Imperial Wines

Imperial Wines, 2 Battersea Park Road, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • Strange pink mock Tudor building, with which this ornate Edwardian frontage was presumably contemporary. Amazingly by 2008 […]

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’ […]

The Forum

The Forum, 8-9 Market Place, Hexham, Northumberland, 2016 • Art deco cinema still in operation, complete with with cafe and built-in J.D. Wetherspoons. It’s Northumberland’s only full-time cinema, and has […]

Lamb and Fountain

Lamb and Fountain, 57 Castle Street, Frome, Somerset, 2015 • Historic hillside pub, with superb views and a trapdoor to 17th century ice wells beneath. In 2008, it had one of England’s […]

The Clothing Alterations Company

The Clothing Alterations Company, 5 St Martins Walk, Leicester LE1 • Ridiculously grand dry cleaner featuring Bacchus, Roman god of wine; the shop was once wine merchants John Sarson & Son, […]

Work Partnership (Temperance Hotel)

Work Partnership (former Temperance Hotel), 125 Granby Street, Leicester LE1, 2016 • Prosaic palimpsest in a derelict 1853 portal that once led to the empire of travel agency pioneer Thomas Cook, who started […]

The Turkey Cafe

The Turkey Cafe, 24 Granby Street, Leicester LE1, 2016 • Tiled turkey on 1901 art nouveau fantasia by important Leicester architect Arthur Wakerley (who, as we shall see, was a man of […]

Wetherspoons (The Corn Exchange)

Wetherspoons, The Corn Exchange, Market Place South, Leicester LE1, 2016 • Leicester’s most striking commercial building – the former Corn Exchange – is now a pub. And there’s plenty more faded grandeur […]

The Lambeth Walk

The Lambeth Walk, 17 Lambeth Road, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2010 • Last call for a net-curtained council estate boozer that was opened by Pearly folk in 1951 (Pathe footage […]

The Porthole

The Porthole, 11 New Quay, Duke Street, North Shields, 2013 • Striking listed real ale pub, once called The Golden Fleece. The venue later closed for good was turned into an architects’ office (article […]

The Love Shack

The Love Shack, corner of Old Hall Street and Goodson Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, 2010 • A touch of gaudy grandeur amidst modernist monoliths in much-maligned Stoke, currently bidding to be the […]

Kat-Man-Do

Kat-Man-Do, 2 South Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Weirdly-named ex-pub/club which has since been knocked down and replaced with flats.

The Duke of Cambridge

The Duke of Cambridge, 26 Bloomfield Road, Plumstead, Borough of Greenwich, London SE18, 2004 • The pub has gone, but the sign remains. Here’s the block of flats that replaced it. It […]

White Horse (Shepherd’s Bush)

White Horse, 31 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush, Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London W12, 2016 • Pub which has shrunk to its former saloon bar – the rest now being the supermarket […]

Shepherd and Flock

Shepherd and Flock, 84 Goldhawk Road, Shepherd’s Bush, Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London W12, 2016 • Built 1869, a traditional Irish sports pub hanging on in an area popular with […]

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 […]

The Cleveland

The Cleveland, corner of Paradise Street and Price Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Next to the Seamen’s Dispensary (gone) and opposite the Gordon Smith Institute for Seamen (to be redeveloped), this functional boozer catered to a salty […]

The Nook

The Nook, 7 Nelson Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Blimey, there’s a light on in there. Once renowned as Britain’s only ‘Chinese’ pub (interesting memoir by a 1960s bartender here), this scary-looking boozer […]

Bargain Booze

Bargain Booze, 22-24 Vauxhall Road, Liverpool L3, 2014 • Bargain booze, bargain sign.

