Guinness advertising in London

My last post about the mural over the railway in Camden got me thinking about other examples of old Guinness advertising on London's streets. We might not have the huge signs that used to be at Piccadilly Circus but there are still a few remnants clinging to the walls, hinting at the colourful ads of the past.  

First, the Millennium Time clock on the side of The Archway Tavern which has been gradually falling apart for decades.

The montage above comes from this post I wrote in May 2017 – but it's looking even more sparse these days with hardly anything left at all. That link also includes my pic of six happy Guinness glasses that used to be on the corner of Rosie McCann's pub in York Way. Below is a screen grab from Google streetview showing the pub with its jolly sign in August 2008. Rosie and the sign were gone by June 2012.

Which reminds me of a few others that have recently disappeared, such as the large painted "Sláinte" (health/cheers!) that used to be on the side of The Eaglet in Holloway, N7. For some reason, in 2019 this 6ft pint of the black stuff was completely overpainted a dull black and nothing has as yet replaced it, as shown in this Google screengrab pic (all pics from here will be from Google unless I specify otherwise):

Back in Camden, but we're now on the High Street looking at the top of The Camden Head, where a neon sign advertising Guinness and The Liberties (its previous name), was still in place until Summer 2015, albeit not illuminated, the pub having reverted to its original name by 2009. 

  

On the same day that I happened upon the railway mural, I'd already discovered another Guinness sign nearby, in the form of a plaque above the doorway of The Lord Southampton public house at the other end of Southampton Road. 

I'd have gone inside and tested this information claim but the pub is closed at the moment. It appears that some moaning minnies who live in the area do not want it to reopen as a pub because of the noise. Hmmm. One wonders why they chose to live close to a pub in the first instance! After all, this pub, with its gorgeous handmade blue Doulton Lambeth tiles and original wooden interior has been a community hub for over a century. It's one of the oldest pubs in the vicinity and would have well-served people visiting or working at Queen's Crescent shops market. Pubs don't have to be noisy and only a handful of people get drunk. I'm guessing the moaners are noisy themselves and assume everyone else is too. 

I took a pic through the window – it's lovely in there and I hope this interior, with its wood panelled walls and bar, is retained.

Probably the best, most intact, heritage pub signage in London can be found on The Crown & Cushion pub on Westminster Bridge Road, almost opposite Lower Marsh where there are two Guinness signs. The panel on the left depicts three flying toucans each balancing two pints of the famous stout on their bills!  Note that the top bird is 3D and protrudes from the board. 

And, d'uh. I almost forgot to mention The Toucan in Carlisle Street, near Soho Square, which is daft because I spent a lot of time in there back in the 1990s, usually in the basement bar which was a welcome refuge on hot days rather than sweating in the noisy street outside. I haven't been in there for over ten years. Is the list of Guinness cocktails still down there? I must go back soon. 

As regards the signage here, the faded hanging sign at the top of the basement stairs is fairly old, but the two flying toucans above the awning are quite new – they were installed in 2013 to fill the spaces where air con units used to be. 

Not far from The Toucan, at the rear of the Hercules Pillars in Manette Street, you'll find Simmons  offering pints of the black stuff at a very cheap price which I assume is because there's no seating or indoor facilities:

The White Swan, Deptford has two different hanging signs protruding from the building – one is the standard black and gold roundel. I particularly like the other sign of the Guinness mug with a handle, something we rarely see or use these days. The pic below is from 2015, but the pub didn't look open the last time I walked past a few months ago and might well have closed its doors for good by now.

(Update Nov 2024 – no longer a pub, the only sign left here now is the beer mug sign on the left.)

A short walk away, by the river at Deptford, there's the excellent Dog & Bell pub which sports at magnificent toucan ad on the side, however Google streetview shows it wasn't there pre-2019:

Last year, a similar sign appeared on the side of The Hercules on Holloway Road where the bird is balancing not one pint, but two halves:

Returning to closed pubs, the previously lively Ravenscourt Arms in Hammersmith, a flat roofed pub, that looks welcoming in the pic below but the site is currently being developed – the four toucans on the sign having flown away to who knows where.

