Sunday 18 May 2008

Ghost Signs of Clapham - Part 2

These signs were all spotted in and around Lavender Hill and Clapham Common

Lavender Hill & Hafer Road: I spotted this one driving up Lavender Hill. A great old sign that seems to advertise the National News and the Sunday Evening Telegram - not papers that immediately spring to mind!
Broadhinton Road: Just making my way down from Clapham Old Town to Wandsworth Road when I looked over my shoulder to see this fine old tradesmans advert on the side of a residential building - presumably owned by Mr Jenkins himself at some point.

Wandsworth Road: This is a frustrating relic all round! Tricky to get a decent picture and even trickier to make out what it once said. You can make out the odd word or letter here and there (if you click on it to see it a bit closer) but nothing really coherent

Lambourn Road: Two for the price of one here, although the second one is hard to spot unless you click on the picture. Redfern is the obvious sign here, but if you look at the base of the car advert there is some colourful lettering that seems to say "Made in......". Looks as though the colours spill out to the left of the advert too.
Update: After trying to find out what Redfern made I discovered these photos by Rolyatam on Flickr. S/he must have been passing whilst they were installing the new boards and managed to photograph the now covered, and quite spectacular, wall-signs. The top one actually says 'Made in Block Rubber' and the bottom one has a lively Chelsea Pensioner. Great stuff!
Wandsworth Road: Not as old as some but definitely fading away. No longer selling antiques but fast becoming one!

Cedars Road: What a great place this is! Originally an old stable block around a central courtyard the many layers of signage bear witness to the changing face of London transport. From the buying and selling horses, hiring out Broughams and other carriages, repairing travellers wagons they moved on to special occasions such as weddings and then, as the horses started to disappear, onto the new motor car. What were stables became garages and finally the home of the Cedars Motor Engineering Company. The garages are now mews-style homes but they've had the good sense not to over-paint the front of the building. I couldn't fit the frontage in one -shot so I've gone for a montage effect instead.


9 comments:

Dub said...

Yay!
I went passed the Cedars place On Sunday, and took a piccy myself - I hadn't even had a chance to e-mail it.
:)

Yelfy said...

That's a coincidence as I took this photo on Sunday as well - about five-ish if I recall correctly. I had a friend who lived in Cedars Road and remembered it from years ago so was quite impressed to see it was still there!

Dub said...

I was going past around midday.

Dub said...

I went passes again yesterday on my way back to Mill Hill - and I snapped an old matchmaker ad (Messina Av)

Sam Roberts (Ghostsigns) said...

Two links that add some context to a couple of signs here:
- National News
- Redfern's

Anonymous said...

I was doing a bit of research on the original occupants of a country house - lady of the house had a Brougham and then I drove past Cedars - exciting moment of history coming alive for me in about 2010

pillbox hunter said...

some people dont like Google street view but some times it can be useful so i hope this is ok ';-) https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4658905,-0.150412,3a,75y,75.24h,83.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLqn6J0vQDkj9jlMVc8DmqA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Broadhinton Rd : W JENKINS. BUILDER, DECORATOR, SANITARY ENGINEER.

Think this is what it says :-)