David Pluck, The Blob Shop

David Pluck, The Blob Shop, 40 Great Charlotte Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Pub beneath bookie beneath Yates’s Wine Lodge ghost sign, all still there. According to this Bad Pub Guide The Blob Shop […]

Richmond Hotel

Richmond Hotel, 32 Williamson Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Apparently there’s been a pub on this corner for over 200 years. This frilly incarnation is still there, but has been smartened up, and […]

Minerva Hotel

Minerva Hotel, 10 Nelson Street Kingston upon Hull, 2013 • Handsome waterfront hostelry boasting ‘the smallest pub room in Britain’. These deco doorcases are a later addition to the essentially 1850s […]

The Corner Off-Licence

The Corner Off-Licence, 18 Abbey Lane, Stratford, Borough of Newham, London E15, 2006 • More modernist grimness, in an area whose local landmark was at this point a sewer outfall, but is […]

Shirley Stores

Shirley Stores, 2-8 Shirley Street, Borough of Newham, London E16, 2002 • Bleakness on the edge of Silvertown. Later became a Kwiksave.

Bishops Stores

Bishops Stores, 365 New King’s Road, Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, London SW6, 2001 • Nice bit of cheery acrylic signage, alongside newer coke-sponsored sign. Still there, complete with apostrophe […]

St. Judes

St. Judes, 172 London Road, Mitcham, Surrey, 2001 • Quaintly-named newsie in quaintly-named Figgs Marsh. Jude – the patron saint of desperate causes – is nowadays sponsored by Lycamobile.

Valentine

Valentine, 171 Long Lane, Borough of Southwark, London SE1, 2011 • Scary pub squat with extreme name / appearance mismatch. It may have originally been called the Valentine & Orson, […]

Good News

Good News, 33 Sydney Street, Brighton, East Sussex, 2014 • Brighton newsies  seem to have appropriately sunny names, but the news in the window isn’t so good – “Mum’s horror […]

The Drink Box

The Drink Box, 159 Camberwell New Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE5, 2001 • Looks like it’s called Off Licence, but tiny ornate handwriting reveals its true identity. It’s been […]

Quality Food News & Wines

Quality Food News & Wines, 91 Bloomfield Road, Borough of Greenwich, London SE18, 2004 • I wonder how much demand they get for the Financial News.

Lascelles Tickner & Co’s Entire (The George Inn)

Lascelles Tickner & Co’s Entire (The George Inn), 124 Bridge […]

Herbert’s Whetstone News

Herbert’s Whetstone News, 1452 High Road, Whetstone, Borough of Barnet, London N20, 2011 • That’s quite a font, Herbert! It still looks the same, unencumbered by Lycamobile ads and their ilk. 

Abbey Arms, Harry’s Mini Cabs

Abbey Arms, Harry’s Mini Cabs, 31 & 31a Wilton Road, Abbey Wood, Borough of Greenwich, London SE2, 2014 • A pub in Abbey Wood that’s still standing. It doesn’t have […]

Ex-Drinks Cabin

Ex-Drinks Cabin, 498 Abbey Wood Road, Abbey Wood, Borough of Bexley, London SE2, 2014 • The black bottle speaks of a booze store, which internet research suggests was called Drinks Cabin. Google Street View shows 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 […]

Broadway Wines

Broadway Wines, 56 Broadway Market, Borough of Hackney, London E8, 2006 • Now for a few Broadways (the non-New York kind). Here’s a Y by Eine on a wine shop, […]

Drink Store

Drink Store, 92 Streatham Hill, Borough of Lambeth, London SW2, 2002 • Another generically-titled offie, with bonus wonky word spacing. Unlike yesterday’s Drink Store, this was still the same in 2014, which […]

Your Local Drink Store

Your Local Drink Store, 371 Norwood Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SE27, 2002 • I always like a generically-titled shop. Recalling Father Jack out of Father Ted, the little bottle […]

The Barge

The Barge, 271 Victoria Dock Road, Borough of Newham, London E16, 2002 • I was attracted by the wonky painted wall sign of this once-grand docklands boozer, established as the Freemasons […]

Manny Thanks

Manny Thanks, 784 Fulham Road, Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London SW6, 2001 • Doubtless this is a typo, but I like to think of it as the owner’s name. It’s now […]

St Noahs News

St Noahs News, 41 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, East Sussex, 2014 • Sunny frontage for the patron saint of missing apostrophes. I’m always attracted by newsagents because they’re a type of shop that’s […]

Railway Bell Hotel

Railway Bell Hotel, Comberton Hill, Kidderminster, Worcsestershire, 2014 • Imposing pub opposite the Severn Valley Railway’s puffing locos and atmospheric rail museum in Kidderminster.