In central London, not far from the Law Courts, there are a few tiles in a doorway that used to lead into Craig's Oyster Rooms where Guinness was also on offer:

I have often been told about a Guinness ad that had moving parts, located at the junction of Angel tube station. Having searched high and low, I could find no reference of it at all until this image popped up within a Facebook group. It's clearly a snap of a page in a book but the guy who posted it said he didn't know which book it came from, or the exact year. Please advise if you do know the photographer so that I can add a credit. All the buildings on the righthand side have since been replaced by this huge glass building.

Returning to ghostsigns – I never managed to get to Balham to photograph the remains of a painted sign that used to be on the side of a launderette. A friend who lives near there had told me about it but by the time I visited her in early 2019 it had been overpainted. Maggie has taken a good pic of it here. There must have been more hand-painted ads like this all over the country so it's surprising to have never actually seen one myself. 

Sometimes the brand can be found within street art. In Islington, there was a cute little cherub in Pickering Street (off Essex Road, near South Library) holding a broken bottle of Guinness. But this has since been overpainted white: 

I didn't find out who the artist was – most likely to be the work of Bambi who had other artworks on the same building back in 2014. If not her, then it could be Loretto or Pegasus who have similar pieces in this area.

What else? I only have to look at a wall like this one to think of Guinness, ditto those tubular street litter bins when they have a white polythene waste bag dribbling over the top edge. 
A friend told me about this artwork in Hackney Wick which has clearly been added to and, of course, we've got the Guinness Trust buildings all across London. If you can think of any other instances, on the outside of buildings, not inside pubs or on glasses or mats, please let me know.  

Finally, as a teenager I used to have a black long-sleeved sweatshirt with the Guinness brand in white on the upper left side. I'd bought from a stall on Romford Market. I also had a JPS one (Jane Parker Special!). I wore the Guinness top to take my driving test, which I passed first time, and later that day realised that it was a bit daft to be wearing an alcohol brand whilst driving a car and under the pub drinking age! People sometimes asked me what the other side was. Oh ho ho ho. It wasn't until a few years later when the sweatshirt was old and Mum and I were doing some painting and decorating that she suddenly exclaimed "Martini's the right one"! Too late!

An Elephant with a very long trunk – Guinness advertising in Camden

Here's a thing. I was recently wandering around the Lismore Circus area prior to my Elephants Escape guided tour just looking at buildings, wandering down side streets, etc. As I headed up Southampton Road, approaching the railway line I looked across at the painted walls that surround the railways. This is from google streetview, looking north, the direction I was walking:

As I approached the bus stop on the western side I happened to noticed that the mural to my left included a Guinness bottle. Up close it was hard to make out so I stepped back to the kerb to get a wider view and saw that there was the word Guinness next to the bottle, rendered in a sort of blobby black letterform. 

And then I noticed that the letters are either birds, like an Ostrich making the 'G' pouring Guinness from a bottle into the U and the two black swans at the end depicting 'SS', or the letters created by warped pints of Guinness like the letter 'e'. 

How jolly marvellous. I followed it along and found lots more references to those classic Guinness ads of old. This has to be the best bit of Guinness advertising I have ever seen. 

The legs of a walking female wearing wedge sandals, carrying a bottle and, to her right, what I think is the base of a pint of Guinness

A sealion with four pints of Guinness in front of him, possibly on plates

I think this might be a pale pink bird, possibly a crane with a long beak and spiky head feathers 

And then, there are lots of yellow circles and a pale grey arc coming in from the right...

... which turns out to be the very long trunk of an elephant reaching past the Guinness harp motif and blowing bubbles, no doubt Guinness bubbles. Hard to get a good shot of this section being as the bus shelter is in the way.

The tusks look more like those on a woolly mammoth.

And it appears he's singing a song, as depicted by those musical notes, although they might be depicting trumpeting sounds!

The far end of the wall is rather faded. But his front legs clearly show that he is running, keen to get to that Guinness!

The strange thing is, I can't spot anything resembling a toucan which was Guinness's most commonly used bird. And, having googled and searched for images of this mural to see how it looked when it was first installed, I have found absolutely nothing at all. In fact the Google streetview from 2009, below, shows the wall has been looking the same for at least 15 years. 

I am also wondering, considering that many things depicted here seem to be decapitated, if an extension to the brick wall was in place when the mural was painted, such as a 2ft strip of wood running the full length.

