Bits of Brixton

 Brixton Market: I spotted this advertising plaque on the window of a store in Brixton market a week or two ago when I was visiting a very impressive Colombian cafe. It has a nice sort of late-50s feel about it (the sign, not the cafe) so I decided to have a look and see if I could find out much about the company itself, not being familiar with Avia as a brand.

As it turns out, I'm not the only one and the internet seems to be full of people not being able to find out much information about old Avia watches they've acquired! Some snippets of information that were floating around seem to suggest that the company had its roots in 1830, but then doesn't seem to have been registered as a brand until 1910. It was a London company and it's quality seems to have been thought of as being pretty good, at least up to the advent of quartz watches when it seemed to tail off somewhat. The company was bought by an American business in 2001 and still has a presence mainly providing inexpensive watches to department stores.

It looks as though this sign may have been put up during the company's heyday in the 1950's although interestingly 'guaranteed Swiss watch' doesn't necessarily mean that the whole watch was of Swiss manufacture. It could be that certain elements of the movement were assembled and checked in Switzerland but that the majority of the watch was made elsewhere, as described in this article. Nice advertisement though.

Having finished the  Colombian lunch (huge portions, two courses, lovely flavours £7ish) I thought I'd have a little stroll before heading off home. Then a couple of other items caught my eye.

Coldharbour Lane: Moving off down the road out of the arcade I went past the ever-impressive Sanitary Steam Laundry that I recall as being situated close to the unemployment office on Coldharbour Lane. Judging by the vans in the forecourt it's still in the same line of business which is quite impressive. I'm not sure that the unemployment office has had the same longevity, although I do know that the old UB40 is no longer in existence.

Of course it's the clock tower and the bold fascia lettering that really do it for me on this building and with a frontage like that you just knew that there would be some information around about it somewhere on the internet. As it turned out I didn't have to look very far because, in a very heart-warming sort of way, not only does Walton Lodge still have the same sort of business on the premises, it actually has the same company in it,  which was a bit of a surprise!

Walton Lodge Laundry Services have a page on their website devoted to the history of their company and an interesting read it is to.  Walton Lodge was acquired in 1895 and since then the business has had to develop and move with the times, from dealing mainly with domestic laundry to that of laundry for hotels and of linen hire. Still going strong by the looks of it.

Atlantic Road: I recall there being a David Greig shop in Battersea when I was young and being taken every Saturday for a bit of shopping. Quite a pleasant type of place if I recall correctly - a large thistle mosaic in the middle of the floor and counters around the sides with a single payment box in the corner. It was a sort of dairy cum grocers I think, the sort of place to go for a nice bit of cheddar and some ham wrapped up in greaseproof paper. Although much earlier than my own memories, there's a nice wartime photo of a David Greig store on Flickr.

 Apparently, according to Wikipedia, this Brixton store was the first ever David Greig and actually opened in 1870. I couldn't say whether the tiles are of the same vintage but I wouldn't have thought they would have been too far off - maybe they were part of a later development as the chain grew in size?

The Scottish-ness of David Greig's was a big part of it's public image and the thistle was it's main emblem, as you can see here with this attractive bit of tile-work. Strangely enough - and a bit of a surprise for me - was the fact that the company was a North London one, and not some exotic import from the Highlands! I assume that they had very strong Scottish roots though and decided to celebrate them in their shop designs. And why not...

 The colours of dark green, golden-yellow and a sort of russet red all suggest to me the colours of autumn in the glens. Very rich but quite subdued as well. I've no idea whether it was intentional or not but the overall effect is quite tasteful I think. The chain was sold in the 1970's and the name has pretty much disappeared now, apart from the odd preserved shop front like this one.

Brixton Road: Just beside the Ritzy Cinema is a ghost sign whose picture pops up with great regularity around the world of the blog. Bovril (in a Quite Interesting sort of way) was named after Vril a magical foodstuff in a book called The Coming Race, combined with the first part of bovine, hence Bo(vine) Vril. That little snippet of knowledge is courtesy of a dissertation I did on Utopian and Dystopian Literature of the 19th century and I'm very pleased that my copious research has finally come in useful!

