Leopold Cameras

Leopold Cameras, 17 Tavistock Place, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2002 • Final closure for an evocatively named old photographic shop. By 2018 it was King of Falafel.

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 […]

Cafe Restaurant

Cafe Restaurant, 25 St Cross Street, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2001 • Wonderful old Italian caff shot with dreadful old digital camera – both long gone. According to a […]

The Barber Room, Steve’s Garage Ltd

The Barber Room, Steve’s Garage Ltd, 90-91 Plender Street, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • DIY signage meets groovy graffiti. By 2008 the whole block had been demolished and […]

Blustons

Blustons, 213 Kentish Town Road, Borough of Camden, London NW5, 2015 • Art deco stunner opened in 1932 and closed down after 85 years of trading in April 2015. Sadly […]

Shepherd

Shepherd, Betterton Street, Covent Garden, Borough of Camden, London WC2, 2002 • No parking because there’s a load of sheep behind the door, perhaps. By 2017 it had become the […]

ST Signs

ST Signs, 294 Grays Inn Road, Clerkenwell, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2002 • Wonderful old school sign shop offering light boxes, neon, window etching etc. By 2012 half had […]

Adana

Adana, 162 Grays Inn Road, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2001 (top two images) & 2013. Beautiful art deco glass sign for Adana, a make of printer. It was retained […]

Launderette

Launderette, Lidlington Place, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • Grimly decorative washeteria.

Booty Wine

Booty Wine, 17 KentishTown Road, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2015 • Gotta love a shop called Booty.

M.A.M. Auto

M.A.M. Auto • 23 Midland Road, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2002 • Garages down the side of St Pancras station, in its days ofgrimy pre-restoration grandeur.

Neal’s Corner Sandwich Shop

Neal’s Corner Sandwich Shop, 1 Monmouth Street, Covent Garden, Borough of Camden, London WC2, 2003 • Named after Neal Street, not a bloke called Neal. In fact, this entire corner […]

The Imperial Pearl Co

The Imperial Pearl Co, 24 Hatton Garden, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2004 and 2012 • Neon sign in London’s faded jewellery quarter. Presumably it’s named after Imperial China, as […]

Sew Fantastic!, Tintype

Sew Fantastic!, Tintype, 107 Essex Road, Islington, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2012 and 2016 • Grubby but grand Sew Fantastic (top pic) is now scrubbed clean as Tintype art gallery (second pic). The punters […]

S. Cohen

S. Cohen, 2 White Conduit Street, Islington, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2016 • No name for the second-hand shop, but the original costumier’s facade is still proudly showing.

Hotel Splendide

Hotel Splendide, 25 Mornington Crescent, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • You couldn’t make this up. But in fact it was made up, because according to the Shady Old Lady […]

Dino’s Travel & Holidays

Dino’s Travel & Holidays, 11 Camden High Street, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • How times change – that bloke would be reading a phone today. Flyposting obliterates the name of this ex-Greek […]

Allworthy Bros

Allworthy Bros, 13, 15 Camden High Street, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • “Money advanced on pictures, bronzes, violins &c &c” says this wonderful old pawnbroker’s sign above a Dickensian-looking yard […]

www uk

www uk, 280 Gray’s Inn Road, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2002 • I like the road number on the brackets. Whatever the www was, they didn’t want you to […]

Giovanni’s Room

Giovanni’s Room Wine Bar, 42 Theobalds Road, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2003 • Faded 1970s chalet chic with name like a dodgy erotic novel – love the standalone door awning. I’ve already published its […]

Camden £1 Shop

Camden £1 Shop, 35 Camden High Street, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • Rush hour for £1 items, including toilettries and stationeries. Currently an ice cream-cum-phone shop.

