Hackney metal – another vitreous enamel sign is missing in Hoxton

Yesterday, wandering down Hoxton Street and, as I approached its southern end, I stopped to sigh at the old timber merchant's shop where, approx two years ago an enamel sign was still in place. Here is my pic from 2008 when it looked bright and shiny:

Sad to see it gone but the this allows us to see a hand-painted sign for the same company that had been covered for many decades. I took a quick snap and turned to look at the pair of signs high up on the other side of the street – oh gawd – the top one's gone:

The view used to look like this (Google streetview 2022):

I wondered why someone would remove the top panel that said CABINET but leave the lower one BENCHES. Surely the top one was harder to access? Was this stolen to order for someone called Cabinet?! Perhaps it had something to do with the House of Commons?!

Concerned about this, it brought to mind the missing telephone signs and I remembered that there is another enamel sign in Hackney, so I hopped on a bus and headed to Homerton to check a corker that sits almost at eye-level. Well, I am glad to report that it's still there:

It's actually looking better than ever, the Odgen's Guinea-Gold tobacco ad now more visible, the layers of paints having further eroded. It's also easier to see how the sign was repurposed – the word FURNITURE can be seen through the middle and AMH 2868 (Amhurst phone code for part Hackney – more about these codes here)

Here's how it looked in 2008:

Thinking about the missing CABINETS sign, having now checked my old photos and this pic by Maggie Jones, it's clear that there was a nasty and very rusty crack across it. I therefore deduce that due to its poor condition, this section has been removed for H&S reasons. That, or the erosion was so bad that it fell apart? I've also discovered that it's been missing since at least January 2025.

Any further info welcome, whether in the comments or via email: jane@janeslondon.com

Who is removing the old metal Telephone and Telegraph signs?

Last week, as I wandered along the eastern section of Lillie Road, between North End Road and the vast open space where Earls Court Exhibition Centre used to be, I glanced up to my left to check on a couple of old bits of signage in this side alley adjacent to the man in the red shirt (this is a screen grab from Google streetview, as are the all the subsequent street views in this post):

The pic is from May 2023 and, if you look closely, you'll see a there's a dark street sign high up on the side wall telling us that this is/was TELEPHONE PLACE, SW8, part of the Borough of Fulham. I say 'was' because you won't find Telephone Place listed in today's directories. 

Here is my poor quality pic of how the sign looked back in 2011 (Maggie's photo here is better)

I like the idea that this probably led to the local telephone exchange where well-spoken ladies would have connected your calls.

Well, the metal sign has gone. Telephone Place is just a memory now; a ghost. See here for July 2024. I wonder who removed it, and why? Was it the council, was it the owner of that building, or did someone nick it? After all, enamel signs like these fetch a decent price these days. 

The hand-painted ghostsign for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH is still there though. I used to think this was happy accident as regards the name of the newspaper and the name of the little street:

The bottom line on the sign has been overpainted, but Stockcar Pete's pic here shows that one of the layers is easy to make out: ALL SATURDAY'S SPORTS & LATEST NEWS. 

I'm now reminded of another metal sign at 31 Turnpike Lane on the old Post Office. My pic below is from 2016, but it's since disappeared. A quick look at retrospective Google streetview shows it was removed some time 2018/19. 

Another telephone sign thats gone missing, was opposite Harlesden's clocktower, where there used to be a dark blue and white enamel sign above the Post Office (now Alishba Newsagent) – YOU MAY TELEPHONE FROM HERE. It's made an appearance on this blog a few times in the past, such as here.

Here's my pic from 2008 which shows this was probably two-sided and would have stuck out at 90 degrees to the wall visible from both directions:

It was still there in June 2016 as shown below, but gone by 2017.

Do you know of any others?

There's also Telegraph Street off Moorgate in The City of London, where telecommunications properly began. I took a few pics of some interesting architectural features back in Summer 2024 but I can't recall spotting any old metal signs. I'll leave you hanging (on the telephone) re that and I will update this if I find any more.

North East London NE street signs

Many moons ago, back in 2008, I wrote a post about old metal street names which also included some of the now defunct mid-19th century N.E. signs that I had spotted on the streets of North East London in Clapton, Hackney and Stoke Newington, today categorised as East London (E). Since the 1860s the NE code has applied to Newcastle.
I am not the only one 'collecting' these glimpses of the past – Sam, Mr Ghostsigns, has organised a free scavenger hunt to on the afternoon of Saturday 21st April with the aim to make a database. If you are going to join in I'd suggest a bit of pre-event sleuthing via google streetview which will save time and shoe leather.
I won't be able to join in that day as I will be leading events of my own so, to help anyone who is going to join in on the days I thought I'd give you a heads-up and pull together all the NE signs I have collected myself. Well, I say 'all' but I mean the ones I have labelled and filed correctly – I am pretty sure I have other photos in a folder on my desktop titled "to name and file"!

