Dry Cleaning by Mister Sam

Dry Cleaning by Mister Sam, 516 Holloway Road, Borough of Islington, London N7, 2016 • Fantastically old school cleaner’s sign, which still appears to be there. (Although I bet Mister […]

Popular Cafe

Popular Cafe, 85 Lever Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2013 • Once popular, here closed down and up for sale. It was soon back in business as before (repainted, […]

Rene Hair Fashions

Rene Hair Fashions, 111 Essex Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Classic 1960s weatherboard sign with 071 number. It disappeared soon after, and by 2017 the unit housed […]

Medcalf

Medcalf, 40 Exmouth Market, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2003 • Traditional butcher in the process of being turned into a trendy eaterie, which kept the name and signage. That […]

PS Prosonics 2000 Ltd

PS Prosonics 2000 Ltd, 48 Essex Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • A tech shop probably named when the millennium seemed futuristic, to judge by the phone logo. […]

Balti Raj

Balti Raj, 142 Balls Pond Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Ah, the colourful confusion of London. By 2016 was the trendier-sounding Rusty Bike Kitchen.

Late Bland (M&R Meats)

Late Bland (M&R Meats), 399 St John Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2002 • Tiled ghost sign on traditional butcher. By 2014 it was called Turner & George.

Holy

Holy, 540 Holloway Road, Borough of Islington, London N7, 2016 • Unusual name for a Chinese takeaway – perhaps they meant divine. But it seemed a good option for Christmas day…

London Center College

London Center College, Cumming Street, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2006 • Impressive sign! Not only does it namecheck Oxford and Cambridge universities, it offers ‘assistance’ with visas. Hmmm.

D.C. Auto Electrics

D.C. Auto Electrics, 429 Hornsey Road, Borough of Islington, London N19, 2010 • Grand pillars, graphic colour scheme, and a well-signposted post box. Still there, too.

The Express Cleaning & Repairing Co.

The Express Cleaning & Repairing Co., 10 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2011 • Ancient emporium briefly revealed after removal of Tony’s Hemp Corner sign (see […]

Tony’s Hemp Corner

Tonys Hemp Corner, 10 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2010 • Creepy flower-child fascia for controversial cannabis cafe whose proprietor Tony Taylor supplied ‘medicinal’ marijuana to nearly 300 […]

Subway (Angel)

Subway, 69 Chapel Market, Islington, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2016 • Boring fast food chain, lovely old door window. Actually I like the Subway logo, it’s an exuberant piece […]

Milly’s Mini Mart, Angel City Cars

Milly’s Mini Mart, Angel City Cars, 49 Upper Street, Islington, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2016 • I featured these ridiculously over-the-top console brackets back in 2014, when the shop was crumbly but colourful and appeared to be […]

W.G. Miller

W.G. Miller, 93-95 Essex Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2012 • The kind of funeral parlour that does horse-drawn hearses. This handsome black facade would have been traditional even when […]

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.

Tasty Café

Tasty Café, 72 St John Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2013 • Surely the greatest generic name of them all. Features somewhat unenthusiastically on Classic Cafes, while Food Urchin describes […]

Personal Jesus

Personal Jesus sign, outside Shoreditch Grind, 213 Old Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2013 • Sign outside trendy coffee shop Shorditch Grind at London’s grotty mini tech hub, Old Street Roundabout.

Julia’s Emporium

Julia’s Emporium, circa 10 Islington Green, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Sadly Islington Green’s too expensive for Tarot reading shops now. It’s totally disappeared – I think it’s the […]

Hare Krishna Matchless Gifts

Hare Krishna Matchless Gifts, 102 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2010 • How cheerful! Still there but with a slightly less psychedelic logo. 

H+C clock

H+C clock, 159-173 St John Street, Clerkenwell, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2007 • And another 1950s-style Clerkenwell clock, advertising lift manufacturers Hammond & Champness, who inhabited this building until at least […]

Monet

Monet, 144 Balls Pond Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Crimping companion for Picasso and Renoir. Still looks fairly similar, but is now called The Parlour.

Holloway Service Station T/A Sparsholt

Holloway Service Station T/A Sparsholt, 23-27 Crouch Hill, Borough of Islington, London N4, 2014 • A neat high street corner garage housing Swiss Cheese plants and a TUX-reg Roller – it’s like London in a […]

Hornsey Automatic Transmissions

Hornsey Automatic Transmissions, 1 Stapleton Hall Road, Borough of Haringey, London N4, 2014 • I assumed this was closed down, but Google Street View shows it operational a month after I […]

J.F. Turner

J.F. Turner, wall above Ying’s, 125 Hanley Road, Borough of Islington, London N4, 2014 • Graffiti by moron over ghost sign for baker; both elements are still there.

Cosmo

Cosmo, 182 Caledonian Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 & 2012 • Ah, the static world of the traditional barber. I photographed this in 2002 (top) and 2012 (bottom) and […]

Bobe Communication Centre

Bobe Communication Centre, 374 Caledonian Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • You may think this is just another boring old international call shop, but one day these will be […]

The Beano Cafe

The Beano Cafe, 6 Caledonian Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 & 2003 • A tale of Kings Cross: in the course of a year, the Beano edged from decaying […]

Celine

Celine, 293 Caledonian Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Giant and elegant patisserie logo, somewhat at odds with the cartoony “perfect spud” underneath. It later got covered by a […]

H.F. & G.W. Smith (Breese Little)

H.F. & G.W. Smith (Breese Little), 30d Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2013 • Trendy gallery Breese Little appropriating a previous owner’s more prosaic title.

