The Victoria (Woolwich)
The Victoria, 757 Woolwich Road (corner of Eastmoor Street), Borough of Greenwich, London SE7, 2005 • Grand from the front, and completely destroyed at the back. It’s still there, and […]
Wright’s Bar
Wright’s Bar, 5 Houghton Street, City of Westminster, London WC2, 2005 & 2015 • Classic 1960s-looking logo and finger sign, next to the London School of Economics. It’s shown below […]
Dino’s Ristorante
Dino’s Ristorante, 117 Gloucester Road, Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London SW7, 2005 • Apparently the novelist Iris Murdoch used to dine here (Iris Murdoch as I Knew Her, A.N. […]
Dino’s Restaurant
Dino’s Restaurant, 1-3 Pelham Street, Borough od Kensington and Chelsea, London SW7, 2005 • Huge Italian caff that featured in the movie Repulsion. It used to dominate South Kensington, and […]
Matteo’s Sandwich Bar
Matteo’s Sandwich Bar, 32 Tottenham Street, Borough of Camden, London W1, 2005 • Urban legend had it that someone once found a sliced-off-fingertip in the coleslaw here. Part of the […]
Taylors Buttons
Taylors, 22 Cleveland Street, City of Westminster, London W1, 2005 • Giant button sign for a bespoke button emporium. It is still there today (though not looking so quaint), offering […]
Task 2000
Task 2000, 152 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • Strange name for a clothes sweatshop – and one bound to date, despite the vast confident […]
Central Arcade, Newcastle
Central Arcade, Grainger Street, Newcastle NE1, 2005 • Grand portal to a stunningly tiled interior.
R.M. Pugh & Co
R.M. Pugh & Co, 35 Hylton Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18, 2005 • Pugh, Pugh, Barney, McGrew, in the immortal words of Trumpton. The jewellery display specialist is no longer […]
Luigi of Mayfair
Luigi of Mayfair, 55 High Street, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, 2005 • Luigi of Mayfair of Shoreham, complete with random word-spacing – the essence of 1950s gentility. Not surprisingly it’s long-gone; […]
HSBC (Hockley)
HSBC (Hockley), 168 Warstone Lane, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18, 2005 • Lovely little bank with Victorian sculpture above the door, which is still the same now. One source says it dates from 1892 […]
RJ’s Barbers
RJ’s Barbers, 28 Hockley Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingam B18, 2005 • Traditional barber, back in 1 hour… and he’s still there, with good reviews on Google.
Tyres Tyres (FWR)
Tyres Tyres (FWR), 330 Kennington Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2005 • Unusual cross-shaped ghost sign for tyres, situated above motorcycle parts shop FWR. The sign had disappeared by 2008.
Green boarded shop
Green boarded shop, 294-292 Kennington Park Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2005 • Boarded-up shop, a symphony in greens. Now Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, part of Kennington’s ever-growing nest of […]
Fenhams
Fenhams, 119 and 11c Grainger Market, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2005 • Beautiful 1960s sign for this electonics stall – not sure if it’s there any more.
John Turnbull
John Turnbull, 483 Anlaby Road, Kingston upon Hull, 2005 • Bullish old newsie with eponymous plastic illustration, seen from bus. Later became Babylon Supermarket.
Book’s
Book’s, 230 High Street, Gateshead, Tyneside, 2005 • Not a bookshop or a typo, it’s a fashion shop run by someone named Book (and shot in the dark and rain). I […]
Camera Care
Camera Care, 20 Hanway Street, City of Westminster, London W1, 2005 • The number’s so old it’s got a burglar alarm stuck over it. Part of a hippyish enclave behind Oxford Street […]
Sima Tandoori
Sima Tandoori, 295 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • I’d love to know what the statue and neon figures represent – Hindu deities or just people offering greetings? By 2008 all […]
Posies
Posies, 1a Union Road,Clapham North, Borough of Lambeth, London SW4, 2005 • Functional ex-florist; despite its pretty name, a clinical facade giving equal billing to weddings and funerals isn’t very enticing. Later became a hairdresser.
Pink
Pink, 44 Lower Marsh, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2005 • In case you hadn’t guessed, the current mini-theme is … pink. This roseate boutique later became eau-de-nil eaterie Café del Marsh.