My photos of Clapton's N.E. signs shown A-Z.
Other signs I am aware of but are not shown above are: Brett Passage, Colne Rd, Dunlace Rd, Malvern Rd, Mayola Rd, Mentmore Terrace, Mildenhall Rd, Navarino Rd, Roding Rd, Rushmore Rd and St Philips Rd.

This makes minimum of 31 roads with signs showing the N.E. district. Note that some roads have two or three N.E. signs and I have only shown one of them.
As regards the design of these enamel signs, I notice that there is no fixed punctuation style – colons, commas, full points and semi-colons appear to be interchangeable.
Along my travels I have also found some North (N.) and South East (S.E.) signs from the same era :

These signs from Hackney and Southwark are the same style as the N.E. signs including the typefaces, casing and fixings.

London also has no S postcode – that one was allocated to Sheffield.
More types of street name signs in the Clapton area can be found here.
And this post, also from 10 years ago, shows a variety of road name changes.

Jane's Advent Calendar – 25th December

A little enamel sign I spotted in Savoy Street, WC2.

Ah... Oxford Street... today it will be blissfully and unusually quiet.
For an alternative Christmas morning treat, why not take a wander into Central London and stand in the middle of this major shopping thoroughfare with nary a car or person in sight.   

Jane's Advent Calendar – 22nd December

An old vitreous enamel road sign in Bloomsbury.
See yesterday and Sunday 20th for two more 22s

Jane's Advent Calendar – 16th December

Vitreous enamel hydrant maker showing distance to the access point.

Dalston, London E8.

Most of these are diamond-shape, except when they wrap around a corner in which case they are square. 

I have only ever spotted one oval-shaped specimen in Sclater Street, E1:

Summer in the winter beer garden on the South Bank

For 3 days we can forget winter, cold weather and Christmas, and instead hang out within the heated dome of the 'Corona Extra Summer' pop-up bar on the South Bank's Riverside Walkway (between Waterloo Bridge and Gabriel's Wharf) from Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th December.

Well, hell, why not? What's not to like?

The best that London has to offer

London Ambassadors, a scheme run by London Mayor's office, is aiming to recruit 8000 volunteers who can help show off the best that London has to offer during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. Apply to be an Ambassador here. Or go to Facebook.

In conjunction with this drive they are also running a competition asking Londoners to recommend a place that they think no trip to the capital should be without. As per Jane's London this should be not just the usual visitor attractions; they are looking for hidden gems such as small museums, cafes, restaurants, shops, alleys, etc that are not on the usual tourist trails. The 60 winners will be chosen at random (which in my opinion is a bit daft) and will get a ‘Take Two London 2 for 1’ Voucher and Guide Book which contains £900 worth of potential savings to be cashed in at over 70 London attractions, restaurants, bars, museums, galleries and tours. Enter here.

The competition closes on 10th December 2010.

Picture refs here.

Filthy London

This post is sparked off by an ad on TV that really niggles me; it's for a hand cleaner that comes in a soap dispenser that has a sensor so that you need "never touch a germy soap pump again".

OK... so let's think about this... if you were to directly touch the dispenser, or the bottle, or whatever, then surely this product of theirs will eradicate the 'germs' when you wash your hands!? But how are you going to turn the tap on/off after you have applied the soap?

Actually, how did you get in the kitchen/bathroom in the first place... did you open a door? With your filthy fingers? Oh ugh!

This is all getting so ridiculous.

I recently heard one mother telling her son not to hold the moving handrail on the escalator because lots of people touch it. I don't know what she would do if the thing stopped and the poor kid fell over and hurt himself. Do you think she let him hold on when he got on the tube train? Dunno. But she probably let him wipe his dirty shoes on the seats.

And I heard another woman tell her children, who were sitting in the front seat on the top deck of a bus, not to hold onto the rail in front of them for similar reasons. Yet, when getting off, she told them to hold on tight when going down the stairs.

Top row: Angel tube station, Lavender Soap in Acton, dirty beasts in Fleet Street, Pears' Soap in Highgate Village.

Middle row: Sanitary Brixton, Holloway litter, dusty windows in EC4, manicule near Lea Bridge.

Bottom row: litter in Camden, Sunlight Soap in Highbury, door knocker in Spitalfields, dusty tiles in Old Street.

George the Imperial Great Dane

Last week there on BBC TV News there was an item about a Great Dane called George who has just got into the Guinness Book of Records as the world's tallest dog, ever.

What interested me was that the presenter said that at 43 inches tall George was 2cm taller than the second tallest dog.

Imperial and metric in the same sentence. Ugh!

But any excuse for a collection of themed London pictures...

