Memel Shop

Memel Shop, 40 Dover Road, Folkestone, Kent, 2017 • I have no idea what a Memel shop is, but here is one. The definitions on Wikipedia don’t offer any clues […]

TR (Food Store)

Food Store, 22 Vauxhall Street, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2017 • Minimalist name with even more minimalist logo – I found out what the full name was by visiting […]

Super Way Express

Super Way Express, 344 Kennington Lane, Borough of Lambeth, London SE11, 2017 • Vintage wooden frontage with intricate fretwork and leaded lights. It  has since had a clean-up.

D.R. Butt Master Butcher

D.R. Butt Master Butcher, 28 North Street, Bristol BS3, 2017 • Dr Butt, lol – sounds like a Bart Simpson prank call. I caught this just before it closed in […]

Stan Butt Ltd

Stan Butt Ltd, 137 East Street, Bedminster, Bristol BS3, 2017 • So good they named it twice. According to this Flickr comment, meat wholesaler extraordinaire Stan Butt died a few […]

Mr Bagel’s

Mr Bagel’s, White Post Lane, Borough of Hackney, London E9, 2006 • Either inappropriate apostrophe use, or the property of Mister Bagel (discuss).

Dr. W.B. Clegg Charity Stall

Dr. W.B. Clegg Charity Stall, 161 Church Street, Bishops Castle, Shropshire, 2016 • Wonderful veg-based honesty box in cute Shropshire town.

The Egg Shop

The Egg Shop, 49 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Long-standing egg emporium with far-flung full stop, probably lettered by yesterday’s sign painter. It finally disappeared […]

Afro Supermarket

Afro Supermarket, 87 Gravel Street, Leicester LE1, 2016 • Multicultural modernist tiling in the brutalist quarter of this fascinating city.

Smelly Alley Fruit Basket (Dudmans of Reading)

Smelly Alley Fruit Basket (Dudmans of Reading), 11b UnionStreet, Reading […]

Pearly Pies

Pearly Pies, Borough Market, Borough of Southwark, London SE1, 2002 • A platoon of elderly pearly pie-sellers, some of whom are surely no longer on with us.

Barbers Teas Always Please

Barbers Teas Always Please, side of CC’s Hair Design, 423 Witton Road, Aston, Birmingham B6, 2016 • Gorgeous carnivalesque ghost sign featuring Little Miss Barber with a tea pack hat, […]

Johns the Baker

Johns the Baker, 5 Badcox, Frome, Somerset, 2008 • Ghost sign from the days when ‘golden brown’ didn’t mean heroin. The Hovis sign had gone by 2011, when it was still […]

Jan & Charlie’s

Jan & Charlie’s, 59 Old High Street, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • End of days for an old-school fishmonger. Ironically it looks more old-fashioned these days, as Frizbee clothing; the entire frontage […]

W. Martyn

W. Martyn, 135 Muswell Hill Broadway, Muswell Hill, Borough of Haringey, London N10, 2016 • Established in 1897 and still in the Martyn family, this is known as the Fortnum […]

Happy Shopper (J.R. Blanche)

Happy Shopper (J.R. Blanche),  74 Brixton Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2001 • And here, for the sake of completeness, is what the J.R. Blanche Happy Shopper looked like […]

J.R. Blanche (Happy Shopper)

J.R. Blanche (Happy Shopper), 76 & 74 Brixton Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2015 • Blimey, even minimarts are revealing hipsterish legacy signs now – believe it or not, this is part […]

Alans Naturally

Alans Naturally, 13 South Street, Hull, 2013 • Old-school loose goods purveyor next door to yesterday’s Alan’s Fruiterers, and presumably the same Alan, albeit without apostrophe. Both shops are still there – […]

Oriental Food Wholesale & Retail

Oriental Food Wholesale & Retail, 31 Nelson Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • I can’t find a 31 Nelson Street now, so maybe it got knocked down.

Ali Brothers Butchers

Ali Brothers Butchers, 27 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • I like to think that’s the brothers in the window. The nice sign has now gone, supplanted […]

Family Butchers

Family Butchers & Grocers, 99 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Same sign writer as yesterday’s Adam, surely. Still there but with more boring sign.   […]

G.J. Petts

G.J. Petts, 5 Westmoreland Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE17, 2001 • Unfortunate name for a butcher. Was still there in 2015, looking even more battered.

