The Store (ex The Floor Store)

The Store (ex The Floor Store), 39 Tontine Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2017 • Once called The Floor Store, by simply removing a word it became an art project space (I […]

Memel Shop

Memel Shop, 40 Dover Road, Folkestone, Kent, 2017 • I have no idea what a Memel shop is, but here is one. The definitions on Wikipedia don’t offer any clues […]

Tasty House

Tasty House, Bland House, 18 Vauxhall Street, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2017 • Tasty House in Bland House – wonder if it was a deliberate joke? Another minimal sign, […]

TR (Food Store)

Food Store, 22 Vauxhall Street, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2017 • Minimalist name with even more minimalist logo – I found out what the full name was by visiting […]

Super Way Express

Super Way Express, 344 Kennington Lane, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2017 • Vintage wooden frontage with intricate fretwork and leaded lights. It  has since had a clean-up.

Enid’s Fish Bar

Enid’s Fish Bar, 181 North Street, Bristol BS3, 2017 • What a great name!

Froude and Hext

Froude and Hext, 83 Victoria Road, Swindon SN1, 2017 • Wonderful name for what was a much-loved model shop. It relaunched nearby as Spot-On Models – there’s a 2010 article […]

Club Cars

Club Cars, 78a North Street, Bristol BS3, 2017 • Radio cab offices rocking the 1970s men’s club look, and still hanging on in there despite Bristol’s adoption of Uber.

Uroma General Stores

Uroma General Stores, 84 North Street, Bristol BS3, 2017 • Defunct weird-name minimart enlivened by Bristol’s characteristic street art.

Wilko Services

Wilko Services, c.32 Ashton Road, Bristol BS3, 2017 • Attractive old school signage, with military tinge to the name – WILCO being radio code for Will Comply.

D.R. Butt Master Butcher

D.R. Butt Master Butcher, 28 North Street, Bristol BS3, 2017 • Dr Butt, lol – sounds like a Bart Simpson prank call. I caught this just before it closed in […]

Stan Butt Ltd

Stan Butt Ltd, 137 East Street, Bedminster, Bristol BS3, 2017 • So good they named it twice. According to this Flickr comment, meat wholesaler extraordinaire Stan Butt died a few […]

Street’s Ironmongers

13 East Street, Havant, Hampshire, 2017 • Always sad to see a long-serving local hardware shop shut down – this had obviously been defunct for a while. The bottom shot […]

Mr. Ben

Mr. Ben, 128 East Street, Bristol BS3, 2017 • Logo looks to date from around the same time as the early 1970s kids’ TV series (which was spelled Mr Benn).

Victoria Off Licence

Victoria Off Licence, 184 Victoria Road, Swindon SN1, 2017 • Glad to see people are naming off licences after me, too. I liked the big bold booze windows on this.

Victoria Mobile

Victoria Mobile, ex Victoria News, 19-20 Terminus Place, City of Westminster, London SW1, 2017 • Wiring fest in grand dilapidated building opposite Victoria Station, now being redeveloped.

Victoria Jane

Victoria Jane, 54 North Street, Bristol BS3, 2017 • Shop named after me, as so many things are. I’m guessing from the mural that it’s a hairdresser.

Bob Carver’s

Bob Carver’s, Corporation Chambers, 9 Trinity House Lane, Hull HU1, 2017 • Famed Hull fish and chip emporium set in grand surroundings. The building is proudly titled Corporation Chambers – […]

African Video Centre

African Video Centre, 7 Balls Pond Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Niche dying market. By 2017 it was a wine bar called Aqua 7.

Coronation Cafe

Coronation Cafe, 190 Coronation Road, Bristol BS3, 2011 & 2017 • Traditional caff that reinvented itself as a curry house – you can see it announcing the transformation in 2012 […]

Franklin Barnes

Franklin Barnes, Blueschool Street, Hereford, Herefordshire, 2017 • Profil font and stylized flower sculpture by Trevor Worton on an early 1960s store, now defunct. It was designed by architects Cecil Corey and Harry Bettington […]

B&B Project Space

B&B Project Space, 14 Tontine Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2017 • Curious little gallery with barely-visible Profil font logo. Presumably named after the possibly defunct B&B sign on the side door.

