Bowling balls in Clerkenwell – a ghostsign with links to Putney and the West Indies

Earlier this year in May, walking eastward along Albermarle Way during Clerkenwell Design Week, I noticed that a the paint that covers 122 St John Street, (today Savills estate agent) was finally degrading some letters were visible at the very top edge. I have finally found the time to return to this to work out what this ghostsign can tell us.

The tall condensed sans serif letterform shows "TAYLOR ROLP..." – Taylor Rolph Co Ltd, bowling green bowl makers.

This screenshot from Google streetview 2015 shows the ghostsign was barely discernible back then

It appears that Taylor-Rolph (often, but not consistently, hyphenated) was here perhaps only ten years max. Kelly's Directory lists them in 1915, but not in 1910, and they are gone by the 1930s. Indeed, they appear to have moved from this site by 1922 as per this entry in  Graces Guide which shows them at Fitzgerald Works, Mortlake, that year, at a site which was also home to John Wisden's cricket equipment*. This suggests to me that the same factory was making both TR's woods (bowls) and JW's cricket balls. 

It's strange that there is no mention of Taylor-Rolph within the Mortlake history site. The Fitzgerald Works were destroyed during a 1944 WWII bomb raid, yet the Graces Guide link above shows that TR was still in business in 1947 and continuing to exhibit at The British Industries Fair at Olympia. 

My search for more information led me to the marvellous Sport of Bowls site which includes images from TR's 1935 catalogue and this article about the heavy Lignum Vitae timber from the West Indies and Haiti used to create the balls, hence them being known as 'woods', also this article about testing the finished items and an ad for Taylor-Rolph's table bowls, promoted as "a scientific and interesting game" probably an alternative to the many forms of table-top billiards available at that time, played without cues/sticks. 

The trail then goes cold after the 1940s, leading me to assume that the company ceased trading. 

Back in the period 2005-8, I used to bowl occasionally, randomly, half-heartedly, at the North London Bowling Club at Highgate which sits in a delightful location, surrounded by trees, looking very much like the setting for an Agatha Christie whodunnit. Here's one of the many photos I took for a leaflet I created for the club:

The sport is a delight and, to my puerile mind, rather amusing vis the terminology used, as it often includes some fnar fnar double-entendres – if you've ever bowled you'll know what I mean!

Here are some more pics I took of the Highgate Club in 2008 – I haven't visited in over 15 years, I hope it still looks like this:

*Incidentally, there is a lovely tiled memorial to John Wisden at Leicester Square station within the oxblood exterior of the 1906 street level building. Wisden lived and died in an upstairs flat above No.21 Cranbourn Street.