Giovanni Hair Artiste, Cosmo Chicken Bar

Giovanni Hair Artiste, Cosmo Chicken Bar, 936, 934 Govan Road, Govan, Glasgow G51, Scotland, 2010 • Ambitious titles meet random plastic typography and very old coke branding. Still there in 2015, though it […]

Bishops Stores

Bishops Stores, 365 New King’s Road, Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, London SW6, 2001 • Nice bit of cheery acrylic signage, alongside newer coke-sponsored sign. Still there, complete with apostrophe […]

Bolton News Corner

Bolton News Corner, 68a Bridge Street, Bolton, Lancashire, 2010 • This was next door to yesterday’s Softys. It’s now the exotically-named letting agent Mezopotamya Emlak; another local newsie gone.

Victoria News

Victoria News, 19a Terminus Place, Victoria Station, City of Westminster, London SW1, 2004  • I like this because it’s named after me. It’s in a gloriously grubby arcade attracting a wide socio-economic mix (see below), […]

Knapp’s News

Knapp’s News, 60 Plumstead Common Road, Borough of Greenwich, London SE18, 2004 • A good old-fashioned name, with wonky sign writing, a name check somewhere on the premises for every single newspaper […]

159 Newsagents

159 Newsagents, 159 Battersea High Street, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • This one hasn’t even got a name, just a number, and some superannuated Pepsi sponsorship. After the glory days […]

Unique News

Unique News, 118 East Street, Borough of Southwark, London SE17, 2002 • Depressing news, more like it (note noose over door). It’s now, bizarrely, called Ozone Sauna Detoxification Booth – […]

Super News

Super News, 140 Crouch Hill, Borough of Haringey, London N8, 2014 • Having your newsagent’s sign sponsored by an actual newspaper as opposed to an international sim card purveyor is starting to […]

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 […]

Moor News

Moor News, 20 Killigrew Street, Falmouth, Cornwall, 2012 • Moor News, as opposed to yesterday’s Little News, geddit? I like a proud local newspaper name, and the West Briton is as […]

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.

Brilliant Neon Ltd.

Brilliant Neon Ltd., above Best-One, 218 Earls Court Road, B orough of Kensington and Chelsea, London SW5, 2010 • Tiny reminder of a long-gone fascia, still hanging on above a minimart. It’s […]

Broadway Cash ‘N’ Carry

Broadway Cash ‘N’ Carry, 39 Deptford Broadway, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Even having ads for Coke and Pepsi couldn’t save it. It’s now called Deptford Food & Wine, with […]

Deritend Fish & Chips

Deritend Fish & Chips, 181 High Street Deritend, Birmingham, 2014 • Always nice to find a Pepsi cafe, however faded. The leaping fish on the counter front are obviously trying to […]

Bangers & Mash, Tyre Shop

Bangers & Mash, Tyre Shop, 1  Wellfit Street (off Hinton Rd), Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2001 • Once upon a time, deep in the backwoods of Brixton, stood a greasy spoon cafe […]

Manny Thanks

Manny Thanks, 784 Fulham Road, Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London SW6, 2001 • Doubtless this is a typo, but I like to think of it as the owner’s name. It’s now […]

Smokers World

Smokers World, 344 Bethnal Green Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2005 • Fags, mags and net curtains – interesting mix. It was still there in 2012, not sure […]

White Swan

White Swan, 217 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Look, the net curtains have got swans on! ‘Smoking allowed throughout’, proclaim stickers in the windows. “The place could do with […]

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 […]

Food & Wine

Food & Wine, 49 Upper Street, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2011 • Colourful generic minimart with oversized finials suggesting a grander past.

Easiephit Footwear (Wherry)

“Easiephit” Footwear (Wherry Estate Agents), 115 High Street, Lowestoft, Suffolk, 2007 • Great mosaic ghost sign step with a boring estate agent attached. I assume it was once a shoe shop.

Cocketts Corner (Wahab)

Cocketts Corner (Wahab Balti), 33 High Street, Herne Bay, Kent, 2004 • A more modest sponsored corner than yesterday’s, named for Cocketts Matresses, founded 1928 and sited opposite. The Cocketts sign […]

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 […]

Victory Cafe

Victory Cafe, 54 Eversholt Street, Euston, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2013 & 2002 • Patriotic Pepsi cafe happily little changed since I first photographed it in 2002 (bottom).