Frankle Trimmings
Frankle Trimmings, 281-285 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • Art deco cinema, now a trimmings emporium. Apparently it was renovated 2005, maybe just before I […]
Trayman Solicitors
Trayman Solicitors, 247 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • Rather beautiful in an understated, random way: Doric portal, bathroom tiles, bottleglass windows, vintage street number […]
Agora Amusements
Agora Amusements, 53 New Street, Birmingham, 2005 • More inappropriate ancient Greek, this time meaning meeting place – according to Wikipedia, “the centre of athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life of […]
98p Chinese Shop
98p Chinese Shop, Pallasades, above New Street Station, New Street, Birmingham, 2005 • Talk about a race to the bottom. 98p Shop’s erstwhile home, the horrible 1970s Pallasades (sic) shopping arcade, […]
Sheer Elégance
Sheer Elégance, 2b Norfolk House, Theatre Approach, Birmingham, 2005 • That’s a curtain she’s emerging from, though sadly the facade doesn’t match up to the sign’s promise. Later became Fly Girls hair […]
Miller Morgan Electric Co Ltd
Miller Morgan Electric Co Ltd, 20 Regent Place, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, 2005 • Decoratively decaying disappeared engineer in same building as yesterday’s Thomas Newey, all smart offices now.
Thomas Newey Limited
Thomas Newey Limited, Central Tool Works, 22 Regent Place, Birmingham, 2005 • Another long-lost Jewellery Quarter engineering works. It’s been turned into a smart building, with the door made into an archway.
Gem Tool (Mfg) Co. Ltd.
Gem Tool (Mfg) Co. Ltd., 6 Regent Place, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, 2005 • Old workshop in Brum’s fascinating Jewellery Quarter. Now gone; Google Street View shows a faded patch where […]
D. McKay
D. McKay, 19a Harrington Road, South Kensington, Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London SW7, 2005 • Jewel box of a fruiterer in London’s “French” quarter. Still there 2012, not sure […]
Paradise Cottage
Paradise Cottage, 477 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • A colourful mixed metaphor in traditional plastic, complete with desert arch illustrations. By 2014 the shop was being […]
The Old Maids Pharmacy
The Old Maids Pharmacy, 321 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • What a brilliant name. It’s still there, but with a newer, “posher” sign.
Hern Saddlers
Hern Saddlers, 54 Middle Road, Brockham, Dorking, Surrey, 2005 • Maybe it originally said Southern Saddlers. It’s now a house with porch where the shopfront was.
T.V. Video & Audio Sales & Service
T.V. Video & Audio Sales & Service, 145 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • Another prosaically-named emporium, looking as weary as the hulking TVs stacked inside. Recently became Isambard’s […]
Muslin
Muslin, 256 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • A very specific offering. Later became Sterling de Vere, a posh-looking letting agent (albeit still in a ruinous […]
Smokers World
Smokers World, 344 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • Fags, mags and net curtains – interesting mix. It was still there in 2012, not sure […]
Kebab Ranch Fish Bar
Kebab Ranch Fish Bar, Salim Khan & Co Accountants, 24 Bradford Street, Walsall, West Midlands, 2005 • Colourful but confused food offering, with extra apostrophe and an built-in accountant. Now […]
Ashfield Motors
Ashfield Motors, Caroline Street, Birmingham, 2005 • What gorgeous typography – it almost looks like a pastiche, but this was a real garage. There’s now a new-build block jammed up against […]
Fancy Fabric Stores
Fancy Fabric Stores, 109 Digbeth, Birmingham, 2005 • Finally from fascinating Digbeth, a glimpse of its more work-a-day side. This is still there, but they mended the sign.
