London

I recently (28 October) hosted ‘Font Sunday’ on Twitter with the theme of ‘fading fonts’ to mark the changing of the clocks and the fading light it signifies. Among the contributions made was a tweet from Eliza Brownjohn, daughter of the designer Robert Brownjohn (1925-1970) […]

London Street Level by Robert Brownjohn

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Collections and tagged 1961 Eliza Brownjohn London London Street Level Robert Brownjohn UK V&A on November 9, 2018 by Sam Roberts

[Download in high resolution] At 49 Stoke Newington Church Street, junction with Lancell Road, is this fragment of a ghost sign which, despite my best efforts, has remained a mystery in terms of decyphering. It would once have extended further to the right to fill […]

Lancell Road’s Mystery Ghost Sign

This entry was posted in Sign Stories and tagged Hackney Lancell Street London Mystery N16 Stoke Newington Stoke Newington Church Street UK on November 2, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Earlier this year I was lucky to attend the launch of Lost & Foundry, a collection of fonts created and published by Fontsmith in collaboration with M&C Saatchi. They are inspired by various of pieces of historic signage in Soho, and funds raised from their […]

Fonts Inspired by Ghost (and other) Signs

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Preservation and tagged Charity Font Fontsmith House of St Barnabas London Lost & Foundry M&C Saatchi Soho Typeface UK on October 26, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Although my Bankside Ghostsigns Walk ends further West along the road, it doesn’t spend any time on the Eastern end of Union Street. However, a few buildings in, on the North side, I recently spotted this mounted sign and shared a photo on my Instagram […]

The Enduring Ephemera of J.M. Hill in Southwark

This entry was posted in Sign Stories Signs of Note and tagged Enduring Ephemera Ephemera J.M. Hill London SE1 Southwark Tony Cherry UK on October 12, 2018 by Sam Roberts

One of the ‘bonus’ stops on my Bankside Ghostsigns Walk is a pair of signs on the back The Borough Welsh Congregational Chapel (Doyce Street and Great Guildford Street). These convey the euphemistic line, ‘Commit No Nuisance‘, which translates to ‘please don’t urinate here’. Many […]

Commit Some Nuisance for Bankside

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs and tagged Art Bankside Better Bankside Borough Market Commit No Nuisance LDF18 London London Design Festival NB Studio Nick Finney UK on September 28, 2018 by Sam Roberts

In Deptford, South East London, the processes of development/gentrification are having an impact on the area’s walls, including ghost signs. The following is cribbed from two Twitter threads, here and here, largely focused on the Deptford Market Yard. First up is this shelter sign from […]

It’s All Popping Off in Deptford Market Yard

This entry was posted in Sign Preservation and tagged Conservation Deptford Deptford Market Yard Graffiti Lipton's London Preservation Restoration SE8 Shelter Tea UK World War 2 WW2 on September 14, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Sadly we recently lost what was one of my all-time favourite ghost signs, in the shape of the Black Cat on Dingley Road. RIP. The brand was a pioneer of cigarette cards, and their power to foster increased sales through the parallel addictive properties of […]

Bill-Poster: A London Type

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Advertising Bill-Poster Black Cat Carerras Cigarettes Gentle Author London London Types Spitalfields Life Street Flusher UK on July 20, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Windrush Square in Brixton is home to this, one of the most famous ghost signs in London. While the Bovril sign is still very prominent, less well known is that beneath it are the remains of what was once a painted advertisement for Butlin’s. While […]

Bovril’s Windrush Square Legacy

This entry was posted in Sign Stories and tagged Bovril Brixton Brixton Society Butlin's London Roy Reed UK Windrush Square on June 29, 2018 by Sam Roberts

This ghost sign for Ariel motorbikes, and the Writers shop that sold them in Kennington, is one of my London favourites, partly due to the illustrated element, and partly due to the historical connections that emerged after I first wrote about it in 2007. The […]

Ariel / Writers Revisited

This entry was posted in Sign Preservation and tagged Albion Coffee House Ariel Conservation Kennington London Preservation UK Weathering Writers on June 8, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Job Weessies is a Dutch model maker and, after some time working on railway models, he has moved into working with card and on creating street scenes. While he has never visited London, or indeed the UK, he uses a variety of publically available resources […]

The Dioramas of Northall by Job Weessies

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs and tagged Diorama Job Weessies London Model Making Northall UK on June 1, 2018 by Sam Roberts

I first posted about this illustrated Gillette ghost sign on Commercial Street back in 2007 when I came across it on Frank Jump’s Fading Ads blog. Frank told me that the best place to photograph it was from the top of the nearby carpark which […]

A 1984 Photo of the Spitalfields Gillette Ghost Sign

This entry was posted in Signs of Note and tagged 1984 Archival Photos Commercial Street E1 Gillette London Philip Marriage Spitalfields UK on May 25, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Michelle Heron is a London-based painter with a paticular fascination for old shops and shop fronts. Her paintings depict iconic fascias, many of which have been lost since she turned her attention to them, and some that survive in a state of perpetual uncertainty. As […]

Michelle Heron’s Fantastic Fascias

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Collections Sign Initiatives and tagged Art Blustons Cooke Egg Stores Jones Dairy London Michelle Heron Peter Hardwicke UK Zodiac on April 20, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Following a series of discussions on Twitter myself and a handful of others have decided to run a scavenger hunt to locate, photograph and map the remaining street signs featuring the now-defunct NE London Postal District. It will take place 2-5pm on the afternoon of […]

