A house in Tudor Street, a ghostsign in Primrose Hill and a bit of Fleet Street history

This is about  a ghostsign that I have been trying to pin down for years, yet every time I end up going round in circles and I get nowhere, so I am posting it all here in the hope someone else can fill in the blanks.

24 Tudor Street, at the junction of Whitefriars Street, EC4, is a late Georgian 5-bay house, surely one of the oldest buildings in the vicinity (excluding Temple). It has, for over 140 years, been split into three businesses at street level, a barber, a store and a cafe, with, offices/residential above (tbc).

Google's aerial view shows how the old house backs onto a narrow street called Primrose Hill* no doubt named after flowers that once grew in its garden:

On the back of the house, high up on the right as you enter Primrose Hill from Whitefriars Street, there is a faded hand-painted advertisement for a company whose name appears to end in WERS. 

The major company adjacent to this sign from the 1890s was RT Tanner & Co, paper merchants, with large premises at 39-40 Hutton Street and 40-42 Salisbury Court. But the letters WERS do do tally with that company or any other businesses here for that matter. I'm wondering if it's a 1920's sign for a short-lived company as I have no immediate access to records for that period. 

The modern red bricks is Hutton Street (the rear of 22 Tudor Street) and the magnificent 1920's building is Northcliffe House built as the Daily Mail's HQ – surely a better example of this style of architecture than the M&S store that everyone's been banging on about (!).

Aware that a sign on a wall does not necessarily signify that the ad is for something within that actual building, I also searched in vain for possible candidates in adjacent Salisbury Court, an area layered in history but currently undergoing a large rebuilding project. Nothing.

Ah well, I will try again another day – do let me know if you have any ideas. 

I'd also like to find out the original owner of the house at 24 Tudor Street. The 1841 directory there are only two businesses listed in Tudor Street – William Farmer at No.2, a merchant (dealing in what?) and George Crouch, a bookseller and printer at No.5. However, the entry for Whitefriars, is more illuminating and suggests to me that the house might have been connected to one of the companies trading out of either of the two wharfs which would have been directly between the house and the river. 

I will update this info when I find out more.

Before returning to Whitefriars Street I walked through to Dorset Rise to marvel at the 1980's Neo Deco/Modernist Revival of the Travelodge – these days I am really heartened when I see this style whereas decades ago I would have derided it. This is the same reaction that what we call Art Deco would have garnered in its day, creating the Shards and Cheesegraters of their time.

Back to Whitefriars Street. As I crossed into Ashentree Court, I noticed a bespoke low relief in the pavement and an information panel in the window at the rear of Northcliffe House's most recent extension

This is the first of many panels telling the story of the building as well as technological and engineering processes behind the printing machinery housed here. It's hard to imagine today that this area was once a thriving, noisy environment, especially at night. All gone by 2000 by which time the newspapers had moved to Kensington and Canary Wharf. 

Here are some of the panels. Rubbish pics, so best you go and read them yourself next time you are walking through.

Ashentree Court merges into Magpie Alley where there's lots more info about Fleet Street imprinted onto the white-tiled walls – I spot something interesting every time. 

Exit onto Bouverie Street and turn left up towards Fleet Street, passing the Salisbury Court construction and 2021's large bizarre painted sundial where three panels tell more info about the heritage of Fleet Street and not just the newspapers.

View from the Fleet Street end of Bouverie Street looking down towards the Thames

That'll do!

*Confusing street names – the better-known Primrose Hill can be found just north of Regents Park. There's also another Hampton Court at the northern end end of Upper Street, Whetstone Park in Holborn and Cyprus is near London Airport.