A. Simmonds

A. Simmonds, 94 Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent, 2008 • Chain of Kent jewellers with an attractive Edwardian style of logo that predates their founding around 40 years ago.

Alandra

Alandra, 143 Shoreditch High Street, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E1, 2002 • Alandra – nice name for a grim-looking jewellery wholesaler, but it’s not there any more. By 2016 […]

R.M. Pugh & Co

R.M. Pugh & Co, 35 Hylton Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18, 2005 • Pugh, Pugh, Barney, McGrew, in the immortal words of Trumpton. The jewellery display specialist is no longer […]

R. Laucher

R. Laucher, 302 Battersea Park Road, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • Founded in 1954 by Roman Laucher, a Pole who learnt horology while serving with the British navy […]

The Imperial Pearl Co

The Imperial Pearl Co, 24 Hatton Garden, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2004 and 2012 • Neon sign in London’s faded jewellery quarter. Presumably it’s named after Imperial China, as […]

Denhams

Denhams, 1 High Street, Loughborough, Leicestershire, 2016 • High street jeweller with grand golden mosaic (which is repeated round the corner). Denhams was there for 50 years, but recently taken over […]

H. Samuel (Manchester)

H. Samuel (Manchester), 7-7A upper Mall, Arndale Centre, High Street, Manchester, 2009 • Tiled 1970s bunker with missing letter – Manchester’s famous Arndale Centre, whose specially-commissioned beige ceramic facade was likened by Bill Bryson […]

Half Price Jewellers

Half Price Jewellers, 23 Lord Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Brilliant psychedelic sign. Now a Ladbrokes betting shop.

John Chawner

John Chawner, 36 Station Approach, Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, 2006 • Essence of sleepy southeast summer afternoon, featuring a clock mender whose own clock has simply given up. Google shows the shop as still […]

Gem Tool (Mfg) Co. Ltd.

Gem Tool (Mfg) Co. Ltd., 6 Regent Place, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, 2005 • Old workshop in Brum’s fascinating Jewellery Quarter. Now gone; Google Street View shows a faded patch where […]

Georges & Co. clock

Georges & Co. clock, 88-90 Hatton Garden, Borough of Camden, London EC1, 2004 • I got hassled by security guards while snapping this in Hatton Garden, London’s diamond district. It’s […]

H. Samuel Everite Time clock (Cardiff)

H. Samuel Everite Time clock, Central Market, St Mary Street, Cardiff, Wales, 2012 • Now that’s what I call a clock, albeit handless and ‘everwrong’. It’s pictured earlier with hands here, […]

H. Samuel clock (Oxford Street)

H. Samuel clock, Unit 4, 167 Oxford Street, City of Westminster, London W1, 2002 • A stylish ‘golden eye’ clock that I thought looked too good to last, and I was right […]

H. Samuel clock (Horsham)

H. Samuel clock, Clerkenwell House, 4 West Street, Horsham, West Sussex, 2003 • Old H. Samuel clock still telling the time, on an 1878 building named after Clerkenwell in London, […]

Herbert Brown clock

Herbert Brown clock, 24 Corn Market, Derby, Derbyshire, 2010 • Those are stickers on the clock, with probably nicer writing beneath. Despite the ominous hoardings – whose sign suggests there are keys and […]

A.J. Mountstephen Late Truscott

A.J. Mountstephen Late Truscott, County House, New Street, Sidmouth, Devon, 2013 • That’s quite a mouthful of a monicker. Nice that they’ve kept this old sign (possibly dating from the founding […]

G.W. & A.E. Thomson Ltd (Navals Jewellers)

G.W. & A.E. Thomson Ltd (Navals Jewellers), 228 Kilburn High […]

H. Stain Ltd

H. Stain Ltd, 207 Victoria Street, City of Westminster, London SW1, 2004 • What a pity marble shopfronts like this went out of fashion; happily this magnificent 1960s-style jewellers lives on still, just […]

Gordons the Jewellers

Gordons the Jewellers, 27 Strutton Ground, City of Westminster, London SW1, 2012 & 2007 • Last days for this old-style jeweller which looked on the verge of closure even five years […]

Andrews, N. Kay’s

Andrews, N. Kay’s, 128a & 128 South Ealing Road, Borough of Ealing, London W5, 2014 • Back from Hull to London, and a chance to try out my super-duper new camera […]

Paragon Arcade

Paragon Arcade, Paragon Street, Hull, 2013 (top) and 2005 • Cute 1891 Gothic Revival arcade by Alfred Gelder. On the lower right of the very blurry 2005 shot you can see […]

Pickering & Mayell Ltd Reliance Works

Pickering & Mayell Ltd Reliance Works, 41-42 Caroline Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, West Midlands, 2013 • Founded in 1913, this jewellery packaging firm merged with1941-founded local rival Talbots and moved to […]

S.D.V. Jewellers

S.D.V. Jewellers, 100 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2010 • From the unglamorous end of the jewellery trade, though it’s a great place to get a watch battery…

J.T. Snuggs

J.T. Snuggs, 50 High Street, Banstead, Surrey, 2001 • Another Snuggs – this one’s a jeweller, whose Dickensian name is complemented by Scroogeish Christmas decor. That’s mistletoe in the top left corner, […]

£1,000,000 Bankrupt Stock

£1,000,000 Bankrupt Stock, circa 16 Richmond Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Really? There’s a million quid’s worth of watches, shirts and slippers in there?

Wakefields Jewellers

Wakefields Jewellers, 11 West Street, Horsham, West Sussex, 2003 • This art deco frontage must have been an early “update” for Wakefields, established in 1911. It’s still there – jewellers seem […]

Lewins

Lewins, 190 High Street, Sutton, Surrey, 2002 • Established in 1934, this jeweller and pawnbroker is still there, but with an updated black frontage foregrounding golden pawnbroker’s balls, and the charming 1960s […]

Sarshire Ltd, F. Holt

Sarshire Ltd, F. Holt, 41 and 41a Brick Lane, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E1, 2003 • A palimpsest of old Brick Lane’s small-trader past; now depersonalised as a generic Costprice […]

H. Samuel (Manchester)

H. Samuel, 7-7A upper Mall, Arndale Centre, High Street, Manchester, 2009 • Tiled 1970s bunker with missing letter – a stirring brutalist sight. The U was still missing three years later; […]

D.H. Baines & Co.

D.H. Baines & Co., 12 Campo Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, 2010 • Jewellers with slight typographic dissonance between signage and graffiti.

Schwar & Co

Schwar & Co., 250 Walworth Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE17, 2002 • Phwoar, Schwar the jewellers and its golden gem of a sign is still there.

W.J. Jenkins

W.J. Jenkins, 81a Rochester Row, Victoria, City of Westminster, London SW1, 2005 & 2013 (bottom) • Not all traditional watchmakers have disappeared – this was still there in 2013, complete with watches […]

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.