RTP Crisps Ltd
RTP Crisps Ltd, 78 Allison Street, Birmingham, 2005 • What a beautiful building! Originally built in 1872 for Corder & Turley, manufacturers of umbrella ribs, it was adapted in 1923 as a clothing factory […]
The Smithfield Garage Ltd
The Smithfield Garage Ltd, opposite 38 Meriden Street, Birmingham, 2005 • According to the history here this was built by Harry Weedon, an architect known for Art Deco factories and […]
G. Makepeace (Dance Music Finder)
G. Makepeace (Dance Music Finder), Makepeace House, 136 Digbeth, Birmingham, 2005 • Dance music found via fax departs, but the original occupant lives on. According to Andy Foster’s Pevsner Architectural Guides: […]
The Bull Ring Tavern
The Bull Ring Tavern, 1 Digbeth, Birmingham, 2005 • A Guinness pub in Digbeth that still stands. Its functionalist 1960s styling has a certain bleak grandeur, don’t you think? No? […]
Fair City Cars
Fair City Cars, 125 Digbeth Road, Birmingham, 2005 • Poignant name and home-made chauffeur logo tacked onto a handsome premises which has since been demolished, along with the adjoining Hennessey’s Bar (which […]
Hennessey’s Bar
Hennessey’s Bar, 123 Digbeth High Street, Birmingham, 2005 • Guinness Time stopped here when the whole block got demolished circa 2010 – there’s an article about the redevelopment here. The splendid Irish gent (bottom) was a Hennessey’s regular, and […]
Barrier Animal Care Clinic (Thames Barrier Arms)
Barrier Animal Care Clinic (Thames Barrier Arms), Eastmoor Place, Borough […]
The Emperor Stores
The Emperor Stores, 48a Gloucester Road, Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London SW7, 2005 • Not as regal looking as its wonderful name. It’s still there, but now with a […]
L&D Motorcycles
L&D Motorcycles, 179 Kennington Lane, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2005 • A forest of for sale signs on this old-time motorbike store. Fitting therefore that it became an estate agent, […]
Yuk Chuen
Yuk Chuen, 36 Clapham Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW8, 2005 • With a name like ‘Yuk’, they needed to try a bit harder. Later morphed into Lontosa, a Chinese-Malaysian-Thai restaurant.
Shoe Repairs (London EC2)
Shoe Repairs, 28 Liverpool Street, City of London, London EC2, 2005 • Exuberant swirly 1970s-style logo for this generically-titled kiosk, now probably disappeared from the smartened-up Liverpool Street Station area.
Cost to Cost
Cost to Cost, 227 Shoreditch High Street, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E1, 2005 • Somewhat meaningless variation on the Costcutter theme. The Cost to Cost logo later got reduced to near […]
Costcutter Supermarket (NW1)
Costcutter Supermarket, 53-55 Chalton Street, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2005 • Unusually elegant art nouveau-style lettering for this understated minimart near Euston station, which is now a more strident […]
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 […]
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. […]
Kanny Kard Kompany
Kanny Kard Kompany, Grainger Market, Grainger Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2005 • Canny Geordie name for a card shop, albeit with the unfortunate initials KKK, located within a fine covered market. […]
Hepworth’s Arcade
Hepworth’s Arcade, Market Street, Hull, East Yorkshire, 2005 • Nice arcade, pity about the crap Christmas lights – Hull from the days before it was awarded City of Culture status (and […]
Maries Cafe
Maries Cafe, 90 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2005 (top), 2011 (middle), 2003 (bottom) • Shrunken-headed Santa greets curious punter at this popular Thai-cum-greasy spoon caff, which still […]
Honour
Honour, 86 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2005 • Festive fetish gear at this stalwart of the rubberwear and bondage scene, still there today if you’re interested…
Digbeth Cold Storage
Digbeth Cold Storage, 123-135 Digbeth, Birmingham, West Midlands, 2005 • One of many magnificent old Digbeth buildings, this leviathan was built in 1899 to serve the local markets. It’s grade 2 listed […]
Chalton Fish & Chip Shop
Chalton Fish & Chip Shop, 61 Chalton Street, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2005 • Totally gone; it’s now been restored to a house and you’d never know the chippie was […]
Virgin, Republic (Walsall)
Virgin, Republic, 18-22 & 16-18 Park Street, Walsall, West Midlands, 2005 • Another grand Walsall building – it certainly outlasted Virgin.
WH Smith (Walsall)
WH Smith (Walsall), 50 Park Street, Walsall, West Midlands, 2005 • Stunning home for the stationers – Walsall is full of faded old buildings far grander than you’d expect. Notice […]
Internet Cafe (Chopstix)
Internet Cafe, 163 Charing Cross Road, Borough of Camden, London WC2, 2005 • Somehow the faux-computer font doesn’t manage to make this place look high tech. It was later razed to […]
James Phelps Ltd.