Khyber Pass (Walton-on-Thames)

Khyber Pass, 54 Terrace Road, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, 2002 • Established 1983 and still around. By 2017 it had lost its green tent and 3D logo, but gained five stars on Tripadvisor.

Khyber Pass (Dorking)

Khyber Pass, 304 High Street, Dorking, Surrey, 2002 • Old school name, represented in plastic. By 2017 it was still mountainous as Sunshine Peak Caribbean Restaurant.

Tung Hing

Tung Hing, 16 Tontine Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2017 • Melancholy old-school Chinese.  

Full Measure (ex)

Full Measure (ex), 175 Cleveland Street, Hull HU8, 2017 • Humble dwelling with ghost tiles from an 1870s tavern called the Full Measure (latterly the White Room club), which according […]

Rent Here, Vote Sensibly

Rent Here, Vote Sensibly, circa 407 Purley Way, Waddon, Borough of Croydon, London CR0, 2017 • Brilliant billboard intervention on the main London to Brighton highway, in an area which […]

M.E. Price

M.E. Price, 5 High Street, Knighton, Powys, Wales, 2017 • Old-school toy shop with a tobacco ghost sign and farmyard alarm clocks in the window. It’s clearly related to yesterday’s group […]

W.E. Price

W.E. Price, 25-27 High Street, Knighton, Powys, Wales, 2017 • Charming cluster of blue-and-white homewares shops in the steep town centre.

Francesco

Francesco, 35 High Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, 2018 • Superb mid-century Vitrolite shopfront, in classic pale green and black. The Gentlemen’s Hairdresser sign is in 1950s period lettering, while the […]

Mercia News

Mercia News, 42 High Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, 2018 • Welcoming old-school newsie with window happily unobscured by cheap phone call posters. Mercia is an ancient name for the Midlands.

Rikki Lloyd

Rikki Lloyd, 39 High Street, Welshpool, Powys, Wales, 2017 • Gourmet meat purveyor with boyband name and abundant signage, that even explains which local farm’s lambs have ended up on […]

Mid Wales Domestic Appliances

Mid Wales Domestic Appliances, 1 Mount Street, Welshpool, Powys, Wales, 2017 • Rustic timber-framed appliance emporium.

Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings

Flaxmill Maltings, Spring Gardens, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, 2017 • Important industrial relic from 1787, being restored (with EU money) under the aegis of Historic England. Originally a flax mill, it was […]

Tenbury Wells Round Market

Round Market, Market Square, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, 2017 • Shabby but beautiful 1858 market hall in “Chinese Gothic” style, designed by architect James Cranston, also responsible for the town’s ornate […]

The Dolly Tub (Wem)

The Dolly Tub, 60 Aston Street, Wem, Shropshire, 2017 • Jaunty launderette sporting the old name for a galvanised washtub. The dolly was actually a wooden washing contraption, and the […]

J.E. Bailey

J.E. Bailey, 67 Aston Street, Wem, Shropshire, 2017 • I started going to places in Shropshire just because of the weird names – Clun, Wem, New Invention (a real if […]

D.S. Britten – Ironmongers

D.S. Britten – Ironmongers, 23 High Street, Clun, Shropshire, 2017 • Avoid the rush, book your chimney sweep now! (Well, so it says in the window.)

Bunner

Bunner, Arthur Street, Montgomery, Powys, Wales, 2017 • Edwardian-fronted traditional ironmongers founded in 1892 and still run by the same family. Still a well-used local store, it’s jam-packed and museum-like […]

Tool Lodge

Tool Lodge, 71 Westbourne Grove, City of Westminster, London W2, 2017 • Sounds (and looks) like an ironic 1970s throwback hipster bar but is actually a genuine 1970s throwback hardware […]

Robert Forsythe

Robert Forsythe, 54 Wardour Street, City of Westminster, London W1, 2017 • Brief revelation of a stunning art deco ghost sign for a theatrical tailor. The premises had previously been […]