However what most of the ghost sign pictures miss out is the interesting stink-pipe with electric light brackets in the foreground, next to a very solid looking public convenience. Three for the price of one!

(Coma y Punto was the Colombian Cafe, and I'm happy to recommend it to anyone looking for something slightly different and value for money!)

The Ghost Signs of Bath 3 (Faded London on Tour 2010 Last Knockings)

After doing a little spring-cleaning on the image front I found a few more photos from my short trip to Bath last summer and I'm feeling an obligation to finally finish the set off. It's all a bit too easy in Bath though and, after the initial rush of excitement at stumbling across so many items in such a short space I can't say I've had the same depth of interest as in those lesser, rarer items I've found locally. It's all good stuff though and worth putting up for a look.

Hot Bath Street was the location of this particular item and there's certainly a number of layers involved! It looks as though the original road sign was painted over with one or two adverts which in turn (if the marks on the walls are anything to go by) were covered up with ivy. The top, blue layer is for Nestle's Milk  but it's obviously been placed on top of other signage so I'll have to get out the magnifying glass for this one.

It's a bit difficult to see what's going on here other than the fact that the new business has tried to obliterate its predecessor. Give it another ten years and we might be able to make it out a little easier...

Another tantalising sign that is just beyond my ability to decipher. It's obviously older than the above sign and I've a sneaking suspicion that the cleaning has been a bit haphazard  as well which doesn't help matters.

It looks at first glance to read RUSH MANUFACTORY but it's pretty clear that the initial B somehow escaped the initial clean up. There's a brush seller mentioned down this road in  in 1832 , although the street number isn't indicated. "J. D. Gorley New Bond Street and Milsom Street, Bath. Brush Maker and perfumer at the Three Cups Inn Northgate Street Bath. (New Monthly Magazine 1832) but as this is number 35 there is conveniently evidence for a brush maker called John Strawbridge living here in 1852 so it's probably safe to assume he was something to do with this particular sign.

The Hobbs in in Milsom Street also has an Italian restaurant above it but was also in days long gone a library and reading room - not the first I came across in Bath. It had quite a distinguished set of readers if this extract from the Reflections of William Jay, of Bath (1859) by Cyrus Jay is to be believed "... on reaching Bath [William Jay] would devote a few minutes in looking at the London newspapers at the public library in Milson Street.  I shall never forget when once going into the hall of the library with him observing him peeping through the glass door in all directions and his suddenly taking hold of my arm exclaiming I shall not go in for I see that Dr Hawe is sitting there You have no idea how he annoyed me yesterday when I went into the library the room being filled with ladies gentlemen admirals generals and members of Parliament. No sooner had I got hold of the Times than the doctor espied me and with his stentorian voice exclaimed 'Brother Jay that was a blessed blessed meeting that we attended last night' The company thought the doctor mad and their attention was also directed to me and as I am determined not to be annoyed in a similar way for the future I shall never enter the library again whilst the doctor's there having such an aversion to any thing approaching to cant but especially before persons who know nothing about religious matters."

On the junction of Monmouth Place and Charlotte Street is this interesting garage sign. I couldn't see if the garage was still there but the sign itself is in good condition. Apparently the Cleveland Petrols brand name finally disappeared in 1973 when the garages all became Esso so at least we can see the last possible date it was painted

And finally, although not strictly speaking a ghost sign, I couldn't help but be taken with this partially revealed glass-painted shop front. I'm also pretty sure that the current owners have left it for everyone to enjoy rather than it being a case of 'repairs in progress' or some such which was my initial thought. There's an interesting photo available of the shop as it was in 1966 which shows the signage pretty much as it currently looks. Lonelyplanet also have an image similar to mine below but sadly you can see the deterioration that has taken place over time

 

W.D.Lane - Abbey Dairy The only snippet I can find about the Abbey Dairy comes as a excerpt  from the The Dairy Engineer of 1936 and sadly concerns a case of mislabelling "Bath. — Before the Justices on the 6th ult., FE Barnard, trading as F. Barnard & Son, Abbey Dairy, Bath, was fined 20s., also 17s. 6d. costs, for exposing for sale milk in bottles bearing the name and mark thereon of Norton Dairies"

So that's it for Bath. All of this and more besides in just a day or so. It makes South Wimbledon look barren in comparison...

