Updates to previous posts – loss and regeneration

I have this morning added some updates to these old posts – click the links above the pics to read the articles and see the pics at larger size:

Scratched graffiti outside the Humanist Chapel in Rugby Street 

New life for Michli's old grocery store

Loss of another ghostsign in Holloway Road

Woodblock paving in Pentonville Road

The Hat & Feathers, Clerkenwell – another ghostsign deciphered

The Hat and Feathers, public house and restaurant, No2 Clerkenwell Road, at the junction with Goswell Road, has finally reopened after sitting empty (again) for many years. 

Here's a couple of pics from recent years c/o Google streetview:

In 1981 this architectural slice of iced celebration cake was awarded a Grade II listing by English Heritage. Since the 2010s it has rarely been open. In mid-2021 it was slathered in scaffolding and given a wash and brush up and a fresh lick of primrose yellow paint.

Walking past in April 2024 I crossed the junction to take a closer look (actually to peek inside the windows!) and, as I waited for the lights to change at the crossing, I noticed that the gilded glass signage had not yet been replaced such that some earlier hand-painted wooden signs were visible. I took a few photos with the intention to decipher the layered letters later that week. 

Er... sixteen months later and I've finally revisited those photos. As I always say, I need at least six parallel universes to accomplish all the things I want to do, the places I want to see, the things I want/need to research, all the food I need to buy, cook and eat, and then, of course there's sleeping and watching old movies and reading books and simply just looking at views, or wandering the streets as a Flaneuse de Londres ... and people often ask me why I don't write a book about all the stuff I talk about. Duh! Anyway, I digress (this also happens a lot!) – let's back to the uncovered signage.

Luckily, a google streetview from the great reveal in July 2024 is available:

It's interesting, not just in regard to the pub, but also that it allows us to compare the buildings around it – I always loved that ghostly staircase on a side wall at the rear which resembled a patchwork quilt, now replaced by a dull grey lump.

Here are my photos of the hand-painted signage that is now again hidden behind the reinstalled glass and gilded strips. These are supplied left to right as you read top to bottom: 

Look closely to see that there are two signs, one painted over the other. The more faded, possible newer sign, reads HARRY TAYLOR in a reddish tone, and the more discernible, smaller pale yellow letters announce TAYLOR'S CORNER. Note the drop shadows and the full point at the end.  

On the Goswell Road side there is another panel that is harder to read – SPIRIT MERCHANT:

This possibly suggests that Harry Taylor was so well-known and, this being a local landmark, the junction became known by his name. However, I cannot thus far find an era when any Taylor was charge at this pub, let along a Harry or Henry. 

There has been a Hat & Feathers pub at the junction with Goswell Road since the 1780s. In 1841, the proprietor was a Mrs Elizabeth Fuller* and the address is shown as 164 Goswell Street, it then being a continuation of Goswell Road, today known as the only 'road' in the City of London, an oft-asked question in London pub quizzes! 

In 1895 the proprietor/landlord/owner/manager is shown as George Ledson, followed in 1899 by Alfred Abbott. By1910 Alfred John Stevens is the man calling last orders, then Harry Chapman in 1915. I therefore think the signs are either slightly earlier, or they make reference to an earlier era, so let's go back a bit further to before the creation of Clerkenwell Rd in the 1870s, when the stretch of road from Goswell St/Rd to St John Street was called Wilderness Row – how evocative!

The 1841 and1852 directories both show James Taylor's birmingham warehouse at No.6 Wilderness row, Clerkenwell. Whilst it's commonplace to see lower case letters on the second part of a street name such as row, road or street, it's odd to see this lower case 'b' on a city name. It could, I suppose, denote a type of product rather than a warehouse full of little Birminghams. Or, perhaps, this warehouse contained products that came from or went to that city. Two doors along at No.8 there's another Taylor, a watchmaker.

Of the 38 properties listed for Wilderness Row in 1841, approx half of them are linked to the watchmaking, engraving or jewellery trades.  Checking back to the late Victorian directories for 1882 and 1899 I now see that a Mr James Taylor is listed as a 'foreign bead importer' at No 10 Clerkenwell Rd. With the renumbering of the streets this is likely to be the same location that was previously Wilderness Row. The word warehouse back then often doubled as store/shop. Perhaps Taylor sold semi-precious beads for the jewellery trade?  

