, any leads welcome in the comments…

6 May 2012

Penge Fashion House Considers Hand-Painted Signage Options

Anyone know if this and/or this have been followed through to execution?

17 Apr 2012

The joy of writing copy for butchers (with @Desightation)

Photo: Nick Garrett Not one, but two bits of playful copy on this sign by London-based signwriter Nick Garrett.  Reminded me of the line on this ghostsign, also found on this one: “Pleased to meet you, meat to please you.” Do you know of any other choice cuts from the realm of butchers’ copywriting?

31 Mar 2012

Before the secret lemonade drinker there was this Willesden Ghostsign

Another great discovery and background research from Sebastien here for a brand whose most memorable advertising was probably this:

22 Mar 2012

Design agency OPX launches London Typographica

This site [Link expired] from OPX is aiming to build a map of lettering forms of all sorts from across the capital.  These include chisselled stone, hand painted signs, plaques, shop fronts, in fact just about anything that has letters and can be seen at street level in London.  It’s a bit of a lottery […]

19 Mar 2012

Sebastien Ardouin discovers another RIP in Sheen Lane, Richmond

Another one bites the dust here.

18 Mar 2012

Signs and more in Dickens’ London

Picture: ‘Dickens’s Victorian London‘ by Alex Werner and Tony William Collection of 19th Century photography in London, some inadvertently capturing the advertising and signage of the age.  Original photo here, book available here.

2 Mar 2012

Now you see me, now you don’t: London’s elusive shop signs

Nice article here about the brief reveal, and more extended cover up, of some of London’s beautiful hand painted shop signs.  In some ways they are being preserved, but they could be equally be showcased.  They represent the skills of signwiters such as the contemporary Peter Hardwicke.  Jane also covered a closely related topic in her account […]

29 Feb 2012

Mid-20th Century photos of King’s Cross featuring some painted ads

This set of photos shows what King’s Cross was like 60 years ago with the odd painted ad caught inadvertently by what appears to have been a bus enthusiast.  The one above features a shop sign for Freeman, Hardy & Willis, and there’s this one too.  The full set here.

19 Feb 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

Belgravia Ghost Sign Restored

Before (2006/7) After News in this week is that a restoration effort has been undertaken in the heart of London’s Belgravia.  It has been directed at what was once a very faded sign for a horse infirmary (see two more of my pictures from c.2006/7 below).  It was instigated by Belgravia Garage, as the infirmary sign […]

15 Jan 2012

Stoke Newington Ghostsigns: History Pin Tour

After discovering the ‘Ghost Signs of Louisville’ Tour on History Pin I couldn’t resist having a go myself. The preliminary result is my first tour, ‘Stoke Newington Ghostsigns’.  I reckon the walk would take a couple of hours depending on how long you stop to photograph the 18 featured signs and former locations of signs. […]

18 Dec 2011

Ghost Signs of Louisville

Following last week’s post about Phil Baines’ London lettering tour I came across this ‘Ghost Signs of Louisville’ tour. It has been created by the University of Louisville Photographic Archive (in particular their Ghostsigns collection) using History Pin. I’m keeping a list of all the tours and trails I discover and these are listed in the […]

16 Dec 2011

Fading Ads of New York City

The eagerly awaited release of Frank Jump’s ‘Fading Ads of New York City’ book is almost upon us. I was fortunate enough to be offered a sneak preview by Frank himself so here are some reflections on the book to whet your appetite and hopefully encourage you to get a copy as soon as it’s […]

4 Nov 2011

Love Local Landmarks and the Hackney Society

To protect or not to protect? As I’ve discussed before, my interest in Ghostsigns started in my home borough of Hackney in London. The concentration of specimens in Stoke Newington intrigued me and I had to learn more about them. I was soon finding and photographing great examples not only in Hackney but across the […]

29 Oct 2011

Painted Ad Site

Wm Stage is back and this time he is taking his work online with the launch of his new Painted Ad website/blog. For those unfamiliar with Stage’s work then you should read a bit about his latest book, and also know that he authored the single most comprehensive volume about hand painted wall advertising back […]

10 Sep 2011

Signpainters Don’t Read Signs

Via their Facebook page, The Sign Painter Movie project alerted me to this rare, out of print book by Syl Ehr. Signpainters Don’t Read Signs is a great read and recounts umpteen anecdotes from Syl’s life as a jobbing signpainter in the USA (signwriter to those in the UK). These include incidents directly relating to […]

25 Aug 2011

The Painted Ad

Twenty-two years on from publishing the definitive Ghostsigns book, William Stage is back. ‘The Painted Ad: A Postcard Book of Vintage Brick Wall Signs’ builds on his own professional work in the postcard industry. He has pooled 25 of his best Ghostsigns images to create a book of cards which can be used to send […]

10 May 2011

Street Art

sarflondondunc, ever alert to the gradual shifts in our Ghostsigns landscape, alerted me to this new piece of street art positioned on the great Boyd Pianos sign on Shacklewell Lane, Hackney. It’s by the Canadian artist Specter and is part of the ‘If I saw you in heaven’ project. This attempts to “address the issue of […]

11 Aug 2010

Trails

Ghostsigns have recently popped up a couple of times in trails I’ve come across. These build on my recent type tour and a post about Jo Tomkins’ Stoke Newington Ghostsigns Walk. First up are the Battersea Heritage Trails, a neat little 64-page A6 booklet detailing a series of seven trails around the area. This has […]

12 Jul 2010

Six days to launch…

Another video and image highlight as we count down to the launch of the archive on 19th March.  These are from the Household & Furniture gallery. The images being featured in this countdown to launch are all those that feature on the postcard series which will be available to buy from Friday, 19th March. More […]

13 Mar 2010

Postcards

A sneak preview of some postcards that I’ve been working on with Jane to accompany the launch of the archive. More news of these and how to get hold of them to follow…

12 Feb 2010

Charlton Signwriting

Some photos and film from a visit to Charlton to see Chris of Northern Star Creative at work on a sign for a garage. It was great to see him in action and to hear some of his stories from when he used to run a signwriting shop on the Woolwich Road. He’s writing these […]

4 Dec 2009

Chatting with the Ritual Project

I did an interview with the New York project as it reaches its climax. Read it in full here and find out more about their work here.

1 Dec 2009