The Southfields Tout

As the alighting point for the Wimbledon Tennis tournament Southfields station would be an ideal platform for any advertiser hoping to catch the eye so perhaps it's no suprise to see the remnants of a large ghost sign on the side of one of the older buildings. Quite what it's advertising though I'm not so sure and even looking at it closely doesn't help a great deal.

The obvious bit of text that is still legible is the word 'TOUT' in the middle of the wall. And that's a bit of a conundrum because as far as I'm aware a Tout is a seller of dodgy tickets or someone who pushes a certain line on a subject. Could it be the name of a defunct newspaper? Some special betting combination?  I'm not really sure....    

Looking a bit closer you can also see the word 'WORLD' (News of the World?) above Tout and you can just make out 'LAWN TENN' below it. This was obviously 'Lawn Tennis' which shows that some of the original sign has been lost. With that in mind I was looking just above the N's in Tennis and you can just make out the bottom of another letter, possibly an 'e' or a 'c'. As the roof there seems to be new I suspect there might well possibly have been another letter there as well.

All in all it's a very intriguing ghost sign but one that leaves a few questions behind it. I wonder if there are any archive photographs showing it in its prime?

Stop Press!  Thanks to a comment left by Rockin' Brian it's now clear that the sign was originally for a British tennis court construction company (despite the French name) called En Tout Cas and that a significant section of the sign has been lost over time. My guess would be that the sign had been partially covered with modern hoardings which protected the sections below. These hoardings have since been removed to reveal what's left. En Tout Cas are still in existence and have a potted history of the company on their website.  Many thanks for that Brian!

Signs of Brick Lane

A Sunday stroll down Brick Lane is always a pleasant way of spending an autumn morning and even more pleasant when you find a few photos on your camera a few months later. Which is very handy as I haven't had much opportunity recently for Faded London jaunts recently.


The three street signs

First up is this interesting group of street signs on the corner of .... as you can see...Sclater Street. Evolution in progress as we start of with the very ornate 19th century effort (or earlier?), the more functional and visible modern street sign and what I presume is a local translation of the street name for the benefit of the local population. Although I suppose it must be a transliteration rather than a translation as I'm not sure how you'd translate 'Sclater'.

I don't know what Page & Co were specialists in but their little factory unit is still there, tucked away in a sidestreet just off the main drag

This looks like it might have been owned by the Lewis family but although there are new owners there seems to have been a continuity in the use of the store. Still a newsagent and still selling cigarettes.

Talking of the street signs in other languages, here's a reminder of a previous influx of immigrants who also settled in the Brick Lane area. CH N. Katz was a twine and string merchant, a fairly specialised area of work I'd of thought, and it seems as thought the business only closed down a few years ago.

Middlesex ,Street EC1

And finally, just at the top of Petticoat Lane the removal of an advertising hoarding - last seen advertising the Monty Python musical Spamalot - reveals the remains of a car park sign lurking beneath. Not particularly old or exciting, but it couldn't pass it by without the courtesy of a mention, especially as it's probably been recovered by now.

Having stumbled accross these pictures I think it's about time I checked to see what other gems I have tucked away in obscure folders!