The Bull Ring Tavern

The Bull Ring Tavern, 1 Digbeth, Birmingham, 2005 • A Guinness pub in Digbeth that still stands. Its functionalist 1960s styling has a certain bleak grandeur, don’t you think? No? […]

Hennessey’s Bar

Hennessey’s Bar, 123 Digbeth High Street, Birmingham, 2005 • Guinness Time stopped here when the whole block got demolished circa 2010 – there’s an article about the redevelopment here. The splendid Irish gent (bottom) was a Hennessey’s regular, and […]

White Swan

White Swan, 217 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Look, the net curtains have got swans on! ‘Smoking allowed throughout’, proclaim stickers in the windows. “The place could do with […]

Barrier Animal Care Clinic (Thames Barrier Arms)

Barrier Animal Care Clinic (Thames Barrier Arms), Eastmoor Place, Borough […]

The Rose of Denmark

The Rose of Denmark, 78 Shirley Street, Borough of Newham, London E16, 2002 • Looks more like the Rose of Beirut, but is in fact at the head of London’s […]

The Graving Dock Tavern

The Graving Dock Tavern, 353 North Woolwich Road, Borough of Newham, London E16, 2012 • A graving dock is a dry dock for working on ships’ hulls – but it’s […]

J.R. Hobson & Co The Drinking Glass Centre

J.R. Hobson & Co The Drinking Glass Centre, Nursery Street, […]

Masham Hotel

Masham Hotel, Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough, 2013 • Once one of the town’s most popular pubs, this listed building became a failed shoe shop, then in 2013 was turned into a small […]

Poole Arms

Poole Arms, 19 The Quay, Poole, Dorset, 2004 • More green tiles, this time on the oldest pub on Poole Quay: it dates from 1600s (though not the tiling, which […]

The 3 Crowns

The 3 Crowns, 8 East Road, Borough of Hackney, London N1, 2013 • Nicely-tiled Shoreditch pub which appears to have been rescued by hipsters in mid-destruction. There’s a picture of how […]

Kenilworth Castle

Kenilworth Castle, 104 St Anns Road, Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London W11, 2002 • Unusual post-war council estate pub on the fringes of posh Holland Park. By 2012 it was painted blue and much […]

Sir Robert Peel, Krystals Express

Sir Robert Peel, Krystals Express, 178 Bishopsgate, City of London, London EC2, 2004 • Something of an oddity – commemorative 1930s tiling on a circa 1900 pub named after the prime […]

Bridge Hotel

Bridge Hotel, Castle Garth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2013 • Forbidding but fantastic pub built into Newcastle’s old town walls and perched high above the river Tyne, bracketed by two of the city’s spectacular bridges. […]

Ladywell Supermarket

Ladywell Supermarket, 111 Ladywell Road, Borough of Lewisham, London SE13, 2011 • The ladies of Ladywell, patronising a rather tatty shop in a fadedly genteel area. The mosaic pillars may indicate […]

The Lord Napier

The Lord Napier, 25 White Post Lane, Borough of Hackney, London E9, 2011 • An arty quarter slumbering in pre-Olympics dereliction. The pub actually closed in 1995, there’s some history […]

The Gin Palace

The Gin Palace, circa 205-9 Old Kent Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE1, 2002 • Legendarily dodgy boozer on the cheapest bit of the Monopoly board. Previously known as The Castle, […]

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 […]

O’Neills (Leeds)

O’Neills, 26 George Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire, 2014 • Leeds is full of huge Victorian buildings, but this is unusual – a faux Irish pub in a neo-gothic ex-Masonic hall.