It's amazing that it's still here at all, especially as the walls on the other side of the road have been overpainted a few times, as shown by the retrospective Google streetview facility which shows that the LISMORE mural was still there, albeit rather faded, until at least April 2019. 

If anyone has any information or can date this please do get in touch. Similarly, if you have any photos of this it when it was all bright and shiny, I'd love to see them – email me at janeslondon@gmail.com

A ghostsign in New Southgate – Lander, monumental mason

Last week I went to New Southgate Cemetery to find the grave of someone I am researching. I got the tube to Arnos Grove, one of Charles Holden's marvellous Art Deco masterpieces, and I headed north. As I walked north up Brunswick Road I mused how reasonably new the area was – it all looks to have been built in the late C19th and then added to in mid-C20th. 

See my warped and stretched version below

Then, as I crossed Marne Avenue, I noticed an unusual pair of stone-built houses opposite the junction. I stopped look at them, considering that they probably preceded all the other buildings in the vicinity and might at one time have been farm or workmens' buildings, or similar. I took a closer look and, well blow me down, if there isn't a huge hand-painted sign covering most of the north-facing/left side of number 94. Another house has been constructed to the left and, although this has helped to protect the sign's paintwork, it makes the sign really hard to read at this very oblique angle. 

Squinting at it, and no doubt looking like I was casing the joint, I could see a large name at the top: LANDER. Other words quickly led me to ascertain that this was a sign for a stone mason connected to the cemetery. I stood there for a while making scribbled notes as I tried to decipher the specific wording, but the angle and the faded areas at the very top and far left/rear made it rather difficult. It did cross my mind to knock on the door to speak to the occupants and ask for access to the rear but I hesitated, and if you don't do those kind of things immediately they just don't happen. 

Instead, I took a few snaps with my phone and carried on up to the cemetery where, snooping around the headstones and tomb bases, I found that many had Lander's mark on them, some showing that the company was mason for the local council (Barnet). Later, when I got home, I looked at my poor-quality pics and, holding my phone at different angles to achieve oblique views in the opposite dierection, I managed to decipher quite a bit of it.

EST
1860
A. K. LANDER
CEMETERY MASON
(Monumental something?) CEMETERY OR BURIAL GROUND
(...) UNITED KINGDOM. MEMORIALS CLEANED & REPAIRS
(...) ENGRAVED - ESTIMATES FREE. FOR DESIGNS &
(?prices please visit?) OFFICE & WORKS 1 FRIERN BARNET RD

A. K. (Andrew King) Lander was at 1 Friern Barnet Road, Betstyle Circus, known to locals as 'Lander's Corner', no doubt because the company's stone yard would have been a very recognisable local landmark – some of the hard-to-decipher parts of the ghostsign most likely make mention of the yard's location, just a little way to the south.  Friern Barnet Photo Archive has some marvellous old pictures of the business and the junction through the decades, including the one shown right. Today, the yard is long gone and block of flats now covers the site. In that link you'll notice that the name 'Lander's Corner' in on the first houses in Oakleigh Rd South opposite the site of the yard. I like to think the Lander family lived there. Perhaps someone will let me know.

Similarly, I do not know whether the family had a direct connection to the pair of old houses in Brunswick Park Road. The Landers might have simply hired the wall as advertising space being as it provides a perfect sightline from the cemetery where prospective clients might be choosing a burial plot or looking after a family memorial. A company by the same name still trades today but is based in Basildon Essex. Even though they make mention of being founded in 1866 I can see nothing on their site about Friern Barnet or Southgate. 

And the grave I was looking for? Well, it turns out I was looking in the wrong cemetery! Never mind – it was nice wandering around New Southgate Cemetery and, should you ever need to find information there yourself, the staff in the office are really helpful and friendly, and funny too. 

A little bitof Photoshop action here – the quality of the image isn't really good enough as regards the focus/sharpness at the left/rear

 

RIP Clark's Creamed Barley (CCB) ghostsign, Mornington Crescent

Yesterday I happened to notice that one of my favourite ghostsigns has been lost beneath an extension to a neighbouring property.
Above Mornington Crescent station, facing north, in prime site for traffic coming down Camden High Street (before it was one-way northwards) there used to be a sign advertising a breakfast cereal. Specifically Clark's Creamed Barley.

