Post Office (Ashbourne Parade)

Post Office (Ashbourne Parade), 4 Ashbourne Parade, Borough of Ealing, London W5, 2006 • Randomly-branded postie with 1960s-looking logo in Franklin Gothic. Amazingly it’s still a post office, in the […]

City Confectionary

City Confectionary, 105 Shoreditch High Street, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E1, 2002 • Lovely quirky sign writing, with ‘confectionery’ spelled wrong on both sides.

Hares of Hexham

Hares of Hexham, 45 Fore Street, Hexham, Northumberland, 2016 • A sign sellotaped to the door of this traditional tobacco / sweetie / shaving emporium says “closed until further notice”. Sadly, […]

The Chocolate Box

The Chocolate Box, Farncombe Street, Farncombe, Godalming, Surrey, 2016 • Wooden-lettered ghost sign on what looks like a private house, but presumably used to be the local sweetshop. Love the way the car […]

Market Sweet Stores

Market Sweet Stores, 22 Wilcox Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW8, 2004 • Ghost sign for a sweet shop revealed in a traditional Portuguese enclave near Vauxhall. Now Ourivesaria Portugal, a jeweller.

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 […]

Good News News Gents

Good News, 23 Berwick Street, City of Westminster, London W1, 2002 • News Gents, it says. If only it really was called that. Unusually for a newsagent it’s still there and […]

Lennon Bros Ltd. (Mr Simms)

Lennon Bros Ltd. (Mr Simms), 15 Market Place, Rugby, Warwickshire, 2012 • A very substantial ghost sign, much longer resident than the faux-olde worlde Mr Simms sweetshop chain beneath (which was later replaced […]

William High Class Confection

William High Class Confection, side of 212 Middlewood Road, Hillsborough, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, 2010 • That’s enough dodgy graffiti, here’s some wall art with a bit more staying power, having […]

Jai Amibika

Jai Amibika, 3 Great Eastern Street, Borough of Hackney, London EC2, 2006 • A colourful shutter by the street artist Eine, who at the time wasn’t famous. Painting doors paid […]

The Aldeburgh Sweet Shop

The Aldeburgh Sweet Shop, 75 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 2014 • It’s open but it’s closed – maybe a victim of the trendy new sweet shop up the road.

Cousins Corner, Radio Rentals Ltd

Cousins Corner, Radio Rentals Ltd, Lord Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Cousins was a local confectioner employing nearly 3,000 people, whose founder died aged 95 in 2010. Once a Liverpool meeting […]

Teignmouth Parade: Terry’s News, Lloyds TSB

Terry’s News, Lloyds TSB, 4 & 3 Teignmouth Parade, Perivale, Borough […]

John Quality

John Quality, Grainger Arcade, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2005 • Proud sign in Newcastle’s wonderful Grainger Arcade for a delicatessen and sweet stall that doesn’t actually exist any more.

Cigarettes Confectionery Tobacco

Cigarettes Confectionery Tobacco, 6 High Street, Herne Bay, Kent, 2002  • Old sign briefly revealed during redevelopment into flats – you’d never know there’d been a shop there now.

W.E. Savage & Son

W.E. Savage & Son, 72 Wilmot Street, Derby, Derbyshire, 2010 • By 2012 this was still there, decaying away near the memorably-named Lara Croft Way.

Oval Office

Oval Office, 10 Clapham Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2005 • Used to be Oval Post Office. Now one-third of an estate agent. So things go, in London anyway.

Dilnot’s Bakers & Confectioners

Dilnot’s Bakers & Confectioners, 77 High Street, Whitstable, Kent, 2002 • This looks like it should be a permanent fixture, but became a jewellers. What looks like an ex-Hovis sign, top […]

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.

Burnards (B.J. Warrell)

Burnards (B.J. Warrell), 38 Brixton Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2001 • This beautiful palimpsest probably remains beneath the huge blue fascia of later occupant Ever Fresh Food & […]

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 […]