Google Street View

I've been geotagging lots of my pictures on Flickr for the UK Ghost Signs archive project. In order to get postcodes for some of the locations I've also been putting the street names into Google Maps. If you haven't come across it already then you must check out Google Street View. They've taken what must be millions of photos of lots of streets and reconstructed a realistic view that allows you to move about as though you are driving along. Inadvertantly this means that you can also check out Ghost Signs.

Have a go yourself. An easy one for starters is Dad's barbers on Hoxton Street. Put 'Hoxton Street, London' into the search bit here and then, when it shows the map, look for the little speech bubble and click on 'Street View' which should be underneath the picture.

Straight away you should see the Dad's sign immediately ahead. You can also zoom in and move around by clicking on the white arrows, dragging the screen by clicking and holding or double clicking to move in and out.

I love it, it get very addictive when you realise you can look at your own house, where you work and live and anywhere else of interest. Here's some more examples, Boots and Bovril.

The Archive Kicks Off

The response to getting this archive off the ground has been fantastic, thank you all for your enthusiasm and efforts so far. There are already 60 members in the Flickr Group and over 450 images contributed. Below are some of my favourites so far, just some of the evidence that the archive is going to be of a really high standard.

From Mike. More on Watneys.

From addedentry. More on Hovis.

From the Polstar*.

Another Meggezones from sarflondondunc.

From Terry.

From phill.d.

From Caroline.

From True Londoner.

From sardinista.

From sheffdave.

Maggie Jones joins the archive

Maggie Jones has signed up to contribute her work to the UK Ghost Signs archive. Here's one of my favourites from her set, a new addition to the Hovis collection, this one from Tooting in South London.

You can get involved too, more information here and the Flickr group here.

Ghost Signs, The Archive

[The following blog post was written in March 2009 and signified the start of the effort to create a Ghostsigns Archive. This has been realised with the archive opening for business on 19th March 2010. Visit this page for more information.]



So, what's this new look banner on the blog?

• It's the start of a tangible objective for the Ghost Signs project. 
• It's a 'call for entries' to bring together the wealth of material and knowledge that exists collectively among us. 
• It's about finding a home for our signs for future generations' education and understanding. 
• It's about preserving and caring for this overlooked aspect of our advertising, craft and commercial history. 

Last Thursday I went for another visit to the History of Advertising Trust (HAT). It was a really good day and I managed to dig up a couple of interesting historical items which I'll post more about later.



The main purpose of my visit was to talk to HAT about the possibility of creating an online photographic archive dedicated to UK & Ireland Ghost Signs. As a charity they don't have lots of money but have agreed that this type of material would sit well with the things they already have. We left it that I would go about pulling the material together and, while doing so, we would both look for ways of funding the work in the future, perhaps via sponsorship or creating a book of the archive.

The first step I've taken is to create a new group on Flickr which is dedicated to bringing together the disparate collections of UK & Ireland signs that already exist. Hopefully this will help to gauge how much support and willing there is out there for getting this project off the ground. It might seem that Flickr is a good enough place for them to be located but I think there will be real value in adding to the HAT collection, safe in the knowledge that the photos will be cared for by professionals with extensive expertise well into the future.

So, its over to you. If you are up for contributing to the project you need to do a couple of things:

1. Commit to the archive by submitting your pictures to the new group on Flickr. The group is invite only so just put in a request and I'll let you in.
2. Begin to build up as much background information about your pictures as possible. The real educational value will come if the archive has more than just pictures in it. Good starting points would be location, photographer and the date the picture was taken. Adding stuff about the companies is then a huge bonus.
3. Give suggestions of how to gain some funding for the project.

Please pass this information on to anyone and everyone who might be interested and get photographing and researching so that you can add to the collective understanding of this subject for years to come.

Fading Ad Blog on TV

NYC is on a roll with TV appearances, this time its Frank Jump from the Fading Ad Blog.

Ghost Signs on TV, NYC

[Update: It appears that this video is no longer available, if anyone has a copy, please get in touch.]

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

If you haven't seen it, get hold of a copy of this book. While using Addict-o-matic for the first time today I came across this TV coverage of the book's launch. Got to love the innuendo-fueled pun-tastic delivery from the presenter...and who would have thought that ghost sign hunting would create a bunch of pre-teen groupies...brilliant!