But who was Harry Taylor and why was his name around the Hat & Feathers pub?  Until someone with better access to the archives can come a definitive explanation, my suggestion is that the Taylors of Wilderness Row might have snapped up property along the newly-built Clerkenwell Road and were behind the rebuild of the pub we see today – Harry might have been a father's or his son's name. If a member of the Taylor family was the landowner/freeholder here he would not be listed as such in the directories, the usual practice being to show the pub name and/or the manager/proprietor. Hence the lack of the pub's name in the 1882 directory which shows it simply as 'James Smith, coffee rooms' with 'Best & Co' at the Goswell Road side. 

Any further ideas are most welcome, either in the comments or via janeslondon@gmail.com 

There's also a very nice mosaic threshold within one of the entrances. The letterform and layout is a bit wobbly – I wonder if it it was created by one of the inebriated punters!

* I wonder if Mrs Fuller is/was connected to Fullers Brewery which was founded in that same era...?

Estate Agent ghostsign at Fulham Broadway Station.

I can’t be the only one now singing “I could be the ticket man at Fulham Broadway Station” from Ian Dury’s What A Waste. 

It was about 15 years ago when I first noticed this sign at the top of the stairs that links the platforms to the original Grade II listed station building at street level. When the station was built, this area was known as Walham Green.

On that occasion I hung back and waited to let the other travellers pass me as I took some snaps, thinking I’d look into it when I got home.  But it got shelved. It got lost in the 'To Do' folder. I got distracted by other things. Life got in the way.

I’ve since used the station often and almost every time I'm there I take a quick pic to nudge myself into action but it still festers in my In tray. Yesterday, I was back again and, whilst taking these photos, it occurred to me that fewer people notice it since the station entrance was relocated to the other end of the platforms within the modern shopping centre, this original exit staircase now acting merely as a means to access the opposite platform. 

Having done a quick google and, found nothing but a few photos out there, and with 15 years of procrastination under my belt, I think it's about time I had a go at deciphering it, so here goes... 

At the extreme top left, a section is headed ‘Phone Nos’:
KENSINGTON 2513
CITY 3559
RICHMOND 843.
There are also some faded words at an angle to the left of that which could be ‘Selected… at… ton’ 

At the top right are the addresses of the ‘Offices’:
THE BROADWAY, WALHAM GREEN
28 ST MARTIN'S LANE, CANNON ST
AND AT ACTON.
To the extreme right at an angle: NORBURY / NEW MALDEN

Most of the advertisement looks to have been covered, and indeed protected by, posters of various sizes and shapes. The centre section in particular, below ESTATE AGENT, still has lots to offer. This area was looking really grubby covered in a mix of glue and dust, as shown in StockCarPete's 2011 pic, but it was cleaned, which is great but this has meant we've lost some of the hand-painted letters. 

The words I can't quite decipher are in [square brackets]:

PROBATE & [M..R..E..G]

INCOME TAX ADJUSTED

Freehold & Leasehold Houses

can be Purchased [ov?] Pav[inor?]

£50 down & Balance as Re[nt?]

Businesses Sold & Transferred

INSURANCES EFFECTED

[?..] Principal Offices.

Freehold Building Land for

[?..] Sale[?] & Advance In[?vestment/surance]

I'm pretty sure the company advertised here is John Crawford Platt, auctioneer, who was at No.561 Fulham Road (opposite side to the station, near the Town Hall) in the 1890s until at least 1915. 

I'm struggling to understand the second address listed as St Martin's Lane, Cannon St, which surely cannot be one and the same – 28 St Martin’s Lane is The Chandos public house near Trafalgar Square. The ref to Cannon Street might suggest an offce within a building by the name of St Martin, but there are no churches of that name in The City of London except St Martin's Le Grand which I am ruling out because that's other side of St Pauls to Cannon Street.

J.C.Platt seems to have quit Walham Green/Fulham Broadway, and all other branches, by the 1930s to consolidate the company's efforts in Hammersmith, as shown in the1939 directory, below. There are a couple of lovely J.C Platt wall signs to be found in the Hammersmith and Fulham area here and here.  

I know realise that I need to go back and have a closer look at the bottom right section of the sign because, as with the panel deciphered above, there surely must be something discernible in there. But until then, my work here is done until I find more/better info – any additional reference welcome.

