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RIP: The Chronicle, High Street, Crewe

A noteworthy letter ‘r’ on a now-lost ghost signs advertising The Chronicle newspaper in Crewe, Cheshire. Photographed by Alex Hoggarth.

28 Feb 2024
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
Ghostsigns in The Simple Things magazine

A new magazine, The Simple Things, features a great article about Ghostsigns. Written by Kirsten Elliott of Akeman Press in Bath, there are also a couple of wise words and a bunch of photos from yours truly. Regular readers may recall a couple of fascinating photos that Kirsten recently provided to this blog and there is […]

8 Sep 2012
Ghostsigns and Smiths Grand Teas in the Countryman

This photo by John Vince features in a short piece he’s written on ghostsigns for the Countryman. The sign, from Leicestershire, also features in the History of Advertising Trust Ghostsigns Archive and has the wonderful ‘act local’ line of “Carefully blended to suit the water of the district”. It also has a remarkably diverse set of […]

1 Sep 2012
Mark Spurgeon’s Preserve project in ProDesign

I’ve just come across this article in ProDesign magazine which profiles Mark Spurgeon of the Preserve project in New Zealand. I’ve written about Mark’s work before and how there are parallels with my own interest in ghostsigns. This article reinforces those similarities. You can visit Mark’s site at www.preserve.co.nz, it is a real treasure trove […]

3 Aug 2012
Ghostsigns in ‘Down Your Way’ magazine

Yorkshire is the focus for this three page spread on ghostsigns in Down Your Way magazine from earlier this year. Thank you to Mark Whitley of Country Publications for allowing me to republish this piece here.

10 Jul 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
Ghostsigns in The Biochemist

Press coverage for the project sometimes throws up surprises and I was delighted to see that the October 2011 edition of The Biochemist labelled my site as among the ‘Best of the Web’. Katy’s photo once again caught the editor’s eyes in this very nice write up. Thank you to Executive Editor Mark Burgess at […]

25 Nov 2011
Ultrabold, Summer 2010

The Summer 2010 issue of Ultrabold, the journal of the St Bride Library, features an article by me on the launch of the HAT Ghostsigns Archive. You can view a pdf here, or subscribe to the journal by becoming a friend of St Bride here. My previous Ultrabold article can be found here with other […]

8 Oct 2010
Telegraph

A nice feature in this Sunday’s Telegraph documents many jobs that are gradually disappearing, including that of the advertising signwriter alongside rag and bone men, matchgirls and airbrush artists (pre-photoshop) among others. Written by Peter Lyle the signwriting piece focuses on Wayne Tanswell, contemporary signwriter, and a brief quote from me about the habit that […]

22 Aug 2010
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
ARC Magazine

> The latest issue of ARC magazine from the Society of Archivists features this two page article on the Ghostsigns Project.

8 Jul 2010
Design Week

Nice piece from David Bernstein published in Design Week, 22nd April 2010, full text pasted below. PRIVATE VIEW APRIL 2010 “‘There stands the ghost of a great name’ wrote Lucan, the Roman poet. He was referring to Pompey. Not the football club but the general who also lost regularly – to Julius Caesar. Lucan’s invocation […]

1 May 2010
One Show & the Guardian

[Update: better quality video here.] Here’s the piece that was broadcast on the One Show, BBC1, on 12th April 2010. To see it full screen on youtube click here. On the same day, by pure coincidence, the Guardian did a write-up in their G2 section. Read it in full here or here.

25 Apr 2010
Archive Press

Me with our sponsors from Rank Hovis and Roy Jeans of IPMPhoto: Trevor Liberson More event photos in this Flickr Set. Following last week’s launchI’ve had a busy time with follow up activity. Some of this has been from press interested in writing up the story and I’ll give some more updates soon, especially after […]

26 Mar 2010
Jericho, Oxford Update

It seems that the threat to a couple of iconic signs in Oxford has passed, for the time being (see the story in the Oxford Mail). Following the tip off from Isisbridge late last year I talked briefly about the signs on the old blog. The lobby that galvanised around preserving the original building appears to […]

10 Feb 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
My Merton

Yelfy over at Faded London has just had a nice piece published by local magazine ‘My Merton’ which includes a picture of the full sign above with the covering billboard removed. Also read Yelfy’s post about the article. Nice work Yelfy!

6 Jul 2009
Oxford Times

Owen alerted me to a recent feature in the Oxford Times and kindly sent through these clippings which I’ve scanned. While Oxford wasn’t an industrial centre like London or Leeds it still has its fair share of old painted signage. This is more evidence of the ubiquity of Ghost Signs and another organisation (Fat […]

24 Feb 2009
Exhibition & Press (USA)

Letitia Street at Market Street in Olde City, by Lawrence O’Toole Lawrence O’Toole from the The Philadelphia Ghost Sign Project has secured a month long exhibition at the PRIMER Microstudio. For those readers who live anywhere near this it would be worth getting along, above is one example from Lawrence’s collection. In addition to this […]

7 Feb 2009
Ultrabold (Part 2)

Following the earlier mini-feature in the Ultrabold journal a longer photo feature has now made its way into the latest edition. Thank you to Simon for doing a fantastic job on the layout, do grab yourself a copy. Or, if you’re too lazy, you can read a lower quality version with the scans below. [Update: […]

1 Jan 2009
Ultrabold

Simon got in touch a while back asking if I could write a short piece for the Ultrabold magazine, the quarterly journal of St Bride Library. This is a specialist library and archive of print, graphic design, typography and more in Fleet Street. (Which reminds me that my visit is now well overdue!) The outcome […]

17 Jun 2008
Philadelphia Press

Lawrence O’Toole who has been documenting Ghost Signs in Philadelphia, USA got some press on his project recently in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Read the full piece here [Jan 2012: Link no longer available] and visit Lawrence’s blog here for some great pictures. This adds to the growing levels of press.

18 Nov 2007
The Post (18th October)

Kathryn passed me this, which appears to have come as a follow up to the recent piece in the South London Press. The article talks about the Streatham Society trying to get this great Portogram sign protected and also features the question to Mayor Ken again. I’ve tried to get in touch wth John Brown […]

10 Nov 2007