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mosaic

2002

Star Furnishing

Star Furnishing, 165-175 Stoke Newington Road, Borough of Hackney, London N16, 2002 • Mid-century signage on a vast furniture emporium that wouldn’t quite fit in my 2002 digital camera’s lens. […]
Star Furnishing

2016

Roger K. Flatters

Roger K. Flatters, 35 Queen Street, Wolverhampton WV1, 2016 • Flatters – what a wonderful name for an optician. The Eurostyle font, old phone number, mosaic fascia and marble surround […]
Roger K. Flatters

2011

Jim’s Cafe

Jim’s Cafe, 59 Chatsworth Road, Clapton, Borough of Hackney, London E5, 2011 • Italian cafe from the 1960s that once housed an ice cream factory, and closed circa 2008 when the […]
Jim’s Cafe

2016

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 […]
Denhams

2016

Pitchers (Caffe Nero)

Pitchers (Caffe Nero), 91 High Street, Godalming, Surrey, 2016 • Attractive ghost-step for a knitwear emporium, now leading to a Caffe Nero. Pitchers was a sports sweater manufacturer founded in the 1880s […]
Pitchers (Caffe Nero)

1999

Cyber Café

Cyber Café, Unit 1, New Broadway, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 1999 • Hand-painted digital type meets 1960s mosaic on this sad closed down internet cafe. By 2015 the unit housed Attic Solutions, […]
Cyber Café

2016

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 […]
W. Martyn

2016

Broadway Hair Stylist

Broadway Hair Stylist, 344 Muswell Hill Broadway, Muswell Hill, Borough of Haringey, London N10, 2016 • A proper early 1960s hair stylist’s fascia, complete with modernist mosaic – very rare these days. […]
Broadway Hair Stylist

2014

Valley Vapes

Valley Vapes, 20 Castle Gates, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, 2014 • I’ve never seen a shop for these creepy devices before. Lovely step and entranceway, though.  
Valley Vapes

2014

Computerama

Computerama, 13a Castle Gates, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, 2014 • A few clashing layers of history: defunct tech shop with 1960s facade (note Italian-themed mosaic pillars) in Tudorbethan house which says “1908” […]
Computerama

2013

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 […]
Cooplands

2013

Co-op Mosaic (BHS)

Co-op Mosaic (BHS), 32-38 Jameson Street, Kingston upon Hull, 2013 • Immense 1963 “three ships” mural by Alan Boyson, on what was then a super-duper new Co-Op building. There’s a huge […]
Co-op Mosaic (BHS)

2013

Tower

Tower (Tokyo Hull), 52 Anlaby Road, Kingston upon Hull, 2013 • A rather grubby topless lady keeps vigil over this magnificent 1914 cinema designed by H Percival Binks, which has been […]
Tower

2002

Kents Chemists

Kents Chemists, 104 Walton Road, East Molesey, Surrey, 2002 • Hard to believe such a beautiful “chymist” exists in unassuming suburban Surrey. Both it and the building it’s in were established […]
Kents Chemists

2002

Barbican Grill

Barbican Grill, 117 Whitecross Street, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2002 • Classic cafe from Barbican’s proletarian past, now a posh grey office of some sort.
Barbican Grill

2010

RF Potts

RF Potts, 66-68 Babington Lane, Derby, Derbyshire, 2010 • Not as old-fashioned as its faux-digital font suggests, it even has a website which offers a virtual tour, says they were established in 1933. […]
RF Potts

2002

Karim

Karim, 155 Battersea High Street, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • Sign features a fish and a burger flying at what looks like a chocolate milkshake. Now supplanted by Planet […]
Karim

2002

Eros Movieland

Eros Movieland, 1 Berwick Street, Soho, City of Westminster, London W1, 2002 • Beware ancient Greeks bearing 1960s X-rated videos. All, including stairway to “model”, is now demolished.
Eros Movieland

Cirencester

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 […]
F.H. Hannis

2002

Ann’s

Ann’s, 25a Shrubbery Road, Streatham, Borough of Lambeth, London SW16, 2002 • Genteel cameo logo for genteel-sounding Shrubbery Road. Now a book-keeping bureau called Figure Fact, but little changed.
Ann’s

2008

Caffé Roma

Caffé Roma, 59 Westgate Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, 2008 • Amazingly, this 1960s Italianesque beauty lasted till 2008, but it’s since been replaced by a North African cafe.
Caffé Roma

2002

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 […]
Nicholas Johns

2002

Adel Hair Fashions

Adel Hair Fashions, 204 Battersea Park Road, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • One of the most beautiful facades I ever found. Unrecognisable now as Chesney’s luxury fireplace emporium.
Adel Hair Fashions