Victoria Care (UK) Limited

Victoria Care (UK) Limited, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • Mysterious-looking training centre, with windows almost like an art installation.

The China Chef

The China Chef, 108 London Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • Nice mix of vernaculars. By 2017 it was still a Chinese, called Tim Ley.  

Ice Cream Kiosk

Ice Cream Kiosk, Promenade, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, 2003 • Ah, the sunny south coast seaside (not).

Bensons for Beds

Bensons for Beds, 79-80 Upper Mall, County Mall, Crawley, West Sussex, 2002 • New town modernism beset by pigeons (note hexagonal tiles beneath the netting).

Charles Benner & Son

Charles Benner & Son, 22 Brighton Road, Crawley, West Sussex, 2002 • Nice door, but I don’t think they’re doing oaths any more.  

Worthing & District TV

Worthing & District TV, 147 Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • Seaside signwriting with grocer’s apostrophe. The 1959-founded TV shop became Simpson Electrical, and Setyres is still there.

Nina’s Gifts

Nina’s Gifts, Marine Parade, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • Rocking the Soviet kiosk look. It’s been suggested to me that this caravan-like affair is an ex-RAC edifice.

Imperial Cinema (Peugeot Crawley Down)

Imperial Cinema (Peugeot Crawley Down), 5 Brighton Road, Crawley, West Sussex, 2002 • Car showroom behind the facade of a 1928 movie theatre, which closed after WW2. The dealership has now gone […]

W.J. Armstrong Ltd

W.J. Armstrong Ltd, 12 London Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • Classic Sandeman sign – port one side, sherry the other – featuring its famous fedora and cloak-clad ‘Don’ […]

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; […]

Cyber Café

Cyber Café, Unit 1, New Broadway, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 1999 • Hand-painted digital type meets 1960s mosaic on this sad closed down internet cafe. By 2015 the unit housed Attic Solutions, […]

Engineers Builders Merchants Ironfounders

Engineers Builders Merchants Ironfounders, Station Street, Brighton, West Sussex, 2004 and 2014 • Boarded up when I visited in 2004 and 2014, but with the beautiful tiled typography still intact. […]

Boris Noris (possibly)

Nameless record shop, 105 St James Street, Brighton, West Sussex, 2004 and 2014 • Rather mysterious nameless record shop which shortly after the 2014 photos were taken became Fairydust Bakery. In the […]

Worthing Lido Coffee Bar

Worthing Lido Coffee Bar, Marine Parade, Worthing, West Sussex, 2002 • Hand-painted signs from the days when no-one had a mobile phone, which also reveal a transition from ‘Coffee Bar’ (presumably too […]

Caffyns

Caffyns, Corner of King Street and Little King Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • A round-towered deco garage with mossy tiled clock eternally stuck at noon. Built by two local businessmen in 1935, this development […]

JS (Locksmiths) Ltd

JS (Locksmiths) Ltd, 1 King Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • Rustic frontage with thorny DIY logo. It’s still there, with brickwork now smartly painted yellow – how fab.  

Sean Brennan Racing

Sean Brennan Racing, 8 New Broadway, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • Stylishly symmetrical windows from the motherlode of superannuation that is Worthing. Creepy circus posters seem to denote closed businesses (circuses […]

Marks Cleaning

Marks Cleaning, 15-16 New Broadway, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • Really not a great name for a cleaner, especially with no apostrophe. Later housed a photographer,  then a chartered accountant.

Ju-Ju’s Gift Shop

Ju-Ju’s Gift Shop, West Kiosk, Brighton Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • Also called Ju-Ju’s Coconut Cabin. Probably named after someone called Julia, rather than the Nigerian faith. It became Coast Cafe […]

‘Agape’ £ Shop

‘Agape’ £ Shop, 88 London Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • An unusual name, with added poignancy given Greece’s financial woes. Although it suggests a mouth agog at the low prices, ‘Agape’ is […]

Lifestyle

Lifestyle, 19 South Street, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • South coast aspirations – I like the shaking hands. Now houses South Street Trading, a house clearance emporium (a thriving sector in […]

H. Samuel clock (Horsham)

H. Samuel clock, Clerkenwell House, 4 West Street, Horsham, West Sussex, 2003 • Old H. Samuel clock still telling the time, on an 1878 building named after Clerkenwell in London, […]

Herbert Sports

Herbert Sports, 12 High Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • According to the dictionary, Herbert is slang for “an undistinguished or foolish man or youth”, so it’s a brave name […]