NE Signs Scavenger Hunt

This entry was posted in Sign Destinations Sign Initiatives Signs of Note and tagged Hackney London NE Postal Districts Postcodes Street Signs UK on April 13, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Following my talk to the Clapham Society last summer we are joining forces, with Roy Reed, to develop a walk exploring the many ghost signs visible on and around Clapham High Street. We are currently carrying out a mixture of archival and web-based research into […]

Ghostsigns of Clapham, a Forthcoming Walk

This entry was posted in Sign Destinations Sign Initiatives and tagged Batten & Davies Clapham Clapham Society Deane & Co Gillette H.G. Benwell London Music Roll Exchange Research Ribbans Engineering Roy Reed Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Tours UK United Dairies on March 23, 2018 by Sam Roberts

This blog post highlights an entire category of fading painted signs that I have never come across. They are for ‘ancient lights’ and reference an English law protecting the right of property owners to receive natural light through their windows. The assertion of this right […]

Ancient Lights in English Law

This entry was posted in Painted Lettering and tagged Ancient Lights Legal London Protection Spiritual Vigor UK on March 16, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Alistair Hall of We Made This has spent the last couple of years documenting and researching the various forms taken by London’s Street Signs. He is set to present his findings in a lecture at St Bride on 31 May, so of course I’ve bought […]

London Street Signs with Alistair Hall

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Initiatives and tagged Alistair Hall Event Lecture London London Street Signs Name Plates St Bride Street Signs UK We Made This on March 9, 2018 by Sam Roberts

The list below of painted advertisements in Islington was compiled in the hope that some of those reading it might write in with additional locations not known to the compiler, and in the belief that painted advertisements in other parts of London would make a […]

Painted Advertisements in Islington: Part 4

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Destinations Sign Initiatives Sign Preservation Signs in Media and tagged A. D. Harvey Islington London Painted Advertisements in Islington Research Reveal RIP UK on March 2, 2018 by Sam Roberts

The list below of painted advertisements in Islington was compiled in the hope that some of those reading it might write in with additional locations not known to the compiler, and in the belief that painted advertisements in other parts of London would make a […]

Painted Advertisements in Islington: Part 3

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Destinations Sign Initiatives Sign Preservation Signs in Media and tagged A. D. Harvey Islington London Painted Advertisements in Islington Research Reveal RIP UK on February 23, 2018 by Sam Roberts

The list below of painted advertisements in Islington was compiled in the hope that some of those reading it might write in with additional locations not known to the compiler, and in the belief that painted advertisements in other parts of London would make a […]

Painted Advertisements in Islington: Part 2

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Destinations Sign Initiatives Sign Preservation Signs in Media and tagged A. D. Harvey Islington London Painted Advertisements in Islington Research Reveal RIP UK on February 16, 2018 by Sam Roberts

The Cat & Mutton pub on Broadway Market in East London has a remarkable array of Victorian glasswork on display in the main bar (see samples below). However, on a recent visit for a family Christmas meal, my uncle and I discovered the above two […]

Gardiner & Lacey at the Cat & Mutton

This entry was posted in Sign Destinations Sign Stories Signs of Note and tagged Architectural Salvage Broadway Market Cat & Mutton Chemist Gardiner Gardiner & Lacey George Plunkett Glasswork Keith Roberts Lacey London London Fields Norwich Opticians Pharmacy Raven pub Salvage St Giles Street UK Victorian Youngs Crawshay & Youngs on January 26, 2018 by Sam Roberts

These pictorial panels depicting the products and services on what is now The Old Dairy on Stoud Green Road have always intrigued me, and ahead of next week’s talk at the North London Lettering Association I thought I should carry out a little research. The […]

Sgraffito and the Old Dairy at Crouch Hill

This entry was posted in Sign Making and tagged Barcelona Crouch Hill Dairy Friern Manor Dairy Company Hornsey London N4 Production Scraffito Sgraffito Spain Technique The Old Dairy UK on January 12, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Back in March last year I had the pleasure of taking two groups from Melbourne’s RMIT on my Stoke Newington Ghostsigns Walk. This was the second time I’ve worked with the University on their special European study tour and, again, it was a really enjoyable […]

On Tour with Albani Calusin and RMIT

This entry was posted in Signs in Media and tagged Albani Calusin Australia Ghostsigns Walking Tour London Melbourne N16 RMIT Sam Roberts Stoke Newington Tours UK on January 5, 2018 by Sam Roberts

On one of my walking tours back in 2014 guests had the opportunity to see this reveal of a newsagent and tobacconists’ sign at No.5 Stoke Newington Church Street. Starlove, as it was known, occupied the premises from at least 1962 until the late 1970s […]

Numbers 3-7 Stoke Newington Church Street

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Stories and tagged A Nation of Shopkeepers Amir Dotan Art BEJ Smith Confectionery Hackney History of Stoke Newington Laurence George Shepherd London N16 Newsagent Player's Player's No.6 Privilege Reveal Rosa Sheppards Market Starlove Stoke Newington Stoke Newington Church Street Tobacco UK on December 29, 2017 by Sam Roberts

Via Amanda Jacks on Twitter I was alerted to the reveal of this ghost sign near Columbia Road Market. It’s at the junction of Ravenscroft Street and Wellington Row. The text at the bottom is clearly ‘For Hire’ with the firm’s name being either O. […]

For Hire: Stunning Reveal near Columbia Road Market

This entry was posted in Signs of Note and tagged For Hire Illustration Jobmaster Leakin London Pictorial Princess Dry Cleaning Princess Launderette Ravenscroft Street Reveal Tower Hamlets Transport Transportation UK Valet Service Van Vehible Wellington Row on December 15, 2017 by Sam Roberts