P.C. Royce

P.C. Royce, 21 Hackney Road, Borough of Hackney, London E2, 2015 • There’s two layers of sign here. ‘Baker &’ it says at the left of the newer logo, so the […]

J. Seal Quality Butcher

J. Seal Quality Butcher, 7 Barnes High Street, Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London SW13, 2006 • Not only named in Profil, but in tiles. The butcher and tiles are […]

Capon’s of Rochester

Capon’s of Rochester, 177 High Street, Rochester, Kent, 2015 • I got to Rochester too late to catch this venerable butcher, est 1944. There’s a bit more info on the […]

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.

Broadway Bagel Bakery

Broadway Bagel Bakery, 394 Edgware Road, City of Westminster, London W2, 2003 • The front fascia is pretty crap, but I like the golden-bagels-from-hell wall sign. It’s now called Bagels Etc, […]

A.Z. Halal. Butchers

A.Z. Halal. Butchers, 83 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Huge wavy pediment dwarfing a mini meat emporium.

W.H. Wellbeloved

W.H. Wellbeloved, 31 Tanner’s Hill, Deptford, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • A sculptural gable end for a wonderful name, established in 1829. Note hand-painted sign offering “surloin”, and the jaunty van […]

Dairy Product Specialist

Dairy Product Specialist, 368 Neasden Lane North, Borough of Brent, London NW10, 2014 • I like the weary “etc. etc.” – maybe the person who specified the sign thought the […]

D. McKay

D. McKay, 19a Harrington Road, South Kensington, Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London SW7, 2005 • Jewel box of a fruiterer in London’s “French” quarter. Still there 2012, not sure […]

D.M. Sutton

D.M. Sutton, 58 High Street, Rottingdean, East Sussex, 2004 • Still a traditional butcher, but now called G.R. Rushman & Son.

S.R. Kay & Sons

S.R. Kay & Sons, 1 High Street, Tadworth, Surrey, 2003 • Note the very old phone number. Much the same in 2012 but with subtly updated (but still old-fashioned) lettering. 

J.A. Corney

J.A. Corney, 81 High Street, Edgware, Borough of Brent, London HA8, 2004 • Established 1947, this was still there in 2015, looking closed down (albeit with straightened lettering). There’s an even older-looking […]

Geo. Watts & Son

Geo. Watts & Son, 93 St. James’s Street, Brighton, East Sussex, 2004 • I was attracted by the surrealist, slightly melancholy, window display. Founded in 1966, it closed in 2013 […]

Stuart Pearce

Stuart Pearce, 9 South Street, Dorking, Surrey, 2002 • Arnold Bocklin font again, which is an unusual choice for a butcher. Nowadays it still has the same 1920s-looking shaped sign, but with “posher”, olde […]

Chris & Chris Fashions (Crouch End Food Centre)

Chris & Chris Fashions (Crouch End Food Centre), 34-35 Broadway […]

Raynsford’s

Raynsford’s, 153 Battersea High Street, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • Nice signwriting; still looked the same in 2012, not sure about now.

Crowson & Sons Ltd

Crowson & Sons Ltd, 17-23 Farringdon Road, City of London, London EC1, 2004 • Nice mid-century building (note tiny replacement ‘s’ on ‘Sons’) selling fancy cheeses no more; it was knocked down […]

Catering Meats (Smithfield)

Catering Meats (Smithfield), 308 London Central Markets, Smithfield, Charterhouse Street, London EC1, City of London, 2004 • A more utilitarian but no less period Smithfied frontage than yesterday’s. This one’s […]

Edmund Martin Ltd

Edmund Martin Ltd, 3 Lindsey Street, Smithfield, City of London, EC1, 2004 • Sigh, you don’t see many tripe dressers around these days. It’s now a giant hole in the […]

G.H. Theobald

G.H. Theobald, 99 High Street, Whitstable, Kent, 2003 • Just a nice old bit of signwriting. The shop’s still there but called Jim’s Family Butchers, with a cute “new-old-style” sign.

Lina Stores Ltd.

Lina Stores Ltd., 18 Brewer Street, City of Westminster, London W1, 2002 • Famous Italian food store, established 1944 and largely unchanged from the days when Soho was about the […]

Knight & Compy.

Knight & Compy., 47 Fisherton Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 2007 • More art nouveau green tiles spared the chipper on this game mart-turned-charity shop, which by 2011 had become a vintage clothes store.  

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 […]

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 […]

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.

Eric’s (Emm’s)

Eric’s (Emm’s), 107 Leppings Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, 2010 • Strange mixture of old and new(ish) near Sheffield Wednesday’s football ground. Google street view shows a bunch of people sitting outside.

