Boot scrapers – ooh, the diversity

There may be hundreds of different kinds of boot scrapers out there but, so far, I can only identify six different ways of fixing them.
Reading clockwise from top left:
Recessed; Step-mounted; Gate post; Free-standing; Railings-mounted flush; Railings mounted proud.
The free-standing and railings-mounted types seem to have been more favoured in the central London area. Islington, however, is littered with the gate-mounted types which seems a better idea to me, keeping the mud and mess further from the front door.
The two pics at bottom left show that many houses or establishments had two or more outside the door. Shown here is a row of houses on Bedford Square, each house having one each side of the door and, just around the corner in Bloomsbury Street near the British Museum, two side-by-side which have another matching pair sitting opposite them across the path.

I have also noticed that there aren't many large houses or mansions with boot scrapers. Perhaps the people who lived there didn't need them as they didn't travel around on foot and used carriages instead.... but what about the servants? I will keep looking.

Boot scrapers

A short while ago I was invited to join the 'Boot Scrapers of London' group on Flickr. I had noticed lots of them in and around Central London but thought they were all too similar and I had enough things to photograph as it was! But I joined the group pool anyway, and now I have gone boot scraper mad having discovered that there are so many different types out there. All of these have been taken on three occasions in the first 2 weeks of August 2008 in Camden, Covent Garden, Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury and Canonbury.
To see any of the individual photos at a larger size please go to my Boot scrapers set at Flickr.

More doorway mosaics

Here are some more in north and central London.

Some are beautiful and others have been sadly neglected and/or mistreated. The triangular one in the second row has been carefully preserved for decades as the last remnant of a shop that was bombed out in WW2.

Doorway mosaics with letters or words

All but one of the above are in central London.

Despite my comment in an earlier posting that contemporary companies are no good at this type of thing, Fopp seems to have proved me wrong!

Doorway mosaics of Upper Street, N1

Here are some close-up shots of three of my favourite shop doorways in Upper Street, Islington, London, N1. Full images of these can be found in my last posting on this subject.

More Islington ghost signs

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.

Doorway mosaics

Here are some of the pictures I have taken of the wonderful mosaic floors that can still be found at the entrances to old pubs and shops. Modern efforts at this kind of thing aren't ever up to this standard.

More photos like these can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Pubs with Original Names

Some pubs still use the same name that was embedded in the fabric of the original building in the form of lettering or a motif. Some of these motifs, as in the cases of the Yorkshire Grey and The Bull and Gate, are lovely.

Below is a selection of my favourites, so far...

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

Ghost pubs – residential

There are lots of lovely old pubs that have closed down and been converted living accommodation. Pubs and bars are in decline these days probably due to the price of alcohol and the smoking ban. It’s much cheaper to buy your booze and fags at the supermarket and enjoy them at home. All rather ironic if your home is part of an old drinking establishment. There are far too many of these to take a photo of every one I see, so below is a just small selection some of which even have the old pub’s name still visible.

Row 1: An old Truman pub in Clarence Road, E5; Barnsbury Street, N1; Market Road, N7, The Lion, North Road, N7; Roman Way, N7.

Row 2: Bromley Arms, Cleveland Street, W1; Market Tavern, York Way, N7; The Tollington, Tollington Way, N7; The Rainbow, Liverpool Road, N1.

Row 3: The Falkland Arms, Falkland Road, NW5; Richmond Avenue, N1; The Montague Arms, Benwell Road, N7; The Rising Sun, Barnsbury, N1; Roman Way, N7.

Row 5: Southgate Arms, Southgate road, N1; Caledonian Road, N7; The Turks Head, Wapping, E1; The Builders Arms, St Paul’s Road, N1.

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

Ghost pubs

Many pubs have changed identity over the years but the ones I am particularly interested in are those that have the original name embedded in the fabric of the building, either as the name itself or a motif. Sometimes they are new pubs, but quite often another type of business has moved in downstairs, or the whole building has been converted into private homes. There are thousands of examples in London alone and shown below is just a selection.