Read about other ghostsigns for estate agents here in Hendon. and here in Goldhawk Road and here

Boots and Shoes – a ghostsign in Trafalgar Road, Greenwich

On the North side of Trafalgar Rd there is this a shop at No.117 painted purple (or mauve or lilac) with some faded letters on the brickwork above. 

I took a couple of quick snaps simply to make a note of it, knowing that my phone camera isn't really good enough for deciphering this sort of thing. I'd expected that someone else had done the legwork already and I'd be able to find out more about what was written here whilst drinking a cup of tea on my sofa. But no. 

Caroline usually beats me to these things but all she's got is this pic on her Flickr photostream, with no explanation. Using her pic I have managed to decipher most of it. 

Here's a rough idea of how it might have looked using a random serif typeface that I have squidged* and stretched for visual effect :

A quick look at the old directories tells us that in 1904 this is where you would have found Hermann Kaiser, boot & shoe maker. I have not as yet ascertained if he was related to the Peter Kaiser shoe company established 1838 in Germany and still manufacturing today.

By 1918 this was the Popular Boot Stores and it had spread into a part of the next door building too. 

As ever, all additional information is most welcome, either via the comments or to jane@janeslondon.com

Another Greenwich ghostsign here.

*this is not a typographical term, and neither is 'stretched'!  

Ghostsigns in Goldhawk Road, W12

Last week I wrote about a ghost sign in Uxbridge Road and said I'd find out more info about some of the others in that area.

Starting at Ravenscourt Park (western) end of Goldhawk Road, this Brymay matches sign on end of King's Parade, has seen better days. The pic to the right shows how it looked when I photographed it in 2008. There's only about half of it there now, thanks to the insertion of a multi-level extension, and what remains of the lettering is now rather faded. It makes a kind of top and tail with another Brymay sign on Shepherds Bush Green

But, not far away from there, I was extremely pleased to find that one of my favourite 'hidden' gems is still intact, albeit obscured by Melville Court and a large fir tree on the side of No.1 Cathnor Street. It is an ad for Herbert W. Dunphy, a local estate agent. It could be argued that this doesn't really qualify as a ghost sign being as his company is still trading today albeit with a slightly different name. 

The company1908 office was at 162 Goldhawk Road, and they later expanded into No.164 – see Google Streetview 2008. Today they're only at No 164 and if you look closely patches of paint there make it evident that the whole building was once covered with a painted advertisement. A modern banner affixed to the side shows the company today is 'Dunphy and Hayes'. I checked their website for more info... if you scroll down to the bottom here and read the small white text under the company logo, you'll see that they offer 'efficiant' and 'propfessional' services with 'qaulity' assurance. Oh dear! I wonder what Herbert would have made of that?!

Heading eastwards towards Shepherds Bush, there's another ghostsign, this time on the end of Goldolphin Road, on the side of No.152 Goldhawk Road. This, in the 1930s, was a colour merchant's shop, with Shaw Motors on the garden at the rear. Indeed, Dolphin Cars still trade out of that space. Try as I might, I really cannot fathom the lettering on the sign. There looks to have been at least two over-paintings, though I am sure I see 'THE' centred at the very top and 'LONDON' along the bottom edge. Ideas welcome. 

Note some gorgeous old shops on the opposite side of Godhawk Rd at 155-161, three of which retain curved window frames etc.   

And so back to Uxbridge Rd... 

Opposite the Player's cigarette ad, there is a tantalising glimpse of an ad under laters of white paint on an east-facing wall that has later been partly obscured by a building next door. With so little to go on, it's hard to ascertain whether this was a sign for a business at that location or a managed rental site. I haven't managed to decipher anything here as yet, except that there looks to be '...ES' about a third of the way down on the right edge. I wonder if this might have been an old Nestlé ad? 

As ever, any help or further info is always welcome. Please either use the comments facility or contact me at jane@janeslondon.com

Another ghostsign – Benjamin, Shepherd Market, Mayfair

You probably think all I look for and write about about these days is ghost signs. Well, that's not true – I've got a folder fit to bursting with mosaics, ironwork, etched glass, architecture from all eras, parks, gardens, and lots more that I just haven't the time to collate. 