Elizabeth Street, Belgravia

Elizabeth Street probably isn't a London thoroughfare that rings bells with most people. It certainly didn't ring any bells with me until I found myself taking my wife there for a birthday visit to a specialist perfumer with the promise  of a birthday scent not bought from the local Boots. Les Senteurs was the intended destination and, for someone with with a slight  background in the wine trade, I have to admit it was an interesting and less intimidating experience than it might have been. For one thing smelling perfumes is not all that different from smelling wines (and there's certainly a lot less spitting) and for another the assistant was very obliging and was more than happy to provide samples to take away and try. Which is a roundabout way of saying that not only did we get to try a load of perfumes, but I was also spared the pain of actually paying for any (for the time being at least). Result!

Not expecting anything like such an agreeable experience, I'd also taken the camera along, just in case anything interesting took my eye.  Elizabeth Street is a few minutes walk from Sloane Square and the Royal Court Theatre, just off the northern branch of the Kings Road , so one of the last things I'd of expected to stumble across would be a ghost sign. Yet there it was. Almost as soon as we entered the street we could see a small mews off to the right with a still visible "Horse Infirmary and Shoeing Forge"

The view from inside the Mews - not the best of angles

It looked as though there had originally been more advertising on the top section as well as at ground level, but these had long since ceased to be visible. Still, it's a nice reminder of the original status of these small urban spaces.

     From Elizabeth Street the sign is much clearer

So, looking up was a treat, but looking down was quite interesting too. There were a couple of interesting coal-holes still in place, including one from "A. Smellie - Westminster"

Notes & Queries - Oxford Journals 1906

It's a fairly ordinary design, but I did find mention of the construction of a new building for Mr Smellie so I assume he must have been a well established local producer, and in fact Rochester Row is not all that far from Elizabeth Street, so he probably was the local supplier.

 The other designer coalhole is made by  'Luxfer Prisms 13 Hill Street London EC'.

The interesting thing about this coal-hole is that the glass prisms that would have originally helped illuminate the gloomy coal cellar have long since been replaced by concrete infills. Glassian has some more information about the Luxfer company which was producing fairly late versions of coalholes.

Luxfer Prisms - minus the prisms...

 The last items to catch my eye were a couple of plaques flanking a narrow jewellers window.

"Ornaments in Hair Plait and Mounted on the Premises - Gold & Silver Bought"

"English & Foreign Clocks & Watches Cleaned & Repaired By Experienced Workmen

 Although now under new ownership the original plaques have been left in place and make a very attractive setting either side of the main window. The company seems to be called J. Desforges but I haven't been able to find out much about them to date. The fact that working items in hair seems to be a big part of their business would suggest a late Victorian date for the company. It's an interesting use of a garter or belt motif as well although it may just be a decorative notif rather than signifying something like a Royal Warrant. Very intriguing ornaments though and credit where it's due to the new owners who must have been tempted to take them down in order to widen their window space.

I may have to go back to buy some perfume at some point but I have to say that Elizabeth Street provided me with more than a couple of unexpected pleasures!

The Ghost Signs of Bath - Part 2 (Faded London on Tour 2010)

Part two of the ghost signs of Bath takes us around the Pultney Bridge area, starting off with a couple of choice ghost signs in Argyle Street. This first is a building that was once a veritable billboard, with practically all of its surfaces covered in text. Although almost illegible the odd word still peeps through. It's noticeably grubbier than its neighbours as well which shows that the owners are probably conscious of their heritage potential and not keen to lose it!

Very tantalizing - your very own deciphering puzzle!

I thought this building was worthy of a couple of close ups to help with the reading process so good luck with these ones...

  

Also on Argyle Street was this brilliant effort at integrating ghost signs, ghost windows, modern art and a sense of humour! As you can see what was a lending library now has an 'interior view' painted on its ghost window. This is either a nice example of whimsy or ironic post-modernism, you pays your money and takes yer pick...

This was actually taken from the embankment of the river over to the other side. An example of extreme range ghost sign hunting and a slightly out of focus picture! A. Wills & Sons Ltd are now lurking just behind what looks like a bar or riverside pub.