BREAKFAST FOOD – It's Cooked And Ready To Serve

For decades it was hidden in plain view. I recall when I spotted it in 2010 how befuddled I was that I had never noticed it before, especially as I worked in the area in the 1990s-2000s.

View from corner of Mornington Crescent, 2010

View, yesterday, 1st July 2020

As you can see, two floors have been added to the next-door building, covering the CCB ad.
The building work looks to be excellent – this is a very good, sympathetic renovation. But, sigh, I do miss that ad which I believe dated from the early 1920s. Even though it's gone it will still continue to be the first stop on my Camden ghostsigns tour as it's such a fascinating product.
From ads of the 1920s: It makes a meal in a moment. No cooking. No waste. Every grain toothsome. It is the most nourishing of all cereals, and it's all-British.

A potted history:

1925. Artist: John Hassell

George Clark started as a grocer but saw the potential in refining and supplying sugar to the brewing trade. By 1897 the family had moved from Westminster Broadway (near St James's Park tube station) to large premises at Millwall Docks, E14. Within two years they had built Broadway Works, a large premises in Aplpha Road complete with a large fancy entrance-way/gate. It was here they started producing caramel as a colourant for the food industry.
Specialist breakfast foods were the new 'big thing' at that time. Decades earlier, Mr Kellogg had created Cornflakes and other companies were swift to jump onto the ready-made bandwagon, offering all sorts of cereal-based one-dish fast-foods to set us up for the day.
Clarks obtained sugars from barley (not just from cane) and then turned the creamed husks into breakfast food enhanced by their caramels. Basically using two by-products to make one new product.

1930s. Location unknown. Possibly Broadway Works. Note the beer barrels

Promo postcard purchased from Ebay

The advertising, like a lot of products back then, and even today, promoted it as healthy energy-maker for young and old alike or, as an ad from 1929 puts it, "from weaning to old age" explaining that those with "impaired digestion" can readily absorb its elememnts of life and energy" because it was pre-digested. Basically, the husks had been removed and it was soft, no chewing involved. another major selling point was that there was no actual cooking involved.  And CCB = Cheerful Chubby Bairns.
A prominent feature on the packaging is the Star of David within a ring of wheat, so we can assume that the Clarks were a Jewish family. If I find more information I will update this. Last year, I was delighted to find and purchase an original 1927 promo postcard on Ebay that has a nmarvellous depiction of the carton on it. It also epitomises the save your tokens, get a 'free' gift style of advertising. Clarks appear to have used this tactic often. As early as 1922 they were advertising a £5 cash prize to anyone who colllected all six parts of their logo being one of the points on the star. One wonders if this was ever actually achieved, if at all possible. In 1929 the company offered four thousand 14" wheel pedal bikes to the first subscribers who collected 100 special red seals which where hidden inside the packets. Other promotions during this era included 'free' Christmas presents (also on redemption of red seals) and, likewise, little toy delivery trucks like the one in the picture, one of which sold for £1,560 at Bonhams in 2008. One wonders if by obscuring the hand-painted sign at Mornington Crescent the product is now even more exclusive. But the price achieved was more likely the condition of the car, especially its rubber wheels, rather than the branding on it.
Other promotions included adaptations of nursery rhymes such as Old King Cole (a merry old souldwas he) calling for his CCB. An ad in 1935 called the product an "All British Health Food" and explained it as: Possessing all the food value of the finest English Barley, these crisp puffed golden grains literally melt in the mouth. They have a rich nutty flavour all their own, and are as nutritive as they are delicious. Other mid-1930s ads have instructions how to make barley water from the product, in an era when Robinson's had already secured product placement at Wimbledon. 

1929

Ads fizzle out post-WWII and the product is only referred to in editorals about rationing and food facts. However the caramel side of the business continued to prosper. George Clark & Son Ltd's Caramel Isinglass Finings ads indicate that for a time pre-WWII the company had additional premises in Bletchley and Manchester. In the 1940s and 50s they advertise themselves as 'makers of every sugar used in brewing.' The most recent ad I have found this far is this one from July 1960.
Clark's Isle of Dogs site continued until 1964 when it was taken over by Tate & Lyle. The buildings no longer exist but a nearby street, Alpha Grove, echoes the past.
The UK appears to have moved on from creamed barley breakfast-style meals, with perhaps the exception of Quaker Oats and the like. But brands similar to Clark's continue to be popular in the US and a Chicago-based company still manufactures today (see below).