Other pubs with historic value such as The Nag's Head, Holloway Road, N7 have no visual stamp on the pub to hint at their former identities, which is a shame. The Nag's Head was once the main pub of the area and lends its name to the local shopping centre. It is shown as a destination plate on LRT buses.

During the past 20 years the pub has changed owners and names a few times. In the 1990s for a short period it was The Mustang and then O’Neill’s took it over and gave it their nasty yellow and blue livery, complete with pretend post office. Then all the pub fittings were ripped out and for a while it become a shop selling household stuff like glass coffee tables and throws. These days, despite a campaign against the idea by local residents, it's an Agora gaming centre. But there's hardly ever anyone in there so I can only speculate that very soon a new name will appear over the door.

I find it all quite sad. But hey, perhaps it will return to being a pub one day...

Shown above is a selection of these 'ghost pubs'.

The current name or use in shown brackets.

Row 1: The Frying Pan, E1 (balti restaurant); The Queen’s Head, WC1 (empty); St Martin’s Tavern, NW1 (Kaz Kreol); The Nevill, N16 (residential); The Swan, E2 (grill); The Unicorn, N1 (Papa John’s pizzas).

Row 2: The Elephant (or Elephants’ Head?), E5 (Fitzgerald’s);

The Old Farm House, NW5 (O’Reilly’s); The Green Man, N1 (Nailworld); The Prince of Wales, NW1 (Positively 4th Street);

The Half Moon, N19 (The Quays).

Row 3: Princess Beatrice, NW1 (Tommy Flynn’s); The Anchor, N1 (Polsmak restaurant); The Hare and Hounds, N1 (Albert & Pearl); The Grafton Arms (The Swimmer); The Old Parrs Head, N1 (Jigsaw); The Wheatsheaf, W1 (Langoletto restaurant).

Row 4: Crown and Castle, E2 (noodle bar); The Three Wheatsheaves, N1 (The Outback); Hoxton Distillery, N1 (The Macbeth); The Robin Hood, W3 (Connolly’s); Cock Tavern, N19 (Nambucca);

Row 5: The Norfolk Arms, N19 (Chris Stevens DIY); The Spread Eagle, E9 (The Jackdaw & Stump); The Alexandra Coffee House, N19 (locksmiths); Royal George, N1 (The Bombay Bicycle Club); The Duke of Edinburgh, NW1 (Green Light pharmacy); The Griffin (?), E5 (Hackney Building & Plumbing Supplies).

Row 6: The Tam O’Shanter, WC2 (Scotch Steak House); The Duke of Sussex, N1 (Fredericks); The Weavers Arms, N16 (newsagent); The Huntingdon, N1 (empty); The Rainbow, N1 (private home); The Intrepid Fox, W1 (empty).

Row 7: An old Truman pub, E5 (residential); The Pembury Tavern E5 (residential); The Southgate Arms, N1 (residential) ; The Montague Arms, N7 (residential); The White Hart (empty).

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

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

Ghost Signs – N1/Islington area

A larger collection of my photos of ghost signs, and other things that interest me, can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Ghost Signs – Camden to Highgate

A larger collection of my photos of ghost signs, and other things that interest me, can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Ghost Signs – Central London

By 'central' I mean within or close to the Circle Line

A larger collection of my photos of ghost signs, and other things that interest me, can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Ghost Signs – Holloway area

A collection of pics from 2008. Captions/updates written in 2026.

The Hairdressing equipment signs face south across the railway line opposite Holloway Rd station. 

The Royal Coffee & Dining Rooms was on the side of the terrace next to St Mary Magdalene (opposite Central Library) see more info under the pic below.

Harpers of Holloway Pianos is on the other end of the block to the Hairdressing sign. 

The faded blue panel I believe to be a remnant of a sign for Western's laundry which had a shop almost below the sign. 

Plough Stables is in Hornsey Road at the rear of the pub on the corner of Tollington Park.

High Class Fruit is barely visible at all now (2026) and has been graffiti'd across its lower half.

The blue gate is in Caedmon Road, just around the corner from...

...the Piano sign at the end of Jackson Road.

