Victoria Hotel (Liverpool)

Victoria Hotel, Waterloo Road and Oil Street, Liverpool L3, 2008 • Derelict pub in Liverpool’s docklands, named after me. By 2012 it had been demolished, and is now an empty […]

A. Simmonds

A. Simmonds, 94 Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Chain of Kent jewellers with an attractive Edwardian style of logo that predates their founding around 40 years ago.

Stride-In

Stride-In, 23 Octagon Parade, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, 2008 • Great name and 1970s-style wooden signboard for a men’s fashion shop undoubtedly specialising in ‘gear’ and ‘clobber’. Later moved and rebranded Stride […]

Woolworths & Pizza Hut (Glasgow)

Woolworths, Pizza Hut (Glasgow), 199-201 Argyle Street, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Jaunty red modernist corner abutting one of the last 200 Woolworths stores to close down. The fatal day was 6 Jan 2009; […]

Johns the Baker

Johns the Baker, 5 Badcox, Frome, Somerset, 2008 • Ghost sign from the days when ‘golden brown’ didn’t mean heroin. The Hovis sign had gone by 2011, when it was still […]

Kam Garden

Kam Garden, 14 Bouverie Road West, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Sweet green Chinese-style rooflet which stayed even after it went Indian as Copper and Spices.

Pizza King

Pizza King, 115 Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Incongruous in its grand portal despite the regal name. Now called Master Kebab.

Jan & Charlie’s

Jan & Charlie’s, 59 Old High Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • End of days for an old-school fishmonger. Ironically it looks more old-fashioned these days, as Frizbee clothing; the entire frontage […]

Famous Amusements Emporium (JG’s)

Famous Amusements Emporium (JG’s), 3-9 Tontine Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Classic neon ghost sign on what was once the street’s oldest boot and shoe shop – there’s a photo of that here. By […]

Kat-Man-Do

Kat-Man-Do, 2 South Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Weirdly-named ex-pub/club which has since been knocked down and replaced with flats.

Jemerton Ltd

Jemerton Ltd, 68 Paul Street, Borough of Hackney, London EC2, 2008 • Picturesque decay plus cat graffiti, now turned into – what else – posh offices. A company search says Jemerton was […]

Best Wishes

Best Wishes, 13 Guildhall Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Ex-gift shop, now ex-charity shop, whose ghost sign has – like yesterday’s shop – a rather Edwardian feel. Note crowns on door handle […]

Nameless chinoiserie shop

Nameless chinoiserie shop, 29 Guildhall Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • This has a look of Edwardian chinoiserie about it, so I prefer to think it’s an ex-gown shop rather than a […]

S.G. Skinner

S.G. Skinner, 14 Church Street, Hereford, Herefordshire, 2008 • No longer offering high class footwear repairs, this appears to be a charity shop dedicated to saving neolithic trackway the Rotherwas Ribbon. By […]

Stretched Fabric Systems

Stretched Fabric Systems, 68a Compton Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2008 • Not sure what this means, but now it’s gone: by 2012 it was Whistle Dry Cleaners.

J.H. Pepperell (Zack)

J.H. Pepperell (Zack), 63 Great Titchfield Street, City of Westminster, London W1, 2008 • Early example of hipsterish-vintage-sign-revelation (not sure of the technical term for that). It was still there […]

R. Savage

R. Savage, Vandries Street (back of 5-7 Vulcan Street), Liverpool L3, 2008 • Wonderful names – Savage! Vulcan! – in a bit of Merseyside docklands that’s still relatively intact. This remains unchanged, […]

I.B.S. Merseyside Ltd

I.B.S. Merseyside Ltd, 72 Waterloo Road (between Regent Street and Porter Street), Liverpool L3, 2008 • Interesting hand lettering with Ws like upside-down Ms and an 18th-century look. Google reckons […]

Sans’ Cafe

Sans’ Cafe, 2 Lightbody Street, Liverpool 3, 2008 • A famous greasy spoon for 40 years, albeit sans apostrophe knowledge. Owner Tseng Chikhao died in 2014; there’s a great article here. The […]

Public Toilets Dry Cleaning Key Cutting

Public Toilets Dry Cleaning Key Cutting, St Ages Well, Old Street Underground Station, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2008 • A last redoubt of 1970s tubedom in a subterranean mall named after […]

A.P. Welsh

A.P. Welsh, 71-73 Robertson Street, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Not Wales, but Scotland: old shipping office housing a wide variety of businesses, with great signage.

