Ex-Boots (Hull)

Ex-Boots, Hull, East Yorkshire, 2005 • Positively my final Boots for now, once again proving the brilliant recognisability of its longstanding logo (designed by Jesse Boot in 1883) – even when […]

Boots (Oxford Street)

Boots (Oxford Street), 151 (I think) Oxford Street, London W1, City of Westminster, 2002 • Sorry to harp on about Boots, but this wouldn’t have happened with their old-school stone signs […]

Boots Opticians (Strand)

Boots Opticians (Strand), 428 Strand, City of Westminster, London WC2, 2012 • See what I mean about Boots being in interesting buildings – in this case, a slim Art Deco throwback […]

Boots Opticians (Horsham)

Boots Opticians (Horsham), 39 West Street, Horsham, West Sussex, 2003 • Modern variant of the last two days’ vintage 3D Boots signs, which, though cheapo-looking, shows the benefit of not giving […]

Boots (Golders Green)

Boots (Golders Green), 638 Finchley Road, Golders Green, Borough of Barnet, London NW11, 2003 • Another vintage Boots sign, this one now gone though the shop’s still there.

Boots (Pret A Manger)

Boots (Pret A Manger), 7 Parade, Canterbury, Kent 2013 • Yet another parade of boots – this time, evidence of an earlier occupant of this ancient-looking building.

Boot Parade

Boot Parade, 88 High Street, Edgware, Borough of Barnet, London HA8, 2004 • 1970s footwear of a different kind – a resolutely unglamorous shopping parade that’s still proudly beige today.

M Yman Ho Repair (ex-Suleyman Shoe Repair)

M Yman Ho Repair (ex- Suleyman Shoe repair shop), 162 Chatsworth Road, Borough of Hackney, London E5, 2011 • Looks like an art installation but it’s the real deal – apparently […]

The Shakespeare (Victory Amusements)

The Shakespeare (Victory Amusements), 34 Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough, 2013 • Another theatrical boozer; but unlike yesterday’s Garrick, poor old Bill’s given way to a less rewarding form of entertainment. Still, the […]

Garrick’s Head

Garrick’s Head, 50 Saville Street, North Shields, North Tyneside, 2013 • Beautiful 1899 pub, but the local council doesn’t seem to like its clientelele very much, according to this report of […]

Victory Cafe

Victory Cafe, 54 Eversholt Street, Euston, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2013 & 2002 • Patriotic Pepsi cafe happily little changed since I first photographed it in 2002 (bottom).

Merton Cafe

Merton Cafe, 114 Merton High Street, Borough of Merton, London SW19, 2010 • Merton’s proudly self-titled cafe and its nice curly Davida font has now given way to the startlingly-named Monkeys […]

The Grill

The Grill, Ponton Road, Nine Elms, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW8, 2013 • It may look like an industrial wasteland, but one day the new American embassy will rise behind this […]

Pickering & Mayell Ltd Reliance Works

Pickering & Mayell Ltd Reliance Works, 41-42 Caroline Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, West Midlands, 2013 • Founded in 1913, this jewellery packaging firm merged with1941-founded local rival Talbots and moved to […]

Chainstore Massacre

Chainstore Massacre, 152 High Street, Herne Bay, Kent, 2004 • Closed for crimes against fashion, perhaps. Appropriately, the burglar alarm has a picture of a judge on it. Later became a […]

The Upper Crust Bakery

The Upper Crust Bakery, 4 Woolbrook Road, Sidmouth, Devon, 2013 • Nicely old-fashioned bakery from a nicely old-fashioned seaside town.

Moira’s

Moira’s, 123 Upper Spon Street, Coventry, West Midlands, 2013 • As featured yesterday, more of Coventry’s conserved Black Swan Terrace – underneath these green tiles lies a medieval building, which until 1903 […]

London Laundry

London Laundry, 120 Upper Spon Street, Coventry, West Midlands, 2013 • Part of Black Swan Terrace, a row of historic cottages that was derelict in the 1990s, and now restored to […]

Dodo

Dodo, FormConcepts, 34-5 New Bridge Street, Exeter, Devon, 2013 • Looks dead as the proverbial, despite the imposing doorway.

Coast News

Coast News, 9 East Parade, Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, 2013 • Wonder if it’s just serendipity that the old sign matches up with the new(ish) one?

Little Mo Ca

Little Mo Ca, 219 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Known in full as Little Mo’s Cafe, this features in the rather wonderful website The London Review of […]

SpiceNite

SpiceNite, 23 Exeter Road, Exmouth, Devon, 2009 • SpiceNite’s pretty dull-looking, but the tiled shopfront it’s set into certainly isn’t.

Skivers

Skivers, Druid Street, London Bridge, Borough of Southwatk, London SE1, 2003 • Nice name, but they surely didn’t attract many skivers at 6am. These under-viaduct roads at London Bridge have all […]

Lihiniya

Lihiniya, 70 Cricklewood Broadway, Borough of Barnet, London NW2, 2004 • Intricate Sri Lankan shopfront, now a Cats Protection charity shop.

Chard & Sons (Hardware Homeware)

Chard & Sons (Hardware Homeware), 101 Gloucester Road, Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London SW7, 2005 • A ex-butcher’s (and probably something fancier before that), now London’s most beautiful hardware shop. […]

Veg Out

Veg Out, Side of 228b Stoke Newington Road, Northwald Road, Stoke Newington, Borough of Hackney, London N16, 2002 • Not entirely healthy-looking veggie outlet, next door to yesterday’s surfie fridge shop; […]

Cookers ‘N’ Fridges

Cookers ‘N’ Fridges, 2 Northwald Road, Stoke Newington, Borough of Hackney, London N16, 2002 • Surfie graphics meet kitchen appliances – very North Dalston. It’s now called, brilliantly, Sellfridges.

Island Gardens Cafe

Island Gardens Cafe, Island Gardens, Saunders Ness Road, Isle of Dogs, Bourough of Tower Hamlets, London E14, 2004 • Nice brickwork! Despite the old-school teapot, it currently serves Caribbean cuisine (jerk […]

Ionic

Ionic, 612 Finchley Road, Borough of Barnet, London NW11, 2003 • A 1975 replacement for the original 1913 Ionic (great name!), which got crammed into a corner of the Sainsbury’s that […]

S.D.V. Jewellers

S.D.V. Jewellers, 100 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2010 • From the unglamorous end of the jewellery trade, though it’s a great place to get a watch battery…

James Smith & Sons

James Smith & Sons, Hazelwood House, 53 New Oxford St, London WC1, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2011 • A new Year’s present of London’s most famous old shop, an impossibly […]