12 Nov 2009

Gillette/Criterion (RIP)

Gillette Criterion Southwark Bridge Road
Gillette/Criterion, Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1

(July 2007)

Gillette/Criterion, Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1
(November 2009)

Two RIPs in one day, what’s happening!

Again, this happened a little while ago but it was only today that I managed to get out with my camera to take a photograph. This was once one in a series of three palimpsests featuring signs for both Gillette Razors and Criterion matches (see below). It was probably the weakest of these three examples and was also partially obscured by the newspaper signs. It’s quite straight forward what’s happened: the developers have come in, sandblasted the sign and sorted out the window frames. Change in action.

The loss of this and many other signs is one of the reasons why the archive is an important piece of work. Please get involved by adding photos to Flickr and then committing them to the HAT Ghostsigns Archive.

Two more examples from the Gillette/Criterion series:

Subscribe to my newsletter for news, events and projects from the world of ghost signs. I curate the newsletter roughly monthly and welcome submissions.