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 […]
Noodle King
Noodle King, 36 Deptford Broadway, Borough of Greenwich, London SE8, 2002 • Noodling along with nice sign writing. No longer there.
A to Z Wedding Services
A to Z Wedding Services, 123 Stoke Newington Road, Borough of Hackney, London N16, 2002 • Scariest wedding dance ever.
Frederick W. Paine (East Molesey)
Frederick W. Paine, 78 Walton Road, East Molesey, Surrey, 2002 • Taken over circa 2012 by funeral group Dignity, who kept the name but covered over the blue glass hanging […]
W.J. Armstrong Ltd
W.J. Armstrong Ltd, 12 London Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • Classic Sandeman sign – port one side, sherry the other – featuring its famous fedora and cloak-clad ‘Don’ […]
Daily News
Daily News, 616 Seven Sisters Road, Borough of Haringey, London N15, 2016 • According to Wikipedia, the Daily News was a radical left-leaning national newspaper founded in 1846 by Charles […]
C. Bain of Upminster
C. Bain of Upminster, 164 Upminster Road, Upminster, Borough of Havering, London RM14, 2016 • Stunning old signage on a traditional removals business, who also have beautifully painted vans. Their […]
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, […]
F.T.T.D, Joiners Shopfitters Builders
F.T.T.D, Joiners Shopfitters Builders, 20 Tanner’s Hill, Deptford. Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Ex-shopfitter’s enlivened by a quaint Victorian-style pointing hand sign (aka a manicule). It was for now-defunct signmakers Find […]
Chapel Furnitures
Chapel Furnitures, 4 Browning Street, Walworth, Borough of Southwark, London SE17, 2002 • Giant hand sign on charming chapel for the unusually-pluralised Chapel Furnitures (maybe the singular version’s web domain had […]
Burton (Abergavenny)
Burton, 16-17 High Street, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, 2014 • A classic Burton that’s still in use, albeit somewhat grimy and with inferior modern logo tacked on. The company’s founder Montague […]
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 […]
John Hirst & Co
John Hirst & Co, Thornes Lane, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, 2014 • Despite its decaying Venetian loveliness, this “corn cake & barley merchants” warehouse opposite the Hepworth Wakefield gallery is surrounded by […]
S.E. & A. Ridley Ltd.
S.E. & A. Ridley Ltd., Bridge Street, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, 2014 • And now to the unusual two-tiered town of Bridgnorth in lovely Shropshire. This seed merchant was established in the year […]
Williams Brothers of Sheffield (Williams Fasteners)
Williams Brothers of Sheffield (Williams Fasteners), Green Lane and Dun […]
Floor Cover (Chicken Cottage)
‘Floor Cover’ ghost sign, Chicken Cottage, 177-179 Rye Lane, Borough of Southwark, London SE15, 2010 • Presumably a larger sign was pulled away complete with plaster, revealing the ghost sign beneath […]
Ons, Ltd
Ons, Ltd, 128 High Street, Lowestoft, Suffolk, 2007 • Scarred and illlegible ghost sign for something ending in ‘ons’ (Sons?) adding a touch of looming darkness to the local market. There’s also […]
Stuarts
Stuarts Your Do it Yourself Flooring Centre, 35 Victoria Road, Surbiton, Surrey, 2006 • I was driving through snoring Surbiton late at night and just had to pull over to snap […]
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?
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 […]
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 […]
Kingston Tavern
Kingston Tavern, 76 Paragon Street, Hull, 2013 • Delicate tiled ghost sign (look at that intricate ‘O’) on the side of a closed-down city centre hostelry.
Ideal
Ideal, 14 Midland Road, Hull, 2013 • Next to the falling-down Albert Hall, an old printing works that currently offers motorcycle training. I love the tiny black arched windows at the […]
The Tool Box
The Tool Box, ghost sign above 3 Church Street, Kingston upon Hull, 2013 • Faded wooden ghost sign on a boarded up shop. Not all of Hull is boarded up – […]
Boots Opticians (Horsham)
Boots Opticians (Horsham), 39 West Street, Horsham, West Sussex, 2003 • Modern variant of the last two days’ vintage 3D Boots signs, which, though cheapo-looking, shows the benefit of not giving […]
Boots (Golders Green)
Boots (Golders Green), 638 Finchley Road, Golders Green, Borough of Barnet, London NW11, 2003 • Another vintage Boots sign, this one now gone though the shop’s still there.