Top: Marylebone, Bloomsbury, Hoxton, Stamford Hill

Middle: Islington, Camden, Belgravia, Soho

Bottom: Barnsbury, Tottenham, Smithfield, Bloomsbury

Branded metal advertising signs

There are plenty of old advertising signs featuring brand names around London. I suspect a lot of them have been put up for tourists' amusement or to make a place look old and interesting; I especially wonder if those ones in Gabriel's Wharf have been put there just for effect.

But there are others around in hard to reach places that look like they have been there for decades. I am still kicking myself that I did not help myself to the old Michelin and Pirelli signs on a tyre shop that closed around the corner from here earlier this year. D'uh!

In areas like Camden and Portobello you can buy facsimiles of some of the old classics in the shops and markets.

Whilst looking through the fab stuff available on Urban Remade I found this modern equivalent which Peter Blake has designed featuring his logo heart. Affix it to your wall and watch it age gracefully.

Palethorpe's Sausages and Pears Soap, Highgate; Craven 'A', Camden; Liptons, Martini and R Whites, Good Year, Kensal Green; Esso Blue, Finsbury Park; Coca Cola, Drayton Park; Ogden's Guinea Gold, Homerton; The Sailor's Society, Limehouse.

Smoke gets in your eyes

I have today (July 2nd) posted another Urban Sightseeing piece for Londonist. The indoors smoking ban has been part of our lives for a whole two years now. How time flies. And most of Europe has followed suit. I have just come back from a holiday in Turkey and I hear it's due to come into force there too later this month.

Click here to read the Londonist piece and access all my previous ones too.

Update (19 July 2010): re the Finsbury Park 'Segars' sign in, top right: this has been filled in and painted over... such a shame.

More Streetname signs

Here are some more street name signs; all different.

Row 1: St John's Way, N19, used to be St John's Road (what was the point of THAT?!); the top end of St, Pancras Way, NW1, used to be known as Kings Road; a painted sign for Southampton Road, NW5, showing the use of red paint for the postcode; Aquinas Street, SE1, shows where the lettering was once painted in black and then over-painted in white.

Row 2: Both the Willoughby Road and Rosslyn Mews signs show how substitute tiles were used for various letters (Qs for Os and number tiles for word spaces). Perhaps they just ran out of the correct letter tiles? Intriguing. For more of these see http://rodcorp.typepad.com/rodcorp/2004/07/london_street_s.html; Moxon St, High Barnet, EN5, shows that years ago there were no postcodes being used at all and one can assume that at the time this was put up it was the only Moxon Street in the general area, indeed there are only five streets by that name in Great Britain even now; one of two signs here for Bloomsbury Square, WC1, this one has a partially rusty surround and fixings but I cannot decide whether it is an old sign (maybe 1920s or 30s) or a new sign has been put into an old mounting.

Row3: Wild Court, WC2, shows two different hand-painted signs, one with 'Borough of Holborn' in a sans typeface and the other with a serif face which makes it interesting for us now but I can never fathom why back then they didn't just accurately touch-up what was there rather than paint a new design almost over the top like a dodgy shadow; a hand-painted sign in Roupell St, SE1; a lovely metal sign in Hayles street, SE11, though I now wonder if it was blue enamel and has been painted over, so I must go and have a second look; a lovely cast metal sign for Bloomsbury Square, WC1.

Streetnames – moulded

The one for Canterbury Road, N1, on the side of a pub in Balls Pond Road is particularly of interest because there is no road there at all these days.

Park Place on Liverpool Road and Clapton Pavement on Lower Clapton Road aren't relevant any more either.

A larger collection of my photos can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Streetnames – Re-named

For some reason street names get changed.
But sometimes the previous name is still visible on an old sign.

Shown here are a few examples.

Clockwise from top left:

New Cavendish Street, W1, was Upper Marylebone Street; Bavaria Road, N19, was Blenheim Road; Keystone Crescent, N1, was Caledonian Crescent; Eburne Road, N7, was Grafton Road; in 1880 a stretch of Lower Clapton Road, E5, was Clapton Pavement; College Cross, N1 was (something) Street. I will look into the last one and see if I can source the previous name in full.

A larger collection of my photos can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Streetnames – hand-painted

In some areas of London hand-painted street signs are regularly maintained but here’s a selection of some that have been neglected.

A larger collection of my photos can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Streetnames – metal

It’s amazing how many different types of street signage there are out there. Here is just a small selection of the ones made in metal/enamel. I am particularly interested in the really old ones that only use a London area code, such as N or E and I have been fortunate to stumble across quite a few in the Lower Clapton area that have the old NE postal region on them. NE was phased out in 1866 when it became part of the E region as shown here by Sewdley St NE right next to Millfields Road E5. It is also interesting to note the changes in punctuation on these early NE signs; some have 2 full points (perhaps signifying a colon turned 90 degrees?), others have a full point and a comma (semi-colon?) and others just a comma, yet Clifden Rd has none of the above.

A larger collection of my photos can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr