Well this was a bit of luck. I was in the passenger seat being driven back from Clapham and suggested a route going back by the old Granada cinema. I'd heard that since becoming a bingo hall it had now been knocked down and I was interested to see what had happened (it still seems to be in one piece) but my attention was gabbed by a ghost sign opposite.
I took the photo through the windscreen and all in all I think it came out ok. The building itself looks quite modern,especially the roof and extension to the rear, but I would assume that the original shape of the building has been lost over the years. Also annoying is the loss of the name so there's not much chance of finding out who it related to. What does seem obvious though is that the sign had been preserved by an advertising board and whether it will be replaced or not remains to be seen. It's not particularly old or ornate but it was nice to stumble accross it nonetheless.
5 comments:
Looks like M.J or H.J. Golding.
I've been looking in at Faded London for some time and been enjoying it all very much, so wanted to say thanks.
The Fred Palmer was a real beauty. I don't know what a "cash butcher" was, but in Glasgow years ago I remember "The City Cash Tailors". Like you, my assumption would be a business that would not supply customers on account, but expect them to pay cash. Maybe they're also implying retail rather than wholesale.
Anyway, please keep doing it.
The company's name is H. J. Golding indeed. I had a quick look on the web after I took a picture of that sign more than a year ago. It appeared it was based in Sutton but still had a branch in Plough Road (the one on the right of your picture). As for the former Granada cinema, which was built in1937 by Cecil Masey, H R Horner and Leslie Norton, with interior design by Theodore Komisarjevsky, it was converted into a Gala Bingo Hall in the earrly 1980s. It closed a few years ago and is now in the process of being converted into guess what... "luxury" flats!
The building is grade II* listed.
Actually if you walk along St John's Hill, you'll come across a couple of doorstep mosaics, and the famous Peterkin Custard ghost sign. Until recently there was a nice modern painted sign representing Pulcinella above the door of an Italian restaurant, but it has now been covered by a thick coat of white paint.
Looking forward to the next post...
Damn, beaten to it.
Sat and worked out what the probable letters may have been based on the bottom half of them - the first initial is obviously an H, the name obviously ends in ING and so on. And a quick search on the web confirmed my answer. Whats interesting is, given a tentative solution, how "obvious" the words become even though they are half missing.
Indeed HJ Golding. Company closed only a few years ago. Block of flats on site now called 'Goldings'.
Some ex staff now run excellent electrical lighting shop in St Johns Hill.
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