The Shakespeare (Bridgnorth)

The Shakespeare, West Castle Street, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, 2014 • Even the road signs are old in Bridgnorth – there are plenty more of this vintage, reminding me of childhood car […]

Ball Hotel

Ball Hotel, Castle Terrace (back of 30-31 East Castle Street), Bridgnorth, Shropshire, 2014 • Ghost-lettering on the back entrance of one of Bridgnorth’s oldest pubs, licenced in 1750. It latterly […]

Sons of Temperance Friendly Society

Sons of Temperance Friendly Society, 176-177 Blackfriars Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE1, 2014 • Former HQ of a 19th-century financial co-operative for teetotallers, now being wound down; they sold the […]

The Black Horse (Aldeburgh)

The Black Horse, 257 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 2014 • First licenced to sell beer in 1843, this ivy-capped wreck was once (reputedly) a major smuggling inn. By 1988 it was The […]

Front Page News

Front Page News, Odeon Building, 33 Jordan Well, Coventry, West Midlands, 2013 • Lebara seem to have colonised every paper shop in the universe, but this must be the grandest. (2014 […]

Kingston Tavern

Kingston Tavern, 76 Paragon Street, Hull, 2013 • Delicate tiled ghost sign (look at that intricate ‘O’) on the side of a closed-down city centre hostelry.

G.W. Horners

G.W. Horners, 21 Anlaby Road, Hull, 2013 • Pub in an imposing ex-fleapit, The Regent, which was built in 1910 (the towers were added later) and owned by the same family […]

The Shakespeare (Victory Amusements)

The Shakespeare (Victory Amusements), 34 Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough, 2013 • Another theatrical boozer; but unlike yesterday’s Garrick, poor old Bill’s given way to a less rewarding form of entertainment. Still, the […]

Garrick’s Head

Garrick’s Head, 50 Saville Street, North Shields, North Tyneside, 2013 • Beautiful 1899 pub, but the local council doesn’t seem to like its clientelele very much, according to this report of […]

Lihiniya

Lihiniya, 70 Cricklewood Broadway, Borough of Barnet, London NW2, 2004 • Intricate Sri Lankan shopfront, now a Cats Protection charity shop.

Chunnel Bar

Chunnel Bar, 133 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2003 & 2011 • Uncompromisingly drab wooden frontage as 1970s as its monicker: Eurostar bypassed Waterloo several years ago, and […]

The Prince Albert Hotel

The Prince Albert Hotel, 27-29 Rendezvous Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2011 • This beautifully tiled rendezvous has had several looks, including an incongruous 1970s one – there’s a history here.

Rahie Off Licence Newsagent

Rahie Off Licence Newsagent, 5 Whitechurch Lane, Edgware, Borough of Barnet, London HA8, 2004 • I knew times were tough for newsagents, but this is ridiculous. Now called Price Cutter.

Imperial Wine Stores

Imperial Wine Stores, Watneys, 178 Lambeth Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2012 • Still there, an old-fashioned sign on an old-fashioned corner where the classic 1950s comedy Passport To Pimlico […]

Kosher Food & Wine

Kosher Food & Wine, circa 113 Golders Green Road, Borough of Barnet, London NW11, 2003 • Looks appetising! But it doesn’t appear to be there any more.

Convenient Food & Wine Store

Convenient Food & Wine Store, 338 Kennington Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2001 • Convenient it may be, but it’s not exactly an inspiring name, is it? By 2012 it […]

P.F. Garnett & Co. Ltd

P.F. Garnett & Co. Ltd., 137 Duke Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Another abandoned Liverpool shop – it’s a long time since cork importers were big there. This was still the same […]

Legs ‘n’ Co

Legs ‘n’ Co, 86 Maxwell Street, Glasgow G1, Scotland, 2012 • Defunct lap dancing joint named after dodgy 1970s Top of the Pops dance troupe, with suitably retro sign.

Liqueur Store

Liqueur Store, 32 Streatham High Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW16, 2002 • A nice conceit – but I wonder if they meant Liquor Store?

Uncle Jim’s Off Licence & Launderette

Uncle Jim’s Off Licence, Uncle Jim’s Launderette, 208 & 208a […]

Top Joe’s

Top Joe’s, 4 Arlington Parade, Brixton Hill, Borough of Lambeth, London SW2, 2001 • Huge boasty bonkers sign whose stripy wall and backwards apostrophe brightened Brixton for decades – but no […]

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.

Balls Pond Bodéga

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