It's just that when I spot a faded sign on a wall I stand there scribbling notes that, when I look at them later, are almost undecipherable (just like the sign!), hence I do the research for these asap, while it's all fresh in my mind. This is exactly what happened yesterday when I was walking around Shepherd Market in Mayfair, planning an idea for a guided walk in the area. 

I'm surprised I haven't written about this sign before, or indeed this enclave of delightful little streets which still has that village feel. It's not as if I have only just noticed it. I rather assumed, with it being so obvious that someone else had written it up already, but that doesn't appear so. 

The sign sits above the corner shop, today No.34 Shepherd Market. However, back in the day this was No.8 Market Street, as is clearly shown by the hand-painted street sign. 

N. BENJAMIN / TRUNKS & BAGS for all CLIMATES. 

There is also some over-painting, mostly in the secondary line, so the name and the product/service could be from two different eras. 

In 1910 Edwin Alexander Atkins, trunkmaker, was at this address and this ties in perfectly with the products offered, but the name is wrong. He also had another shop opposite at No.10 selling boots (sort of where I took this photo from)

The sign is evidently for Nathaniel Benjamin, portmanteau dealer, who, in the same year, was next door to the boot shop at No.12. Tho why Atkins would want the name of his immediate competitor advertised on his own building is beyond me. Perhaps these men were related. Or perhaps Atkins offered smaller bags whist Benjamin offered larger ocean-going luggage for those Grand Tour experiences and the two companies bounced off each other? 

H. V. Morton mentions this shop in his wonderfully engaging book Ghosts of London first published in Nov 1939:

As ever, any further info welcome.

Update May 2026 – I recently found this pic below showing the street in 1967 (a screen shot from my phone) – the photo and info about it can be found on London Picture Archive here.

A bit of Holloway ghostsign sleuthing – Henry Dell, grocer

Last week I was contacted via Twitter about a ghostsign at the rear of a property in Hornsey Road. Archway Ramblings @UpArchway asked if I knew any more about an old painted sign visible from Bracey Street. Well, this was the first I knew about it, which is not surprising seeing as Bracey Street is a little back street that I have rarely ever used, and the sign fairly inaccessible.

H....ELL, TEA MERCHANT....... 408 Holloway Road. Photo: @UpArchway

A quick bit of sleuthing and it turns out this was Henry Dell who had a grocery shop here at 450 Hornsey Rd, a few doors up from Thorpedale Road, today a launderette.

647-665 Holloway Rd, 1882 

Henry Dell appears to have been established in the area for decades. In 1882 he is shown at No.408 Holloway Rd (today, Santander) with another shop further up the road at 5 Northampton Place which later became No.657 (today, the fish and chip shop). Prior to the later 1880s, the upper section of Holloway Road northwards of Tufnell Park Rd on the west side and Tollington Way (then Grove Rd) on the east side was still evolving and there were no Holloway Rd door numbers – the houses or business premises were simply part of a named terrace* and, very often, the pub at the corner of that stretch was echoed in the name, as in Marlborough Terrace, Crown Terrace etc., though not in this instance. Northampton is probably a reference to the Marquis who owns Canonbury Tower (I will park that tangent for another day!).

647-665 Holloway Rd, 1939

Therefore, regarding what's visible of the ghostsign, I think it's fair to assume, judging by the space available/covered, that the pipes might be hiding the door number of the store at the northern section of Holloway Road which was closer to this Hornsey Rd shop, as in "657 & 408".

Moving fast forward to 1939, I see Henry Dell [and/or his family] is still going strong. The Hornsey Rd shop is listed as "Dell's Store's" and the shop at 657 Holloway Rd is battling for custom with two similar grocery shops next door, namely Liptons, a well-known country-wide chain, and David Greig** the provisions company founded in Hornsey. As for the shop at 408 Holloway Rd, by 1939 it's listed as a restaurant with Mullholland's shoe shop also shown at the same address so I think we can assume that Dell's restaurant was on one of the upper floors. 

Some photographic ref would be nice, but I can't find any right now. The Dells might have been trading in the area earlier than 1882 and I don't know if they continued after WWII. So I'll have to leave it there – Henry Dell, a successful family business, established in Holloway for at least 60 years. Nice. 

Thanks again to Archway Ramblings for bringing this to my attention.

