H’s Cafe

H’s Cafe, 82 Neptune Street, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2010 • Well-regarded backstreet greasy spoon with wonky hand made sign. Run by a bloke called H and his two […]

Post Office (Southwark Park Road)

Post Office (Southwark Park Road), 200 Southwark Park Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2002 • More non-standard postie branding. By 2017 it had become a fancy dress shop.

Inter Biz

Inter Biz, 1d Blenheim Grove, Peckham, Borough of Southwark, London SE15, 2010 • Wonkily hand-painted one-stop shop for a bewildering array of financial services. A note on the door says ‘Am down the […]

Quickie Heel Bar

Quickie Heel Bar, 198 Southwark Park Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2002 • Brilliant name, as featured in the book Formerly (right). No longer there, of course.

Dougal & Co

Dougal & Co, 260 Southwark Park Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2002 • Incongruous in a dull suburban street, a pointy oriental-style facade of a type more familiar on seaside parades. It later […]

JacLen

JacLen, 18 Dockley Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • I love the typography on this DIY doorway, deep in a Dickensian Bermondsey viaduct. It’s presumably named after Jack and […]

Abacus Hardware

Abacus Hardware, 215 Streatham High Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW16, 2002 • I don’t think it actually sold abacuses, though it looks like it might have done. Long gone, it […]

Lou Farrow’s

Lou Farrow’s, 277-279 Southwark Park Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2002 • Super-basic pie & mash frontage near Millwall football ground. It’s still similar but neatly updated, sans random letter-spacing […]

Prestege Cleaning Supplies

Prestege Cleaning Supplies, West Lane, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • Nice sign, shame about the spelling. Classic little council estate shop of the kind that’s fast disappearing; this one […]

Copy Copy

Copy Copy, 181 Southwark Park Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2002 • To some boring, to me charmingly mundane, with witty double name. Later became AM DIY Builders Ltd.

Nicholas Johns

Nicholas Johns, 281 Southwark Park Road, Borough of Southwark, London, SE16, 2002 • Oddly beautiful, in all its fairy-lit ruined pinkness. Was reborn as the lurid-sounding Curry Den, with tiny mosaics […]

Chemist

Chemist, 182 Jamaica Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • The word chemist is falling from use; this is now a pharmacy.

Spendloads-Please

Spendloads-Please, 129 Jamaica Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • There used to be two branches of this splendidly-named hairdresser, both now gone.

George Staples

George Staples, 2 West Lane, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • Now Hair Candy – not the same kind of sustenance at all.

Fanny Adams Unisex

Fanny Adams Unisex, 10 West Lane, Bermondsey, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • They probably didn’t know that Fanny Adams was an 8-year-old whose murderer tore her into pieces. […]

George’s Fruit & Veg

George’s Fruit & Veg, 273 Southwark Park Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2002 • Metamorphosed into two shops: Brother’s Barbers and Dammy Stores.

Robinsons

Robinsons, 48 Old Jamaica Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • Another casualty of the monolithic Bermondsey Spa development (see below).

Junk & Disorderly

Junk & Disorderly, 25 Old Jamaica Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • The whole road was later junked for a massive new apartment quarter, Bermondsey Spa.

The Pot Company

The Pot Company, 16-20 Raymouth Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • As in garden accessories, not drugs. Now obliterated: the arches were refurbished with anonymous blue units.