A. Wills & Sons Ltd

Here are a couple more examples of faded yet preserved signage from the Pultney Bridge area. After a while ghost sign hunting in Bath becomes a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. You can't turn a corner without bumping into one!

SIGN 1...

...and SIGN 2

Back in the centre of Bath, right next to the Roman baths themselves, there's an unashamed ghost sign proudly declaring its pre-cholesterol love of cream!  (established in 1850 apparently. No idea when the cream business bit the dust though)

Just off of Beau Street there's a very nice modern spa complex called Thermae and if you look opposite there's an old pump room, again with the browned and stained painted signage carefully preserved

 

And finally for this post, just in case you're starting to find all these West Country ghost sign just too much of a good thing, here's some interesting vents, oxidised glass and wooden infills of a fine old London cellar light from Hayward and Sons!

 

Hanging on with a Southfield's ghost sign

There is a neat and orderly grid of streets in the vicinity of Southfields, South London known to local estate agents as 'The Apostles', on account of their number I'm told, as none of the streets are actually named after saints. When built it seems that every corner house on the grid was constructed as a shop, and although many have been converted to houses, you can still tell what they originally were by their shape, lack of front garden and (in the case of the one featured below) by the faintest of ghost signs!

I spotted this one on the way into Wimbledon Park down Revelstoke Road on the corner with Normanton Avenue and it didn't look too promising at first

Ex-shop now highly desirable residence!

OK, one look at the picture above and you know this ones not going to be the most visible or easy to decipher of ghost signs, but then sometimes there's a strange satisfaction to be gained by being able to pick out the odd phrase or name from a sign very much on its last legs.

I thought this was going to be an old Hovis sign at first

The spalling brickwork doesn't help here either but when you zoom in as close as you can you can just make out the old two-colour lettering at the top for and then pick out the proud boast

GEO. BROWN - HIGHEST QUALITY LOWEST PRICES

Just what it was George Brown was selling isn't clear, although I suppose a trip to the library and a search through some old Kelly's Directories might provide an answer. Good to know the locals were getting a good deal off of him though

Well it may not be the clearest ghost sign in Southfields - that honour must go to the Tote one near the High Street - but it does still have a bit of charm about it that i hope might last for another couple of years at least.

One more view for luck

Freshwater, Isle of Wight - "Faded London On Tour" 2010

A quick weekend away near Freshwater on the Isle of Wight provided a couple of ghost signs from the immediate area. Being pushed for time  (OK, the whole set was me grabbing a couple of snaps whilst visiting the local supermarket ),  I decided to concentrate on the signs rather than general items of interest. This was mainly because I'd have a better chance of spotting them when passing in the car rather than any sort of value-judgement coming into play but I can't really claim to have identified anything really spectacular, mainly trade names above shops. The most frustrating part though was spotting a couple of good ones in Newport the island capital and not having the time to stop and photograph them!

Newport IoW -  The one I did get. Moorman & Sons Upholsterers were mentioned in the London Gazette of January 7th 1898 so they've certainly been around for a bit. Sadly it looks as though at least one of the 'Son's' was a casualty of the First World War as the local memorial records that

Arthur MOORMAN - Son of Mr. and Mrs. G. Moorman, of 48, Orchard St., Newport, Isle of Wight, died whilst on active service with the Isle of Wight Rifles in Egypt 15 Oct 1916. An In Memoriam notice appeared from his parents in the Isle of Wight County Press on 13 Oct 1917.

Freshwater IoW - "Cycles must not be left in the passage..." To be honest it didn't look to be the most inviting place to leave a cycle and you can only wonder if it was a sudden spate of cycle abandonment that caused the local council to finally lose its collective patience. I doubt it's been a problem for a while anyway.

Freshwater IoW - 'Twymans' The lettering on this one is quite modern and could have been painted any time from the 70s onward. It's a bit messy although you can see that there was originally a portrait underneath the lettering and what looks like some tents or houses underneath that. The very bottom of the wall has some new painting for 'Fend Pad'. Obviously its quite a complicated bit of signage and it would be interesting to see a photo of it in its heyday. The Twyman family seem to have been involved in both the building trade and funeral business in Freshwater so judging from the buildings at the bottom of the picture I'd guess this one is more to the building side of things.