The Grill

The Grill, Ponton Road, Nine Elms, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW8, 2013 • It may look like an industrial wasteland, but one day the new American embassy will rise behind this […]

Channon

Channon, 21 North Street, Leatherhead, Surrey, 2003 • Nice old sign on a newsagents that’s clearly seen better days. By 2009 it was overshadowed by a Lidl; I don’t know if […]

Apollo Cafe Restaurant

Apollo Cafe Restaurant, 26 Brixton Road, Lambeth, London SW9, 2001 • I doubt the ancient Greeks would feel this a fitting tribute to their sun god, despite the faux marble. Note […]

Teignmouth Parade: Terry’s News, Lloyds TSB

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

Imperial Wine Stores

Imperial Wine Stores, Watneys, 178 Lambeth Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2012 • Still there, an old-fashioned sign on an old-fashioned corner where the classic 1950s comedy Passport To Pimlico […]

The Coffee Pot Snack Bar

The Coffee Pot Snack Bar, 10 Union Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight, 2002 • I always like a nice generic Pepsi cafe sign – it looks like the “The” was a […]

Hercules Newsagents Ltd.

Hercules Newsagents Ltd., 4 Hercules Road, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2001 • Hercules and Mars, geddit? Greco-Roman divinity-based newsagent that’s been shuttered for years.

Little Kitchen

Little Kitchen, 12 Lendal Terrace, Clapham, Borough of Lambeth, London SW4, 2002 • Now gone to the great kitchen in the sky, along with its generic Pepsi sign.

Scampi Bar

Scampi Bar, 107 Mitcham Lane, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW16, 2001 • 1970s-style culinary sophistication, with sign reading “property of Schweppes”. Now replaced by Far East Kitchen.

Dave’s Diner

Dave’s Diner, 60 Battersea Park Road, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • Strange how  evocative these generic Pepsi-branded cafes now look. Later became Con Amore, an Italian restaurant.

Jack Hall

Jack Hall, 150 Battersea High Street, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • Charming old dining rooms, with “Brilliant” brand glass sign. Now houses a gallery of some kind, retaining the […]

Bojacs Club

Bojacs Club, 38 Goodge Street, Borough of Camden, London W1, 2002 • Watneys Red Barrel! Cobwebs! An old members’ club sign on – bizarrely – a doormat, revealed by a refurb.

Martinis Café

Martinis, 226a Brixton Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2003 • This once had a superb yellow plastic facade, which I shall post another time. It’s now gone completely.

5 Star Sandwich & Salad Bar

5 Star Sandwich & Salad Bar, 33 Southampton Row, Borough of Camden, London WC1, 2001 • Defunct Pepsi caff named after defunct pop group (or possibly not).

Dominic’s Take Away

Dominic’s Take Away, 172 Goswell Road, Borough of Islington, London EC1, 2008 & 2013 (bottom) • Dominic should have tried taking away some of those wires. (2013 update, bottom – oh, he […]

Battista’s

Battista’s, 135a Charing Cross Road, City of Westminster, London WC2, 2001 • An unusual sponsored Pepsi cafe sign in a Victorian display font. Whole block now demolished for Crossrail.

Tudor Café

Tudor Café, 325 High Street, Sutton, Surrey, 2002 • Another Pepsi cafe with an unfeasably small accent. Now unrecognisable as the less delightful Cafe Delight.

Rheidol Rooms

Rheidol Rooms, 16 Rheidol Terrace, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2003 • Another Pepsi cafe. Apparently still there, but somewhat repainted and without the venetian blinds.

Café – Restaurant

Café – Restaurant, 187 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Boasts ridiculously tiny accent on Café. Astonishingly, this still looked exactly the same (minus flags) in […]

Café (Redchurch Street)

Café, 36 Redchurch Street, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2006 • Pepsi cafes are a dying breed. This became Chaat Bangladeshi Kitchen.  

House Wives Cash & Carry

House Wives Cash & Carry, 101-103 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Elegiac in the Benny Hill sense: should say “Cash & Carry-on”. Still carrying on, […]

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 […]