James Phelps Ltd., 26 Goodge Place, Borough of Camden, London W1, 2005 • Another place I used to work at in the early 1990s (well, in a bunker-like office tucked away […]
Soundcraft Limited
Soundcraft Limited, 4 Tottenham Mews, Borough of Camden, London W1, 2005 • Looks like a classic 1970s design, but I worked in this strange prow-like building in the early 1990s (when […]
Moderne Buckles Ltd
Moderne Buckles Ltd, 123 Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • Dodgy shooters meet leather goods in a traditional East End mix. The listed Shoreditch warehouse […]
White Horse Kebabs
White Horse Kebabs, 336 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • Not a name you’d choose nowadays, you’d think, after the horseburger scandal… but it’s still there, […]
The Green Leaves, Violet Dry Cleaner
The Green Leaves, Violet Dry Cleaner, 106-108 Hammersmith Road, Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London W6, 2005 • Amusing colourful duo, still there but now with modernised facades which lack the […]
Tienda Tropical, Green Jade
Tienda Tropical, Green Jade, 217-219 Holloway Road, Borough of Islington, London N7, 2005 • Fanciful interlude on a pretty grim thoroughfare – I love it when whole buildings get divided up […]
Pier Road Snack Bar
Pier Road Snack Bar, Pier Road, North Woolwich, Borough of Newham, London E16, 2005 • Blimey, they put the road sign on the cafe sign! Interesting workmanship.
Ex-shop (Norbiton)
Ex-shop, 160 London Road, Norbiton, Surrey, 2005 • Another ex-shop resembling fine art, this time Donald Judd. Was later knocked down to build toytown flats.
John Quality
John Quality, Grainger Arcade, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2005 • Proud sign in Newcastle’s wonderful Grainger Arcade for a delicatessen and sweet stall that doesn’t actually exist any more.
Husband & Currell Ltd (A&S Signs)
Husband & Currell Ltd Printers (now A&S Signs), 240 Holliday Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, 2005 • Melancholy ghost sign of a printing firm which lasted from 1934-1991, lurking behind newer incumbent A&S […]
New Millennium (W.F. Mawer.)
New Millennium (W.F. Mawer), 332 Kennington Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2005 • And which millennium is that, precisely?
Phil. Terry Trouser Maker
Phil. Terry Trouser Maker, Unit 4b Regent Studios (ex-Ada Street Workshops), 8 Andrews Road, Cambridge Heath, Borough of Hackney, London E8, 2005 • Old-school signage, now departed, in a grungy block […]
W.J. Jenkins
W.J. Jenkins, 81a Rochester Row, Victoria, City of Westminster, London SW1, 2005 & 2013 (bottom) • Not all traditional watchmakers have disappeared – this was still there in 2013, complete with watches […]
Dowell’s Coals
Dowell’s Coals, Norway Street, Greenwich, London SE10, 2005 • An old docklands warehouse sign that disappeared under a huge development of riverside flats.
Hunt and Son Security
Hunt and Son Security, Riverside Way, Borough of Greenwich, London SE7, 2005 • So called because you have to hunt for them in the cafe, where they have “poped”.
Blackwall Aggregates Limited
Blackwall Aggregates Limited, 295-303 Tunnel Avenue, Borough of Greenwich, London SE10, 2005 • Classic view of Canary Wharf from behind O2 (the ex-Millennium Dome); nowadays this yard is a neatly […]
Oval Office
Oval Office, 10 Clapham Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2005 • Used to be Oval Post Office. Now one-third of an estate agent. So things go, in London anyway.
Comfit Ltd.
Comfit Ltd, 316-318 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • Does anyone still use the word “slacks”? The sign has now gone, but the general decay remains.
Beverley Hall Ltd.
Beverley Hall Ltd., 16 Regent Parade, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, West Midlands, 2005 • I thought this was being knocked down when I photographed it, but in 2012 it was still intact.
Brothers Garden
Brothers Garden, 3 Pier Road, North Woolwich, Borough of Newham, London E16, 2005 • A magnificently tumbledown corner now occupied by Harvest Chinese Takeaway. A DLR connection has led to a lot of […]
Shopfront Elegy 