Clover Dairies Limited

Clover Dairies Limited, circa 201-203 Old Kent Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE1, 2002 • This attractive block next to yesterday’s Gin Palace was similarly demolished, to be replaced with bog-standard shop’n’flat […]

Bile Beans, Bob Trotter’s

Bile Beans, Bob Trotter’s, 18 and 13-15 Lord Mayor’s Walk , York, North Yorkshire, 2011 • A famous digestive fluid-related ghost sign, now (somewhat off-puttingly) on the side of a […]

J. W. Eve & Son

J. W. Eve & Son, 14 High Street, Herne Bay, Kent, 2004 • Not merely a butcher, but a purveyor of meat. Disappeared around 2006, and later housed a fancy […]

Kennington Car Hire

Kennington Car Hire, 56 Brixton Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2001 • Another colourful business “under new management”. This appears to house a taxi firm, SSS Hair Salon, an afro-carribean […]

Marks & Spencer (Kirkgate Market)

Marks & Spencer, 1904 Hall, Kirkgate Market, 28-34 George Street, Leeds LS2, 2014 • Blimey – the first-ever M&S, opened 1884. And it’s still there! Actually, it isn’t – this […]

Malcolm Michaels

Malcolm Michaels, Kirkgate Market, Leeds, West Yorkshire, 2014 • Just one (or two) of a whole row of traditional butchers in this fantastic market.

S.C. Price & Sons

S.C. Price & Sons, 7 Castle Street, Ludlow, Shropshire, 2014 • A beautiful sunray door in foodie Ludlow, and so traditional they call it a “confectioner” (which used to denote […]

Beaman & Sons

Beaman & Sons, 46 High Street, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, 2014 • Traditional family butcher, established 1890 and looking little altered. It’s  only closed here because it was a Sunday.

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.

O. & C. Butcher

O. & C. Butcher, 129-131 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 2014 • Established over 100 years ago and still supplying red trousers to the locals, a handsome traditional emporium of a type […]

Wavy Line (Woolwich)

Wavy Line, 46 Woolwich Road, Borough of Greenwich, London SE10, 2002 • Evocative holdout from the era before Costcutter and the like. Still vacant in 2012, with nice tiling intact but […]

Sylvia’s, Prime English Rabbits

Sylvia’s, Prime English Rabbits, 12 Westoe Road, South Shields, South Tyneside, 2013 • Unusual ghost sign offering ‘fresh fish daily eggs prime English rabbits’. What more could you want?

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 […]

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 […]

Cooplands

Cooplands, Trinity House, 71 Paragon Street, Kingston upon Hull, 2013 • This is a branch of the bakery that bought Skeltons, featured yesterday. Apparently the big yellow tiled panel once held a […]

Skeltons Bakery

Skeltons Bakery, 11-15 Trinity House Lane, Kingston upon Hull, 2005 • Founded 1931, this 43-branch bakery went into administration in 2007 – there are some photos from its heyday here. It was bought by […]

Rank Hovis Clarence Mill

Rank Hovis Clarence Mill, Clarence Street, Hull, 2013 • And this is the reason I went to Hull – to catch this monolith before it gets knocked down, which is due […]

Maizecor

Maizecor, 141 Wincolmlee, Hull, 2013 • A maize milling company inhabits this imposing complex, whose immense walls are studded with wrought iron bearing plate rosettes (more about those here). The historic […]

Thearne

Thearne, 15 South Street, Kingston upon Hull, 2013 • Not all the old shops in Hull are run down, as this superbly-signed example shows.

The Upper Crust Bakery

The Upper Crust Bakery, 4 Woolbrook Road, Sidmouth, Devon, 2013 • Nicely old-fashioned bakery from a nicely old-fashioned seaside town.

Moira’s

Moira’s, 123 Upper Spon Street, Coventry, West Midlands, 2013 • As featured yesterday, more of Coventry’s conserved Black Swan Terrace – underneath these green tiles lies a medieval building, which until 1903 […]

SpiceNite

SpiceNite, 23 Exeter Road, Exmouth, Devon, 2009 • SpiceNite’s pretty dull-looking, but the tiled shopfront it’s set into certainly isn’t.

Lihiniya

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

Veg Out

Veg Out, Side of 228b Stoke Newington Road, Northwald Road, Stoke Newington, Borough of Hackney, London N16, 2002 • Not entirely healthy-looking veggie outlet, next door to yesterday’s surfie fridge shop; […]

Christmas Bargain Store (Dewhurst)

Christmas Bargain Store (Dewhurst), 135 High Street, Poole, Dorset, 2004 • Ah, the grim pursuit of festive cheer. Everyone looks fed up. The baby’s bum is hanging out. The D of […]

A & E Scott (South Bank Grocery)

A & E Scott and South Bank Grocery, 69 The Cut, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2010 and 2002 (bottom) • An earlier identity as a greengrocer revealed during transformation […]

H.H. Brain Ltd.