If you'd like to find out more about Clarks and the company's products simply do a googlewoogle or why not join me for one of my ghostsigns tours, specifically in Camden or Kings Cross.

 

Holloway Leather Stores – lovely carved wooden shop sign reveal in N7

Look what I noticed last week (Thursday 2nd August)...
A shop at 229 Holloway Road is at the moment empty and available for rent through local agent Drivers & Norris.
A lovely old carved wooden sign has been revealed. This would have been the backing part to another later of glass that sat against it and made the letters 'ping'.
I particularly like how it's dropped it's H, as in 'olloway!

I have tried to find ref of this company but cannot see it listed in either 1895 or 1915 which are the only directories I have to hand.
If you have any more info do get in touch.

Thanks in advance

Update1: I put this on the Islington Archaeology & History Society Facebook page and one lady responded with this:
Early 60's I used to have my shoes made there, you picked out the leather and style you liked. They had outlined both of your feet on cardboard, which they kept in a filing cabinet. It took 3- 5 days dependinfg how busy they were to make the shoes. They were stilletto's with pointed toes. They also made handbags and you could choose the colour and type of leather plus the style. They were the best shoes I have ever worn. 

Update 2: (Wednesday 8th August) Went past it on the bus this morning and could see that the old sign as been covered with a modern sign that encases it. So it's still there but no longer visible.

London Tramways – posters and artworks at the London Metropolitan Archives

Another day, another archive, another subject.
And equally as marvellous, but for different reasons.
The London Metropolitan Archives recently held an open day event where posters and artworks from the tram age were be on display.
How could I resist?
I was there the minute the place opened. On a table in the middle there were piles of lovely printed posters from the 1920s and the 1930s. But better still were the actual artworks or designs for those posters on the side tables and these showed a bygone world of hand-lettering, retouching, cut and paste, and pencilled annotations – all devices we no longer, or very rarely, implement these days now that most things are computer generated.

The poster on the left is hand panted in thick block colours – see how some of the place names have been cut out and stuck on top to indicate where they should be placed in the final version. The second poster, which is also artfully hand painted, has a wealth of information and amendments written down the right-hand edge including about deletions and additions. The third poster here shows places linked to Dickens' London. The placenames were, for some reason masked out, but by holding it up to the  light I could see them, The last poster shows a glimpse of a fabulously colourful image for Hampstead Ponds and some beautifully rendered hand lettering  – note how accurately the gold outline has been applied – this is all done with a brush!!

All of this reminded me of when I first started working in the advertising world back in 1980. A designer would produce a colourful, hand-rendered design for the client, using Magic Markers, Pentel Pens and gouache with perhaps, a few images glued onto that. And he'd point to the client's supplied image, probably in slide format, and say "this part of this image will be here".  Clients seemed to have more imagination back then and they trusted the design agencies to produce what they required.
Once the design was approved it was then passed on to the artworker (that was me) and/or the typographer (also me) to pull together an accurate 'artwork for print'. This was a black and white rendition of the design made with the help of Rotring pens, a PMT machine, Cow Gum and Rubylith which was then sent to the reprographic department to be made ready for the printer. It was a marvellous creative process.
Today we have AppleMacs and digital cameras and various photo editing programs and everyone thinks they are an armchair designer. Apparently, we just wave a magic wand at the computer and it does all the work. I think clients think it's some kind of mind-melding process. A download of sorts. The daft thing is that it takes longer to produce something from concept to printed product than it did 50 years ago because today people are amending almost hourly. Yawn.
Anyway enough reminiscing... back to the tram posters...

A poster for London Zoo had a contemporary sketch (known as a 'scamp') beside showing another layout. The second poster shows amendments made by masking out with paper and with white paint. The third pic shows two posters – the one on the left has been part filled in with colour. Note the panel at the bottom of that poster which looks to have been originally painted as white lettering on a black panel but a section of it is rendered in yellow on green. It was the latter option that was chosen for the printed poster as can be just seen in the pic at the very top of this post.  The other poster in that image has very vibrant colours of bright blues, yellow and orange with handwritten annotation in lovely red inked script. The final pic shows a beautiful painting of a tram with almost type-quality hand-lettering applied in white brush strokes underneath.