Isats

Isats, 309 Gray’s Inn Road, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2015 • Decaying but still shiny black ‘Brilliant’-style Vitrolite cladding on what may once have been a smart shop, but now houses Isats, […]

Georges & Co. clock

Georges & Co. clock, 88-90 Hatton Garden, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2004 • I got hassled by security guards while snapping this in Hatton Garden, London’s diamond district. It’s […]

EuroSensor clock

EuroSensor clock, 20-24 Kirby Street, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2004 • Another period gem from Clerkenwell: EuroSensor was a big technical firm that occupied the building in the area’s pre-gentrification days. Threatened […]

Nameless wall clock

Nameless wall clock, side of 85 Clerkenwell Road, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2011 • For decades this giant octagonal clock rusted away high above Clerkenwell, but now it’s been […]

Little News

Little News, 9 Little Turnstile, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2003 • Unfortunate choice of name for a newsagent, albeit based on the name of its ancient London alley. It’s still there, […]

Diamond Laundry

Diamond Laundry, 190 Finchley Road, Borough of Camden, London NW3, 2014 • It’s getting harder to find laundries in central London these days, especially ones named after precious stones.

Renoir

Renoir, 244 Kentish Town Road, Borough of Camden, London NW5, 2012 • Renoir clearly neglected to trademark his logo. One of Kentish Town’s more genteel offerings, still there in 2014.

Martins Refrigeration

Martins Refrigeration, 19 Fortess Road, Borough of Camden, London NW5, 2012 • A close-up of Chris Ruocco’s scary-looking neighbour. That looks like a Gustav Metzger artwork in the widow, but I […]

Chris Ruocco Tailors

Chris Ruocco Tailors, 17 Fortess Road, Borough of Camden, London NW5, 2012 • In the 1980s they catered to the likes of Wham!, Bananarama and Spandau Ballet. There’s a painting of it […]

Off Licence Internet

Off Licence Internet, 47 Fortess Road, Borough of Camden, London NW5, 2012 • An oddly minimalist shop window, no less bleak with its cafe set up out front (below). Still […]

B&S D.I.Y. Homecare

B & S D.I.Y. Homecare, 313 Kentish Town Road, Borough of Camden, London NW5, 2012 • DIY sign for a DIY shop; despite its makeshift appearance, it’s still there. 

Abba Electronics

Abba Electronics, 236 Kentish Town Road, Borough of Camden, London NW5, 2012 • Now I’m going to spend a few weeks featuring London postcodes I’ve not published before (though there are […]

Pound Superstore

Pound Superstore, 125-127 Church Street, Borough of Camden, London NW8, 2003 • From the days when pound shops were one-branch, low-tech affairs. It’s still there, though it has to be […]

Paolina Thai

Paolina Thai Food Cafe & Takeaway, 181 Kings Cross Road, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2003 • Abject-looking takeaway with nice lettering on its pavement sign (bottom). It’s still there, […]

Camden Auto Electrics, Greyhound Couriers

Camden Auto Electrics, Greyhound Couriers, 2 Bayham Street, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • From the days when Kings Cross was a warren of auto workshops. It’s now been […]

New Experience

New Experience, 275 Eversholt Street, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • Probably quite an old experience. Now called Experience Massage (To Let), in what is still quite a run-down […]

G.W. & A.E. Thomson Ltd (Navals Jewellers)

G.W. & A.E. Thomson Ltd (Navals Jewellers), 228 Kilburn High […]

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, […]

Rolando’s Patisserie

Rolando’s Patisserie, 33 Tavistock Place, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2002 • Unrecognisable now, just a plain house – only the front door is the same.

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 […]

Costa Dorada

Costa Dorada, 47-55 Hanway Street, Borough of Camden, London W1, 2003 • When I first visited this late-nite Flamenco dive, I thought it was an ancient institution. Turns out it only […]

Highgate Stationers & Printers

Highgate Stationers & Printers, 7 Highgate High Street, Borough of Camden, London N6, 2014 • A charming beige essay in 1970s-throwback typography, complete with swirly ampersands. Note also the mossy, almost-gone Post […]

Drury Lane High Class Fruiterers

Drury Lane High Class Fruiterers, 190 Drury Lane, Borough of Camden, London WC2, 2003 • Poignant peek back into a lovely wooden-shuttered hangover from Covent Garden’s fruit and veg market days. Now […]

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).