H.H. Brain Ltd., 30-36 Upper York Street, Bristol, Avon, 2011 • A bacon and ham curers once occupied by the makers of legendary Brain’s Faggots (as in offal patties). A sign […]

East & West Supermarket

East & West Supermarket, 489 New Cross Road, Borough of Lewisham, London SE14, 2002 • Typically blasted shopfront from New Cross, where continents collide in a bus stop scrum. Now Penny’s […]

Cash Supply Stores, Furniture

Cash Supply Stores, Furniture, ghost signs behind 23 Clapham High Street, Clapham North, Borough of Lambeth, London SW4, 2002 • More ghost signs, next to yesterday’s music roll emporium. By the […]

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.

Steve’s

Steve’s, 21 Herbert Road, Plumstead, Borough of Greenwich, London SE18, 2004 • Greengrocer with unfeasibly large name; still there, looks nice when open.

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 […]

Henrietta’s News & Food

Henrietta’s News & Food, 1-3 Slipshatch Road, Reigate, Surrey, 2002 • Not wishing to diss Henrietta, but there’s a quiet despair about suburban shopping parades. (This particular shop is now updated […]

Teignmouth Parade: Terry’s News, Lloyds TSB

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

Spar (Derby)

Spar (Derby), 6 The Spot Osmaston Road, Derby, Derbyshire, 2010 • Impressive art deco parade which used to sell provisions, but is now a Money Shop, opposite a Poundland. Sigh.

Gilham

Gilham, 4 Saint Thomas’ Square, Ryde, Isle of Wight, 2002 • Last hoorah of an imposing deco greengrocers now unrecognisable as Level Hair & Beauty.

G.S. Williams

G.S. Williams,  JT Barbers, Devon House, 19 Bath Street, Frome, Somerset, 2008 • Fabulous tiled facade in a fascinating town – a pity half the original sign is obscured.

R.E. Robertson (Bakers) Ltd.

R.E. Robertson (Bakers) Ltd., 787 Lea Bridge Road, Walthamstow, Borough of Waltham Forest, London E17, 2004 • Oven fresh indeed – and happily, this wonderful old shop is still there.

Costcutter (Old Coulsdon)

Costcutter, 1-2 The Parade, 266 Coulsdon Road, Old Coulsdon, Borough of Croydon, London CR5, 2001 • A half-timbered Costcutter! There’s posh. Now has a sign saying “Old Coulsdon” stuck over the […]

Scotland Halal Meat

Scotland Halal Meat, 118 Stoke Newington High Street, Borough of Hackney, London N16, 2002 • Part of Stokie’s rich ethnic mix on the verge of becoming Golden Discount Store.

Trustin Fairbag

Trustin Fairbag, 135 Station Road, Edgware, Borough of Barnet, London HA8, 2004 • A fantastical, Harry Potteresque name which is there no longer, as it later became prosaic Express Food & […]

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.

Mersin 2 Fresh Fish Shop

Mersin 2 Fresh Fish Shop, 16a Lower Clapton Road, Borough of Hackney, London E5, 2010 • I wonder what Mersin 1 looks like?

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 […]

J.W. Ould

J.W. Ould, 35 Herbert Road, Plumstead, Borough of Greenwich, London SE18, 2004 • Three layers of old signage here, though I can’t find out the full name. Later became Belleza Hair […]

W. Bishop

W. Bishop, 12 Merkland Street, Partick, Glasgow G11, Scotland, 2010 • What a great old butcher’s sign. Even the letters look like they’re made of sausages!

F. Cooke (Broadway Market)

F. Cooke, 9 Broadway Market, Borough of Hackney, London E8, 2004 • Eel emporium estd. 1862 and still going strong despite much gentrification in its immediate area.

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.

F.H. Hannis

F.H. Hannis, 65 Gloucester St, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, 2007 • The note in the door suggests it was shuttered in 1999; in 2012 it became a posh deli, keeping the lovely mosaic […]

D. Morgan & Son’s

D. Morgan & Son’s, 173 Manor Place, Kennington, Borough of Southwark, London SE17, 2001 • Dairy with greengrocer’s apostrophe (unless there really was just one son), from a parade now behind […]

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 […]

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 […]