2 October 2009

Blackstock Road signage

This idea came about because my sister, who I keep telling should start a blog of her own to show off her own stuff, is doing a 'project' on shops signs of Holloway Road for her thesis and it occured to me that Blackstock Road is really diverse and interesting too.
So here is my (selected) showcase, but I don't have to write 2,000 words...
Oh and thanks to Yelfy too for further inspiring me with posts like this.
You can find some of these at a larger size here.



Starting at Finsbury Park end...
The wonderful Art Deco signage of Fish and Cook; hand-painted illustrations and lettering of Mix DIY and hardware, and the lovley old Esso Blue enamel sign that hangs outside the door; [an old photo of the] hand-painted ghost sign for 'I Furst, dispensing chemist', now sadly mostly scrubbed away during a recent refurbishment; a date stamp on the building next door (there are also some cute lion cubs above the shops signs on this building).
Callcut decorators hand-painted shop front; pub relief; Faded hand-painted tailor's sign; monochrome Art Deco T Bird sign and windows; recently uncovered hand-painted glass signage at No.157.
The only tiles still existing along the same parade. I expect that when this parade was first built these tiles would have been either side of every shop; TexMex/cactus effect signage, though I think it looks more like toothpaste or garden hose; Silver foil put to good use; Stoke Newington metal boundary marker on the Arsenal Tavern; a lovely blue-tiled builders merchants sign can be seen as you look down Mountgrove Road and I think this might have had neon lettering on it at some time.
On the corner of Gillespie Road this building has some intriguing faded painted shapes on the 'columns' which look a bit like pots or ewers. Perhaps this was a pub once? Any info welcome; No.160 – this pic was taken over a year ago and the shop no longer looks like this at all; it has been stripped of all personality and magnolia'd and, as I write this, it sits waitng for new occupants; look above the graffiti-style graphic on the shutters of the hairdressers and notice the ghost signs for an old travel company; nice modern carved wood signage at No.193.
One continuous piece of cut out wood for the tapas bar; old signage and frontage on the bookshop; a rural scene painted on the Little Angels Day Nursery; an old gold number.
And we finish at the Sunlight ghostsign on the corner of Conewood Road which marks the beginning of Highbury Park.

2 comments:

  1. Wonderful selection of shop signs! As for the rural scene at the Little Angels Nursery, its "Van Gogh-esque" design reminds me of a school in former East Germany, where they have paintings of Miro, Picasso, and Van Gogh reproduced on the walls outside.

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  2. Yes, I meant to write something like Van Gogh-esque. My friend was telling just last week that in her 6 year old is learning about VG, Rothko, Monet, and all sorts of different kinds of painting styles. I was amazed! I don't recall anything so specific and inspiring when I was that age... do you?

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Thanks, Jane