My father-in-law discovered this astonishing collection of high quality photography showing the high street in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in 1888. They were photographed by Joseph Lewis della-Porta who came from a retailing family and had the foresight to document these images which convey so much of life 130 years ago. They are part of a collection …
After publishing the wonderful photos of one-time Paris sign business E. Gautier, I was alerted to this project and the above video where the sign makes a brief cameo. Five of my favourites below, but make sure you check out the full collection, including background notes, by photographer Sebastian Erras for Pixartprinting.
This beautiful glass fascia was captured by Brian Heppell after being revealed briefly in 2014 during the fitting of new signage at 192 Brick Lane, London E1. I have looked for S. Sadler by name in the trades section of a number of Victorian and early 20th Century street directories but nothing has come up. …
Guests on my Stoke Newington Ghostsigns Walk in early 2015 were lucky to see a bonus fading fascia en route, advertising The Vacuum Shop. This was revealed by works to the Anglo Asian restaurant, which now straddles numbers 60 and 62 Stoke Newington Church Street. Ben Selig was the proprietor of an “electrical appliances” shop …
Mary Roberts recently visited Harwich and captured these photos of the Harwich Old Bookshop, with it’s distinctive glass fascia, tiled panel in the entrance-way, and mosaic threshold sign. Her friend Christine then did some digging via the wonderful site, Harwich & Dovercourt, and discovered an archival photo of the shop in an article, Through the …
Spitalfields Life has published a series of pieces documenting East End shop fronts, in support of the campaign against the forthcoming rise in business rates across the area. I have picked one photo from each piece and would encourage a proper browse of all of them. Fascinating stuff! Alan Dein’s East End Shops John Claridge’s …
I’d always noticed number 77 Shacklewell Lane because of the ghostsign below. Although very faint, it appears to advertise a business called/run by Grime. Below this was a blacked out shop fascia, overlooking the bus stop. Back in January I was cycling past and had to stop to take a closer look at some brightly …
Following last week’s post about Shopfrontelegy, here’s a short film from the Secret London section of new TV station London Live. It’s based on the work of Emily Webber who writes the London Shop Fronts blog.
I’ve recently subscribed to Shopfrontelegy, a post-per-day blog from Vici MacDonald, the photographer and publisher behind Formerly. Given my recent interest in ‘fading fascias‘ the blog has been compulsive reading/viewing, with a collection of shopfront photography going back many years. It should probably come with a health warning about the hours you’re likely to lose …