Creations

Creations, Turnham Green Terrace, Borough of Hounslow, London W4, 2002 • There’s what looks like a Gouda cheese and half an old office chair balancing on the road sign – […]

Dental Surgery

Dental Surgery, 10 Station Way, Peckham, Borough of Southwark, London SE15, 2010 • Dusky pink decay with a charming spelled-out street number, and an upstairs window offering ‘Dental Surge’. This part […]

Sai News

Sai News, 138 Church Street, City of Westminster, London NW8, 2003 • Nameless ex-newsie with painterly pink palimpsest wall and elegant stroller who looks like he’s posing for a cavalier […]

Spencer’s Shoes

Spencer’s Shoes, 99 Peckham High Street, Peckham, Borough of Southwark, London SE15, 2010 • Wish I’d caught this 1960s throwback while it was still open. It’s now Bilex Money Transfer, and […]

Southern Video

Southern Video, 41 High Street, Herne Bay, Kent, 2004 • Red Profil on pink fascia, what a colourful shop. Last spotted in 2009 with blue Profil on yellow.

Easy News

Easy News, 30 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, East Sussex, 2004 • Another cheerful Brighton newsagent offering depressing news: “Appeal bid by teacher Jane’s killer”. The shop’s still there, still lurid pink, and they’ve […]

Golden Dragon

Golden Dragon, 228 Mile End Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E1, 2015 • Chinese takeaways are one of the last redoubts of old-school grunge on this increasingly gentrified east end […]

Ravel (Oxford Street)

Ravel, 184-188 Oxford Street, City of Westminster, London W1, 2001 • Remember Ravel shoe shops? Once ubiquitous, the 50-store chain closed down in 2007 after five years of losses. Founded in […]

Margot Gowns

Margot Gowns, 4 William Street, Herne Bay, Kent, 2004 • Essence of seaside town, a symphony in pink. Google street view shows it looking just the same in 2009, except […]

F.P. Turner & Sons (Five Star Nails)

F.P. Turner & Sons (Five Star Nails), 31 Victoria Road, Surbiton, Surrey, 2014 • An old sign kept on from a jeweller’s, established 1825 (though not at this premises, where they’d […]

Blue Bell, Arcade Stamps

Blue Bell, Arcade Stamps, 104, 103 High Street, Lowestoft, Suffolk, 2007 • Colourful but melancholy, because you just know the target audience is slipping off this mortal coil.

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 […]

S (Willesden)

S (Willesden), St Albans Lane, Golders Green, London NW11, Borough of Barnet, 2003 • Fragment of old signwriting found lurking down an unkempt service road – I doubt it’s still there […]

Quicksilver (Derby)

Quicksilver, 45-47 Green Lane, Derby, Derbyshire, 2010 • Slot-machine arcade which started life as a Primitive Methodist chapel, but now looks as if a town hall has landed on top of […]

Ex-shop (Norbiton)

Ex-shop, 160 London Road, Norbiton, Surrey, 2005 • Another ex-shop resembling fine art, this time Donald Judd. Was later knocked down to build toytown flats.

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 […]

Suzanne

Suzanne, 70 Brixton Road, Oval, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2001 • It was a sad day when this 1950s dressing table-style hairdresser, with what looks like a jungle inside, became […]

Fastway Fliers

Fastway Fliers, 301 Old Sreeet, Borough of Hackney, London EC1, 2002 • Some unusual, and appropriate, Letragraphica type. Later became Cay Tre Vietnamese Kitchen.

G. Hill

G. Hill, 405 Evelyn Street, Deptford, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Nice lettering, I wonder what it sold? Now demolished.