*I refer to this kind of thing on my Mr Pooter's Holloway guided walk about the book 'A Diary of a Nobody' where the characters of 1888 are living at a made-up place called Brickfield Terrace – I have some very good ideas where this could have been along this busy thoroughfare.

**DG shops are a bit of a 'thing' with me. Note to self; collate and post about the company here – any additional info you might have will be gratefully received, and credited.

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.

 

Defaced ghostsigns in Chalk Farm Road

Last month I went out for strol and ended up in the the Camden and Primrose Hill area. I was just enjoying the bright weather, following my nose, look at stuff aimlessly.

As I passed Camden Lock, walking northwards, I noticed that the +120 year old ghostsign for Edwards the tailor which overlooks the canal at Hawley Wharf might be soon lost to us. As you can see here the artist's impression on the hoarding shows a clean wall. I hope this will not be the case as these little hints of the past help to give the area a sense of history.
Moving on northwards I then stopped to wonder what happened to the big rocking chair that used to be on Camden Interiors, at No.19 on the corner of Hawley Avenue. It had been there for decades and was a really good identifier.  I am pretty sure it was still attached to the building after the furniture company moved out so I hope whoever removed it has made good reuse of it.

Then on the next corner, Hartland Road, there is a relatively new ghostsgign. Silks & Spice thai restaurant had also been there for decades but, perhaps, latterly struggled to compete with all the additional food outlets that opened up in the area over the past 20 years, specifically all the Asian streetfood within the Stables Market area opposite.  
And so I continued up the road, fondly remembering happy days in the '90s meeting friends in The Lock Tavern when it was owned by Mick and Iris. Stuff hanging from the ceiling, doorstep sarnies, and oh those fireworks parties in the ramshackle garden!  They sold up and made quite a bit of money on it. Iris probably bought her own helicopter. The new owners tarted it up and used it for C4 TV productions such as Chris Evans' progs and the like. It's never been the same since.
And then past The Monarch, which is not The Monarch if you get what I mean, indeed neither is the Enterprise further up the road and, oh, I miss The Engine Room with its fab music quizzes attended by teams from NME and Melody Maker. Always packed, lively evenings.
And then amid my reminiscences.... BOOM!  Ouch!
I stopped in my tracks... one of my favourite ghostsigns and another one that features on my Camden ghostsgns walk (plug plug again) has been vandalised.
For +70 years this south-facing prime site has been showing us some understated hints of times gone by – a palimsest of signs advertised Johnson the bookbinder, Bacon the stationer and Laurence the draper. Today we can also add Man the egotist and whatever those other two bits underneath are supposed to be.

Chalk Farm Road, opposite entrance to Morrison's

Below is how it used to look in Jan 2009 (slightly enhanced) and I am little annoyed with myself for not taking some pics last year as, since 2009, the sign had further faded such that the [older] draper's sign, had become the strongest element.  

Ah well. What can we do? We can't hold on to everything. The sign will still feature on my tour. And its defacement will help to highlight the plight of these ads... blimey sound like I am talking about endangered animals here...!

Plumbs the butcher, Hornsey Road, reveal of older sign

The W. Plumb shopfront earlier this year. 

Last week, whilst heading up to Crouch End on a 91 bus, I noticed an old wooden sign had been revealed at 493 Hornsey Rd. This used to be W. Plumb butchers and the shop inside is a tiled gem, see here.
I went back later to investigate...

Note the 1950s yellow tiles have been replaced

A. Hancock,  No.11 [presumably] Hornsey Rise

As I was taking snaps of the shopfront a fella came along with a cute young Bedlington Terrier and, well, blow me down, he stuck a key in the front door and it turns out he lives there with his partner. I didn't chat for long but it seems this old hand-painted sign will now stay visible.
I am note sure when A. Hancock was at the site as I don't have a County Suburbs Directory for that era as pre-1930s (approx), this was then part of 'outer' London. I can't therefore ascertain if the tilework inside and the coloured glass in the windows are concurrent with Mr Hancock's era, or what years he was there.
My 1939 directory tells me Thomas Knowlden, butcher, was there in 1939. I am not sure when Mr Plumb took over the business, though, as above, the yellow tiles and shop sign hint at the 1950s and they were still selling meat products under that name in 1990 when I used to shop there.
I think I need to go back and knock on the door for another chat. I will, hopefully, have an update soon.