Thomas Brothers

Thomas Brothers, 798-804 Holloway Road, Archway, Borough of Islington, London N19, 2003 and 2014 (bottom image) • Enormous and long-standing corner builders’ merchant with great 3D plastic lettering that just […]

Arkle Pharmacy

Arkle Pharmacy, 39 Junction Road, Archway, Borough of Islington, London N19, 2003 • A good old-fashioned name and address next door to yesterday’s De Marco. Now just called Pharmacy (incorporating […]

De Marco

De Marco, 37 Junction Road, Archway, Borough of Islington, London N19, 2003 • More superannuated Italy, in the eternally down-at-heel backwaters of Archway. It’s now estate agent Barstow Eves, so perhaps gentrification beckons.

Call Saver

Call Saver, 20 Caledonian Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2010 • A colourful closure; there’s a great pic of the premises open here. 

Adam & Eve

Adam & Eve, 90 Balls Pond Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Groovy curly type for a biblical name – note fig leaf. It was still there in 2008, […]

Food & Wine

Food & Wine, 49 Upper Street, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2011 • Colourful generic minimart with oversized finials suggesting a grander past.

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 […]

Videovent Ltd.

Videovent Ltd., 124 Essex Road, Borough of Isligton, London N1, 2002 • To the right of yesterday’s Wools was this sad example of the decline of camera shops; it’s now a […]

Wools

Wools, 124 Essex Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • The building has been renovated into flats, and this became simply… a door. Albeit one sandwiched between Food City and a Pound Stop.

Barbican Grill

Barbican Grill, 117 Whitecross Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2002 • Classic cafe from Barbican’s proletarian past, now a posh grey office of some sort.

RM The Company Shop

RM The Company Shop, 81 City Road, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2002 • Forget the Virgin Islands, I’d happily run my company from this impressive-looking HQ. Except I can’t, because […]

Lloyd & Son

Lloyd & Son, 42 Amwell Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2004 • High class dairy pictured open in 1978 here. From 2007-2012 it became organic grocery Unpackaged, who retained the frontage, albeit looking […]

Colour Centre

Colour Centre, 29a Offord Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Heaven knows (perhaps literally) what the original occupants would have made of this. Still there in 2012, but white […]

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 […]

Refreshments

Refreshments, 12-16 York Way, Kings Cross, London N1, Borough of Islington, 2004 • Ghost sign for a long-gone cafe; it’s still there today, but now above a large Nandos.

Abcat Cine Club

Abcat Cine Club, 72 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2003 & 2010 • Still extant “adult” venue from decreasingly seedy Kings Cross: note net curtain update between […]

E.T. Baker

E.T. Baker, 76 Caledonian Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2003 • Mysterious, long-lasting facade with a beautiful “Brilliant” glass-and-gold sign (see detail).

W.G. Sullivan Bespoke Tailor

W.G. Sullivan Bespoke Tailor, 181 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • First the letters fell off, as they tend to in Caledonian Road; and then it […]

Gardner & Finch

Gardner & Finch, 70 Caledonian Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2012 • Quali y Butch r – a classic old  frontage at the letters-falling-off stage. By 2017 it still looked […]

Zak’s Snacks

Zak’s Snacks , 48 Rosebery Avenue, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2003 • Now a generic fast food place with the far less poetic name of Mix Grill.

Balls Pond Bodéga

Balls Pond Bodéga, 108 Balls Pond Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • A doomed mismatch between ambition and reality.

The Tyre Shop

The Tyre Shop, 100 Balls Pond Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Not a tyre in sight, but a nice hand-crafted two-tone paint job. Later became an office of […]

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 […]

Quality Dry Cleaning by Eric’s

One Hour Quality Dry Cleaning by Eric’s, 98 Essex Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Now a tasteful beige Dry Cleaning Station, not by Eric’s.

C.R. Frost & Son

C.R. Frost & Son, 60-62 Clerkenwell Road, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2002 • One of Clerkenwell’s many lost watch and clock businesses, this later became a tile showroom.

Simmons Dining Rooms

Simmons Dining Rooms, 32 Caledonian Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002, 2010, 2013 (top to bottom) • By 2010 there was a trendy cafe behind this facade – I preferred the saggy […]

Rheidol Rooms

Rheidol Rooms, 16 Rheidol Terrace, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2003 • Another Pepsi cafe. Apparently still there, but somewhat repainted and without the venetian blinds.

Non-Ferrous Scrap Metal Merchant

Non-Ferrous Scrap Metal Merchant, Islington Metal Works, 7 Torrens Street, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Still a metalworks, the old signs surviving to lend atmosphere to the attached […]

K.T. Andrews (London) Ltd.

K.T. Andrews (London) Ltd., 404 St John Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2002 • 404 not found: this became half a Pret a Manger.