Stitch & Sew

Stitch & Sew, 11 New Broadway, Tarrring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • Beautiful old-lady shop, complete with flotilla of knitted ducklings in the window. The opening times sign on […]

Inglis and Roffey Opticians

Inglis and Roffey Opticians, 8 High Street, Crawley, West Sussex, 2002 • End days of a slightly funereal opticians. It got knocked down replaced by a big ugly block of […]

Broadleys

Broadleys, 34-40 High Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • Genteel local department store, est 1896 and still there today. Can’t help thinking there’s something of the chemo ward about this window […]

Sussex Automotive, Lyn’s Cars

Sussex Automotive, Lyn’s Cars, 42 & 43a New broadway, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • I thought there was something rather 1930s about the window on the right, though […]

Street Value

Street Value, 7 The Broadway, Crawley, West Sussex, 2002 • Art Nouveau cut price shop in 1960s new town. The round-cornered window and discotastic Arnold Bocklin font were later replaced, according […]

N.H. Pearson,

N.H. Pearson, 75 High Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • Now there’s character: a comma at the end of its name, and brief technical notes in the minimalist window display. Norman’s business didn’t […]

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 […]

Lewis & Dick Solicitors

Lewis & Dick Solicitors, 18 Brighton Road, Crawley, West Sussex, 2002 • No comment. Still there, now with the less-compromising soubriquet Lewis-Dick.

Wakefields Jewellers

Wakefields Jewellers, 11 West Street, Horsham, West Sussex, 2003 • This art deco frontage must have been an early “update” for Wakefields, established in 1911. It’s still there – jewellers seem […]

Scratch n’ Dent

Scratch n’ Dent, 211 Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • I love the wonky carpet of tiles, and it’s a great name for a shop, though now more poshly rebranded […]

Gamleys

Gamleys, 12 Haslett Avenue West, Crawley, West Sussex, 2002 • A toy shop, not to be confused with Hamleys; in a less litigious era, proprietor Bill Lord combined famous store names Gamages […]

Regis Shellfish

Regis Shellfish, The Esplanade, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, 2003 • Aah, the English seaside – not depressing, in any way. This particular stall doesn’t seem to be there any more, but […]

J.W. Pelling

J.W. Pelling, 17 New Broadway, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • A brave survivor from the days when wireless didn’t mean wi-fi and satellite dishes were giant receivers based at Goonhilly […]

The Polyshop

The Polyshop, 48 Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • Sinister heads and inexplicable bunnies, still there in 2012 but with a less lovely logo.

Modern Furniture

Modern Furniture (Ego & Id Ltd.), 43 Rowlands Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2004 • Multilayered palimpsest of a ghost sign that’s still there, though the shop beneath has changed into The […]

KJ’s Cafe

KJ’s Cafe, 2 Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • Classic railway cafe-hut next to West Worthing station in what remains an old-fashioned area. Now the netless and less scrumptious Scrumptious […]

Knitters Corner & Skin Raiders

Knitters Corner & Skin Raiders, 26 Railway Approach, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • Knit your own tattoos: happy confluence of cat- and dog-themed shops, both gone now.

Mark of Mayfair

Mark of Mayfair, 7 Middle Street, Horsham, West Sussex, 2003 • That’s Mayfair of Horsham. Stylish 1960s slatted facade now redeveloped and unrecognisable as The Company Hairdressing.

La Brosse Gentlemen’s Hairdresser

La Brosse Gentlemen’s Hairdresser, Institute Walk, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • Barbershop in a tree. What else do you expect in Institute Walk.  

The Lock Centre

The Lock Centre, 8 High Street, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, 2003 • Still there, but with beige walls and bland typography replacing this rich old-school signpainting.

Nameless cafe (M.T. Plate?)

Nameless cafe (M.T. Plate?), circa 22 New Broadway, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • A window crying for all lost net-curtained cafes. I think it had been The M.T. Plate, […]

Dominic Hair Fashions

Dominic Hair Fashions, 1a Clifton Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, 2003 • Once so proud, by 2012 even sadder than this: “Dominic” lettering torn off, blinds faded pale peach.

Jellies Walk-In

Jellies Walk-In, 12 New Broadway, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2003 • I have no idea what this means. Became TaxAssist accountants, bicycles still not allowed.

Christmas War

Christmas War, Queens Square, Crawley, West Sussex, April 2002 • Christmas War, still battling on in April in Crawley’s bunker-like mall (the height of modernity when I was a child).