UK

Gillette Palimpsest

Following the previous post on Gillette Razors I was looking again at this sign which I had always referred to as ‘Westminster Criterion Matches’. It is a rare example of two signs on different walls of the same building, sharing its home with my original post. On closer inspection it is possible to make out […]

2 Jul 2007

Gillette Razors

Frank Jump just posted this London sign he photographed while visiting in Spring 2001. It’s a classic Gillette ad with the characteristic blue background colour. The sign below is one I took on Clapham High Street and part of a an ongoing Campaign that Gillette ran in the Brickad format. You can see on the Clapham […]

2 Jul 2007

Google Earth Experiment

Last winter I took some of my photos from Flickr and attempted to begin building a map of signs and locations. You can see my preliminary results here if you have Google Earth installed on your machine. You can zoom in and move around and then click on the thumbnail signs for a bigger view […]

28 Jun 2007

Vaneers

This is a huge sign for London and is tucked away round the back of Shoreditch High Street/Kingsland Road.  It was painted in order to be highly visible from the nearby train line and has the old style way of writing phone numbers, SHO (Shoreditch) being 746. Out of view on this picture is the 7 […]

25 Jun 2007

Blue Star

Another picture from Andrew Hughes in Lincoln. He dates this c.1960 and says that Blue Star was a national chain of garages.  Also, above the brightly coloured sign, you can see the chopped remains of another older sign on the same spot. The well preserved nature of both signs, the fact that the older one […]

25 Jun 2007

Whitton’s Bread

Andrew Hughes, who is writing his dissertation on the protection of Ghost Signs, sent me this well preserved sign from Lincoln.  The bread would most probably have been made at Whitton’s Mill in nearby Whitton, perhaps an early competitor to Hovis as this sign is actually for the shop but probably paid for by Whitton’s. […]

25 Jun 2007

Thetford Warrens

This picture was sent to me by my uncle who lives in Norwich. I saw it for myself when I visited recently.  It is advertising the rabbit warrens at Thetford and is part of a series of similar signs on this building between the windows on the first floor. The sign writer has picked a […]

23 Jun 2007

Protecting Ghost Signs

It seems from people I’ve spoken to that it is very difficult to protect signs from distruction or being covered up.  However some notable exceptions exist such as the Bile Beans restoration project, the baker in Islington and now a judge has ruled in favour of a ghost sign and against a major outdoor advertising […]

21 Jun 2007

Hovis (Haringey)

Further to the previous post on the Hovis sign in Islington, here’s another example of this style from along Stroud Green Road in Haringey. The Hovis logo is different but the principle of Hovis sponsoring the painting of the sign in return for it being featured is the same.

21 Jun 2007

Hovis (Islington)

I discovered this sign at night on 3rd April this year and only got round to photographing it on Tuesday this week. I’ll have to go back to take another picture once the estate agent’s sign is removed but have put it up today because of the story behind it. On Tuesday I asked the […]

21 Jun 2007

Martin Thompson

Martin Thompson is an artist who has done a series of pieces based on his photography of predominantly London Ghost Signs. He calls them “urban fossils”. There was an exhibition in 2006 at the Bettie Morton Gallery in Brixton which I went to and was impressed with some of the signs. I would have loved […]

21 Jun 2007

Derelict London

Derelict London is quite a well known site run by Paul Talling covering lots of aspects of the decaying crumbling city that we don’t always consider or think about. There is a specific section on signs and murals which features a couple of brickads (see above). The Brymay matches one is in New Cross and […]

20 Jun 2007

Peterkin’s Custard

Further to the post on Louis Sheldon-Williams, here’s my photo of the full Peterkin’s Custard sign (featured in the Time Out piece). The little boy looks to be of Dutch origin (look at the clogs) but information on the company is thin on the ground.

19 Jun 2007

Black Cat Cigarettes

One of my personal favourites, this one is on Dingley Road, EC1. It is for an old brand of cigarettes that no longer exists.  There used to be a factory located on this site but more interesting is that Greater London House in Mornington Crescent was originally built as a factory for these cigarettes by […]

19 Jun 2007

Blooms Pianos

I photographed this fantastic sign today after going past it so many times on the bus. It’s just by the Geoffrey Museum in Shoreditch and is covered at this time of year by a big tree.   I had to do a bit of monkey-style climbing to get onto the roof underneath, hence the odd angle. […]

19 Jun 2007

True Ghost

This sign is certainly on it’s last legs, so much so that you’d miss it if you weren’t looking. It’s for John Hirst Builders and can be seen just round the corner from the Dartmouth Arms pub, NW5.

19 Jun 2007

Vortex (RIP)

This sign and former Stoke Newington landmark were both destroyed in favour of a new development on Church Street.  The Jazz bar moved to Dalston in 2005, but 2007 saw an ongoing squat protest to stop the developers moving in. Despite some shocking luminous grafitti protesting against the possibility of Starbucks I was pleased to […]

18 Jun 2007

BP (British Petrol) Revealed

This sign was partially covered for a long time but, just the other day, the modern poster was taken down revealing an old ad for British Petrol (BP) and some other ads faded behind but in a similar colour. The history of the logo indicates that this sign may well date from pre-1930.

18 Jun 2007

Shop Local

Not all Brickads are Ghost Signs and the most recent examples I know of are from artist Bob and Roberta Smith as part of his ‘Shop Local’ campaign at Peer Gallery.  This involved bringing together artists and sign writers to recreate the old style of advertising on behalf of local Hoxton businesses. This photo is […]

18 Jun 2007

Boots

This sign is clearly visible from Camden Town tube station as you look up Camden High Street towards Mornington Crescent. You wouldn’t see it if you were in a car or on a bike because of the one way streets, but on foot it catches your eye immediately. I spotted it while I was with […]

18 Jun 2007

Ghost Signs in Time Out

Two weeks after their feature on disappearing London, Time Out published three of my pictures in their magazine (8-15th November 2006). Thanks to Gabriel who took the scan of the page for me. My three pictures are the three along the bottom, although I also have shoots of the Bovril one in Brixton and the […]

16 Jun 2007

Bile Beans

Speaking yesterday with a guy writing his dissertation on the preservation of Ghost Signs I heard about this iconic example from York for Bile Beans. According to my contact it was restored by the York Arts Forum in 1986 just at the same time as the product was being discontinued by the manufacturer. However, despite […]

16 Jun 2007

Welcome to Ghost Signs

This is my first venture into blogging and so I thought an intro post might be worthwhile.I will be updating with new discoveries all the time but here’s a nice opener of the sign that inspired me. It is in Stoke Newington and from an age when people actually got their fountain pens repaired! December […]

16 Jun 2007