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 […]

Casa Italiana S. Vincenzo Pallotti

Casa Italiana S. Vincenzo Pallotti, 136 Clerkenwell Road, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2011 • An Italian community centre, whose tiny tinselled sign says “Buon natale e felice anno nuovo”. It’s […]

Wishes Galore

Wishes Galore, 17 Leather Lane, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2001 • Cute typeface, but I’m not sure I’d want my wishes fulfilled here. Now a dry cleaners-cum-phone shop

Clerkenwell Screws

Clerkenwell Screws, 109 Clerkenwell Rd, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2004 • Another esteemed purveyor of screws, unchanged to this day (including the scrubbed-out lettering).

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 […]

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 […]

Metacrest Ltd

Metacrest Ltd, Lidlington Place, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • Not the world’s finest figure studies, but charming even though the bloke on the right appears to be baring his […]

Drury Lane Diner

Drury Lane Diner, 176 Drury Lane, Covent Garden, Borough of Camden, London WC2, 2002 • Cheerfully ramshackle takeaway in an eclectic corner of theatreland; it’s now the less colourful East Thai.

S. Krantz & Son

S. Krantz & Son, 180 Drury Lane, Borough of Camden, Loncon WC2, 2003 • Still there, but downsized to Krantz, painted dark blue, and with the beautiful old signage – and […]

R.E. Harris Motor Engineers

R.E. Harris Motor Engineers, 1a Doughty Mews, Borough of Camden, Holborn, London WC1, 2003 • Angry epitaph on doomed garage, now demolished in favour of apartments in this exceedingly expensive area.

Bloomsbury Service Station

Bloomsbury Service Station, 6 Store Street and 2-8 Ridgmount Street, Bloomsbury, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2002 • Another quaint garage, founded 1926, which by 2002 must have been London’s most […]

Euston Bookshop

Euston Bookshop, 40 Eversholt Street, Euston, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2002 • The kind of bookshop that needs its windows blacked out. By 2012 was signed “To Let”, perhaps a […]

Wimpy Bar (Holborn)

Wimpy Bar, 117 Kingsway, Holborn, Borough of Camden, London WC2, 2003 • And here’s a Wimpy Bar photographed 20 years after yesterday’s. Note faded interior shot in window (see detail, below).

Bojacs Club

Bojacs Club, 38 Goodge Street, Borough of Camden, London W1, 2002 • Watneys Red Barrel! Cobwebs! An old members’ club sign on – bizarrely – a doormat, revealed by a refurb.

AM & Son Auto Electrician

AM & Son Auto Electrician, 25 Midland Road, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2002 • One of of a series of decaying garages subsumed into the vast, posh ramparts of the […]

James Gubb

James Gubb, 85 Leather Lane, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2011 • Superb old-fashioned butcher with superb old-fashioned name, still going strong.

5 Star Sandwich & Salad Bar

5 Star Sandwich & Salad Bar, 33 Southampton Row, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2001 • Defunct Pepsi caff named after defunct pop group (or possibly not).

Frake’s Ltd Mace

Frake’s Ltd Mace, 51 Leather Lane, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2001 & 2013 (bottom) • There’s something so quintessentially 1950s about this Mace sign. By 2013 all the black letters […]

Mazzini Garbaldi Club

Mazzini Garbaldi Club, 51 Red Lion Street, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2003 • Founded 1864, sold 2008, now an expanse of plate glass, with no trace of these Italian flag-coloured […]

Jami Newsagents J.B. Winton Ltd

Jami Newsagents J.B. Winton Ltd, 322a Grays Inn Road, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2002 • I like the way Jami is tacked onto the previous name. Now gone and […]