Boots (Pret A Manger)
Boots (Pret A Manger), 7 Parade, Canterbury, Kent 2013 • Yet another parade of boots – this time, evidence of an earlier occupant of this ancient-looking building.
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 […]
London Laundry
London Laundry, 120 Upper Spon Street, Coventry, West Midlands, 2013 • Part of Black Swan Terrace, a row of historic cottages that was derelict in the 1990s, and now restored to […]
Island Gardens Cafe
Island Gardens Cafe, Island Gardens, Saunders Ness Road, Isle of Dogs, Bourough of Tower Hamlets, London E14, 2004 • Nice brickwork! Despite the old-school teapot, it currently serves Caribbean cuisine (jerk […]
H. Snuggs & Co.
H. Snuggs & Co. (Trafik), 331 Old Street, Borough of Hackney, London N1, 2004 • The superbly-named H. (aka Henry) Snuggs bowed out in 1899 – there’s a contemporary report in […]
Twice the Siren (giant specs)
Twice the Siren, 28 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, Borough of Lambeth, London SE1, 2003 • Giant specs, presumably from a departed optician’s, keeping watch over a Waterloo gift shop.
St Margaret’s Church (Edgware)
St Margaret’s Church, Edgware, 1 Station Road, Edgware, Borough of Barnet, London HA8, 2004 • Sales point for religion, with beautiful lettering.
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 […]
The Music Roll Exchange.
The Music Roll Exchange., ghost sign behind Premier Food & Wine, 29 Clapham High Street, Clapham North, Borough of Lambeth, London SW4, 2002 • Secondhand music rolls, the superannuated CDs of […]
Burma Fish Bar
Burma Fish Bar, 6 Hackney Road, Borough of Hackney, London E2, 2002 • More old-style Hoxton – note yummy £1 menu. Now reinvented as internet caff Burma@Access.
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 […]
Prestege Cleaning Supplies
Prestege Cleaning Supplies, West Lane, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • Nice sign, shame about the spelling. Classic little council estate shop of the kind that’s fast disappearing; this one […]
Metacrest Ltd
Metacrest Ltd, Lidlington Place, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • Not the world’s finest figure studies, but charming even though the bloke on the right appears to be baring his […]
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 […]
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.
Modern Furniture
Modern Furniture (Ego & Id Ltd.), 43 Rowlands Road, Worthing, West Sussex, 2004 • Multilayered palimpsest of a ghost sign that’s still there, though the shop beneath has changed into The […]
Milborrow & Son Chimney Sweep
Milborrow & Son Chimney Sweep, 62 High Street, Caterham on the Hill, Caterham, Surrey, 2001 • Because sweeps are lucky at weddings. No longer there, though there’s still a national firm […]
Dowell’s Coals
Dowell’s Coals, Norway Street, Greenwich, London SE10, 2005 • An old docklands warehouse sign that disappeared under a huge development of riverside flats.
The Lock Centre
The Lock Centre, 8 High Street, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, 2003 • Still there, but with beige walls and bland typography replacing this rich old-school signpainting.
Beverley Hall Ltd.
Beverley Hall Ltd., 16 Regent Parade, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, West Midlands, 2005 • I thought this was being knocked down when I photographed it, but in 2012 it was still intact.
The Pot Company
The Pot Company, 16-20 Raymouth Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • As in garden accessories, not drugs. Now obliterated: the arches were refurbished with anonymous blue units.
Non-Ferrous Scrap Metal Merchant
Non-Ferrous Scrap Metal Merchant, Islington Metal Works, 7 Torrens Street, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Still a metalworks, the old signs surviving to lend atmosphere to the attached […]
Shad Restaurant
Shad Restaurant, 8 William Street, Herne Bay, Kent, 2004 • Mmmm, welcoming. Actually a substantial Indian restaurant round the front, and still there: Shad means tasty.
Shopfront Elegy 