The Alexandra Coffee Rooms panel is at the end of Bavaria Rd (previously Blenheim Rd).

Iron Jelloids are still being advertised (complete with prices!) opposite the Odeon on Holloway Rd.

The Army Club sign, which also displayed prices, was obliterated by a layer of render 2018/9

The side of the old chippy in Tollington Way. I never did decipher the many layers on this one. Gone c2015.

Key Flats is at the northern end of Caledonian Road, near Widdenham Rd.

Army Club (covered in render) and Royal Dining Rooms (covered in ivy). Holloway Rd, Sept 2025, c/o Google streetview

March 2026: The whole side wall of 129 Holloway Road has been rebuilt meaning the Royal Dining Rooms sign has now gone forever. Plants and flowers in the church gardens have been cut back to almost nothing and a tree has been lopped. 

I'm keen to see how this space will be be revamped.

Ghost Signs - Stoke Newington area

A larger collection of my photos of ghost signs, and other things that interest me, can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Ghost signs – North London

Miscellaneous signs found in Hampstead, West Hampstead, Crouch End, Stroud Green, Highbury and Finsbury Park

A larger collection of my photos of ghost signs, and other things that interest me, can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Hare & Hounds / Albert & Pearl ghost sign

One of my favourite local ghost signs in Islington, London N1, is on the side of what used to be The Hare and Hounds in Upper Street, advertising the garage run by S Wood & Son.

In recent years the pub was better known as The Medicine Bar. It has wonderful ornate windows at street level and a beautiful relief on the front showing dogs chasing a hare. The colour scheme was mainly cream with purple used to pick out the windows and frames.

Earlier this month I found that the pub had been given a facelift by the new owners, Albert & Pearl. The walls and the relief are now metallic grey and the frames are cream. They have also had their own name painted over the garage sign and added spotlights on the front and side of the building. Or perhaps this is only a dry-transer.

At first I thought this modern re-vamping of a ghost sign was a great idea as it has been thoughtfully and sympathetically achieved using the same colours and typefaces. Historically wall signs like this one have always been over-painted with different layers of advertisements; you can see that on the original sign that a second line of black type lettering had already been erased.

But the more I have been thinking about what has happened here, the more I am concerned for the future of the original sign, especially as it appears that the original S Wood & Son lettering has been scrubbed away to make the new name more legible. The original garage sign that has been there for decades may, in a few years’ time, disappear altogether because if Albert & Pearls’ business fails, some other company will take over the premises and, rather than have the previous occupier’s name on the side, may prefer to paint over it completely. If the old sign was still there a piece of history might have been preserved for a bit longer.

So fingers crossed Albert & Pearl… here’s to your success and prosperity…

A larger collection of my photos of ghost signs, and other things that interest me, can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

London Ghost signs

These wonderful ghosted advertisements are mainly to be found on the sides of shops and buildings along old high streets. Here is just a small selection.

A larger collection of my photos of ghost signs, and other things that interest me, can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr

Shown above are:

Gillette in Commercial Street E1;

Wootons Cash Chemist in Richmond Avenue N1;

tea rooms in Museum Street WC2, Bate's salve ('...cures wounds and sores' which overprints an earlier one for '...Kings citrate the original safe and best') in Regent Square WC1;

The front of a building owned by Miller Beale and Hider Ltd glazing contractor which appears to read 'builders...' over/under another sign I can't quite read in Greenland Road NW1 (I now have better photos of this building and will upload them soon);

Take Courage just west of Borough Market SE1;

Bernard' s mens hosier, hatter (and something else I can't make out) which overprints an earlier sign for P(?) Lewis in Brick Lane E1;

pianos and carpets just off Hornsey Road N7;

Boots in Camden High Street NW1 (you save vouchers by shopping at Boots);

upholsterer's sundries in great Eastern Street EC2;

Key Flats in Caledonian Road N7

Architectural patterns

Patterns, shapes, colours, textures, reflections, geometry, and strange attempts at DIY

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

Architectural motifs

The quirky details that make a building interesting. Again, these are all to be found along the A1 in Islington

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