Freshwater IoW - This is one of those frustrating signs where only sitting on the roof of the neighbouring building would give you a chance of getting a decent picture.  It's also a bit patchy but seems to read "Meader - Fruiterer, Florist, Greengrocer, Pork Butcher and Sausage Maker" which covers pretty much all the bases.

Freshwater IoW - And finally... a sign completely obliterated that is starting to re-emerge as the paint fails to stick to the old lettering beneath. Hours of patient cross-eyed staring at this particular sign produced the legend   "A. Rutland, Ladies & Gents Hairdresser".

Considering that Freshwater is something of a 'blink and you'd miss it' sort of place I'd say that four signs wasn't a bad haul (well five actually, but as the fifth was totally illegible I didn't bother posting it). Newport definitely has more gems tucked away but that's the way of a flying visit - you're always left ruing the missed ones!

Ghost Signs at the Lock

Well it's been a while since I was a 'regular-casual' stall holder at Camden Lock.... about twenty five years as it happens, but for a few years  I regularly spent my weekends at Camden, Covent Garden and the Battersea Arts Centre selling my home-made range of bookends and other band-saw created knick-knackery. The preferred mode of transport was a cheap and cheerful Jawa 350 with a sidecar piled high with the apple-boxes full of bookends I'd spent the week making in my Brixton flat. By using skip recovered wood and other penny-pinching wheezes this process generally provided me with just enough income to make it through the week and the early morning ride up to Camden through Trafalgar Square was a real pick-up after staying up through Saturday nights getting things finished off.

So I was quite looking forward to seeing the old place again after thinking that the children might find it an interesting place to spend a Sunday morning. They did. I did as well as it happens but while some bits like the Electric Ballroom doesn't seem to have changed a bit,  pretty much everything else has developed almost beyond recognition and the site of my old stall - a fairly dingy covered area as I recall it, is now an open-air land of wooden kiosks, railway arches and truncated Lambrettas!. I've a feeling it might have been the site of the fire that cleared the area, but whatever the reason I was looking at the area through fresh eyes...and Faded London eyes at that...

The area is an eclectic mix of old and new and this is a good example of how they exist side-by-side. Anyone whose been down the High Street will know that the modern shops have some spectacular signage (probably enough for their own posting) but this low-key example is covering up what appears to be a butchers shop sign if the words 'CHOPS' and 'SEASON' point to anything

There was an attractive mosaic as well and no points for guessing the pub either

Up near Camden tube station there were a couple of ghost signs easily visible, the most famous of which was undoubtedly this Boots the Chemist sign that I've seen many times on various sites making it a bit of a Ghost-Sign Centrefold. At least I know where it is now.

More interesting to me was this building across the way plastered in ghost sign lettering. Miller, Beale & Hider Ltd.

As you can see the company were glaziers but this particular premises seems to have specialised in ecclesiastic glassware. Presumably doing well out of the Victorian boom in church building but also restoring ancient stained-glass leading and other glass maintenance and cleaning.

There's signage on three of the four sides of the building and the view below gives an idea of how imposing  and visible it must have been in its hayday

One thing that intrigued me though was the the clearly visible signature at  the bottom of the wall with either the name of the artist or, far more likely, the name of the signwriting company. I've another of these signatures and I might well keep an eye open for a few more

Swansboro seems to be the name, or at least part of the name, but any further information could be obscured by the (now) attached building. There's a town called Swansboro in the USA which is no help at all, but a bit of research in old trade directories might be called for here I think.

Well that was that for my Sunday morning Camden visit. I'm sure there are loads more ghost signs in the area and it's such a popular place I doubt many of them have remained unrecorded but as usual its the pleasure in coming across them unexpectedly that's a big part of the fun.