More adeptly applied paint in the first pic of this section – note the quality of the lettering here, especially the squiggly inline on the black letters.
The last three pics are of printed examples. The Pullman Tramcar poster just amused me because it seemed a bit odd to show a pic of a sedan chair – what are they saying; that the trains are as slow as two men carrying a heavy weight?!
I was intrigued by the designs and the illustrators/artists whose signatures appeared on most of the finished posters. I made a note of most of them and it seems that rarely did a artist get employed twice. As for the printers who were employed by London County Council Tramways to produce these colourful posters, it appears the main two were Waterlow & Sons, Dunstable, and Vincent Brooks Day & Son, WC2. I also spotted two posters showing a printer from just around the corner from my home; Hill, Siffken & Co, Grafton works, N7. Sadly, I can't find anything find anything about the company except in reference to the things they printed. Any info welcome. 

I was like a pig in a colourful pit of loveliness, cooing and oohing about the artistic details of this and that and asking Simon the curator the occasional question.
It was amusing (to me), that apart from a brief visit by one other woman, the room mostly contained older men, many of whom were, I think, a little bit disappointed that there wasn't more about the actual trams and the tramlines. A lot of them looked through the posters disdainfully as if they had to do that and occasionally one would say something like, "that's the ABC1237 that used to run via Elephant and Castle but they changed the route to go past London Bridge and renumbered it in September 1931; ".
Well, I enjoyed myself and I am really glad I went there!
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/london-metropolitan-archives/Pages/default.aspx is a major resource for historical information for anyone doing any research be it family history, old maps and photos etc. They also have an online search facility and a marvellous photo library.
It looks like I will need to use the archive to find out more about Siffken & Co.

Tram access covers feature in one of my posts from last year.

Brymay ghostsign revealed at Upper Holloway

Well, finally!
It's been uncovered for all to see:

This can be found overlooking the railway on Holloway Road opposite Upper Holloway station

BRITISH MATCHES FOR BRITISH HOMES

 (  BRYMAY  ) 

SAFETY MATCHES  

I am not sure whether this is a permanent thing. I hope so.

Brymay is a conjunction of Bryant & May.

See here for more Brymay ghostsigns in London

Read about match-making here.

Beans Express Carriers Ghostsign on City Road

This post has been updated
How long have I been walking and bussing past this and not noticed it?! I only spotted it in November when hunting for signs to use for my Angel Islington card. Has it been covered up or has it been there hidden in plain sight all this time?

I doubt the wording "BEANS EXPRESS CARRIERS" is about beans in the green or baked sense; perhaps this was a company called Beans who were offering an efficient courier/delivery service.
Look closely and see that EXPRESS is written twice here hinting that the sign has been repainted at least once. Also the smaller EXPRESS wording and CARRIERS are rendered in a different style to the larger BEANS EXPRESS; thay have drop shadows on a darker panel which may suggest that this part of the sign is a later addition, perhaps for a different company whose name has faded away over time.
Any further ideas and feedback welcome.

Lots more cards here

Brymay Safety Matches – hints of another ghostsign spotted

A few weeks ago I spotted part of an old hand-painted advertisement for Brymay Matches seeping through the paint on the North-facing corner of Archway Road.

SAFETY MATCHES

The name Brymay is a conjunction of the names of the founders William Bryant and Frances May who opened their first factory in Bow and sold a phenomenal eight million boxes of matches every year!!
There are now only a few hand-painted Brymay ads visible in London, most of having been covered over by subsequent ads (as in the Haringey example below), whitewashed completely, or obliterated by modern advertising systems or graffiti.
Here are some of them:

Haringey (over/under-painted with a John Bull ad) and Fulham

Shepherd's Bush Green and Goldhawk Road

The simple yet distinctive black Brymay logotype within a bright yellow ellipse on a plain blue background peeking out from behind modern signs in Holloway and Lambeth

Criterion Matches, however, implemented a different kind of labour-intensive pictoral advertising; a style also sometimes used by other companies such as Gillette:

Kilburn and Stoke Newington

Here's my last post about Brymay signs.
If you know of any others like these, please do let me know.