The Cat Basket

The Cat Basket Rhodes Minnis Cat Sanctuary Shop, 16a Cheriton Place, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • All cat charity shops should be required by law to have net curtains like this […]

Virgo Clothing Big’n’Pretty

Virgo Clothing Big’n’Pretty, 156 Trongate, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Signs in the window warn big’n’pretty browsers to bring “No food or drink inside”. Curiously, big seems to be defined as “16 inches […]

Weisfelds (Goldbergs)

Weisfelds (Goldbergs), Trongate, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • A portion of the once-beloved department store Goldbergs, which closed in 1991 and re-opened as cheapo clothes outlet Weisfelds in 1994. The Weisfelds […]

Pound Gate

Pound Gate, 146-152 Trongate, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Not a reference to Watergate, but to the road, Trongate. Later got subsumed by “Scotland’s Biggest Leather Store”, aka its upstairs neighbour Leather Max. […]

Pound Planet

Pound Planet, 19-21 Argyle Street, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Ambitious name meets Scottish flags and unflattering rendition of the Queen. It later became Home Land. Devolution subtext ahoy.

Pound Stop

Pound Stop, 32 Guildhall Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Genteel pound shop with DIY logo that looks like a dollar sign. It later moved (with same sign) a bit further […]

Rowes

Rowes, 34-36 South Street, Dorking, Surrey, 2008 • Another traditional stationers with a good old no-nonsense sign. I think it’s still the same, though an awning hides it on Street […]

Picart Gallery

Picart Gallery, 27 The Old High Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Spotted during Folkestone’s first art Triennial, when the town seemed to have a programme of revealing the original signs […]

Keys

Keys, 42 Theobalds Road, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2008 • Not a key shop but a cafe, next to an ornate doorway. Became a badly-reviewed Ethiopian restaurant called, no less surreally, […]

Samiez Leathers

Samiez Leathers, 140 Trongate, Townhead, Glasgow G1, 2008 • I just like this because it’s colourful, 1970s-looking, and in a decaying old building. Under new management, says a note in […]

White Star Cafe, Harland & Wolff

White Star Cafe, Harland & Wolff Ltd Shipbuilding and Engineering Works, circa 56 Regent Road, Liverpool L3, 2008 • Transport cafe in former Liverpool HQ of the firm that built the Titanic; […]

Trussons Menswear

Trussons Menswear, 31 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2008 • I’m so glad no-one’s ever felt the need to update this charming 1960s-style frontage, with a name as […]

Venus Pizza

Venus Pizza, 149 Whitecross Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2008 • Those Roman gods certainly live on, longer than this takeaway at least. This colourful old bit of  road got […]

Tudor Williams

Tudor Williams, 94-98 High Street, Dorking, Surrey, 2008 • Another nice doorstep with a dull shopfront attached; these op-art stripes look rather art deco.

G.S. Williams

G.S. Williams,  JT Barbers, Devon House, 19 Bath Street, Frome, Somerset, 2008 • Fabulous tiled facade in a fascinating town – a pity half the original sign is obscured.

Beldam Asbestos Co. Ltd, Auto Klean Strainers Ltd

Beldam Asbestos Co. Ltd, Auto Klean Strainers Ltd, Lascar House, […]

Hop Kweng

Hop Kweng, 1 Majestic Parade, Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Superb decorative facade more redolent of a 1960s New Town such as Crawley than a genteel seaside shopping parade. I […]

Caffé Roma

Caffé Roma, 59 Westgate Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, 2008 • Amazingly, this 1960s Italianesque beauty lasted till 2008, but it’s since been replaced by a North African cafe.

Dominic’s Take Away

Dominic’s Take Away, 172 Goswell Road, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2008 & 2013 (bottom) • Dominic should have tried taking away some of those wires. (2013 update, bottom – oh, he […]