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

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!

Guinness Time again. But this time it's an Intellectual Property issue

I have written before on here about Guinness advertising across London. One of the signs I've photographed most often is the broken Millennium clock on the corner of the Archway Tavern, London N19, announcing GUINNESS TIME with a repair man balancing on the heads of an ostrich and a sea lion. Here's wider view from Google streetview in 2008, which is the same year I took the following photo:

This cropped (and squashed) version was until recently available on my Jane's London Etsy site as a greeting card and in various print formats. It has been available on there for ten years*. However, last week I received an email notification informing me that the listing has been removed for Intellectual Property reasons after Etsy were alerted by 'VP of Enforcement' via DiageoGB/corsearch.com. Etsy's response to this is to immediately remove the listing without discussion. Oh great. Thanks. 

Here's one of the montages from my listing showing the formats available with my accompanying description for that listing in italics underneath:

My photo of the Guinness promotional clock on the corner of the Archway Tavern public house on Navigator Square, N19, taken in May 2008 when the sign was still complete. Sadly, today it's in a sorry state as many of the letters have fallen off. Let's hope the new owners fix it.

It's rather ironic that the sign depicts a repair man because, during the subsequent years, it started to literally fall apart. There is hardly anything left of it now. 

Back in April 2017 it looked like this with almost half the letters already missing and others hanging on for dear life:

The Archway Tavern, 8th April 2017 ©JaneAmeliaParker/Janeslondon

In September of that year, I was talking about it to a lady I know who works at a shop near the Archway Tavern. She told me that she had rescued one of the fallen letters having found it on the pavement. At that time the pub was completely closed and in a state of flux. We discussed how surely it was possible for someone with a tall ladder or access to a cherry picker to repair the sign and replace or reinstate the missing parts. Getting the mechanism to work would be a bonus. Keen to get it fixed, I wrote a blog post – Save the Guinness Sign and sent a link to that within an email to Guinness' brand management at Diageo.com. 

I was pleased to get a fairly swift response from Josh Spooner who said that they were glad I had brought it to their attention and they'd look into it, but he said they didn't have the budget to repair it. He asked if I knew who might undertake the repair work (er, if I knew that I wouldn't be having this email exchange, duh!). 

The matter was then passed on to someone called Francesca Hillman at freuds.com (who? more info about this company is needed). She followed up with this email on 28th Sept 2017, saying that the sign is the responsibility of the landlord:

Eh? From this we glean that Guinness are more than happy with the free advertising but they don't want to have anything to do with the upkeep of their own installation. I am befuddled as to why their brand people are now getting their knickers in a twist about a sign they have shown no interest in for decades. 

It's worth pointing out that my cards and prints were available on Etsy during this email exchange yet Diageo and Freuds didn't flag up any infringement back then. 

I let the matter drop and hoped that when the pub finally reopened that the new owner would repair the  sign. But no, the sign continued to fall apart as is shown here:

The Archway Tavern, open again, 15 July 2022 ©JaneAmeliaParker/Janeslondon

I've just wandered up there to take some pics of how it looks today:

The Archway Tavern, 26 August 2026 ©JaneAmeliaParker/Janeslondon

As you can see only one letter now remains – the I from GUINNESS at the very top. 

It's evident that nobody cares but me. I'm going down the garden to eat worms.

Re the removal of my Etsy listing, there is no facility for me to make a counter claim or provide any explanation or back story. Etsy have simply acted in this way because a corporate giant has roared. Ooh scary!  I wonder if the Archway Tavern has been told to remove what's left of the sign for the same reasons?! I doubt it.

The removal notice included the name and email the person at Corsearch/Diageo so I wrote to him including a condensed version of the sign's history. I also made a point that the internet is awash with fake Guinness products and perhaps they ought to go after those plagiarists rather than pick on someone who truly cares about their historic advertising, signage that Guinness themselves admit is not their property or responsibility! If I get a response I will add it here.

The Archway Tavern, 26 August 2026 ©JaneAmeliaParker/Janeslondon

This is not the first time I have trodden on toes re Intellectual Property – in October 2018 had another image removed from my Etsy site because it was said to infringe London Transport's rules. The joke is that this was also an image of part of the Archway Tavern – one of the tiled doorway thresholds that depicts a toucan and a pint of the black stuff on a roundel – yet, in all these years, Guinness don't seem to have been bothered by that one. 

Actually, whilst I'm on the subject of IP... on the flip side, I have myself reported some sellers on Etsy for blatantly copying my clay pipe jewellery. Some of these 'designers' even had the cheek to also copy and paste my written descriptions.  I messaged these people directly and asked where they got their inspiration from. Most didn't have the nouse to realise who I was. One woman told me she'd come up with her ideas quite recently yet she couldn't explain why her necklaces were almost direct copies of mine, even down to the way they were photographed. Worth noting that she had nothing similar or original for sale. Many of the other copyists didn't have the nouse to work out who I was until I included a link to my own work. 

My complaints about this to Etsy fell on deaf ears. They as good as ignored me and did not remove those sellers or their products. I do not have the weight of a corporate giant. 

These people continue to trade on their site. Add to this that most of those sellers are also contravening the PLA's strict rules about mudlarking, specifically making money form items made from Thames foreshore finds – you need a special Creative Permit to do this, and I have one.

*I've not sold many of this image, except to Archway local residents. Please get in touch with me direct via jane@janeslondon.com if you are interested.  

Archway Tavern, N19 – Save the Guinness Sign!!!!

The Archway Tavern building we see today dates from 1888. It looks down Holloway Road towards the City of London. In 1971 its interior featured on the cover of The Kinks' Muswell Hillbillies album.
Over the past few years the pub has stood empty. The ground level was painted a sombre black when the pub was being renovated in preparation to be reopened a few years ago. But work ceased. However the upper floors are available to hire as a nightclub venue accessed by a staircase at the rear.

March 2008 left and April 2017 

As you can see by my comparison pics above, the surrounding pavements have recently been extended and remodelled to create an open piazza area. Judging by all the articles in the local press this has caused a lot of 'stress' and 'upheaval' for people confused how to navigate the junction as the building work progressed. The people of Archway don't like change. Grump grump. Harrumph harrumph.
Pedestrians have been getting all angsty as bus stops were moved and then moved again and motorists complained about not being able to navigate what used to be a roundabout. They are probably all still complaining now. And will continue to do so.

Approx 100 years ago

But hold your horses here people!! Back in the day this was never a roundabout in the first place. See right. Ditto Highbury and Islington roundabout, but that's another story.
I think the end result will be good for the area, not least of all for the shops and businesses in Archway Close that were as good as stranded on an island.
The building work is now almost complete and I have already made use of excellent pedestrian crossings from Archway Road, St John's Way and Holloway Road into the piazza and Archway tube station. My only concern is that the new cycle paths that cut through the zone may cause a few problems; the cyclists, not the cycle paths.
But, back to the tavern...
Look at the Millennium Guinness sign on the corner of the building and see how during the last nine years bits of it have fallen off.

Photos of the Guinness sign in 2008 and 2017. Available as a greeting card along with these other two also from the Archway Tavern.

The sign on the Archway Tavern was erected for 2000 and if you study it you can see it is a bizarre and not very animal-friendly image. It shows a workman, or possibly a clock repairer (or clock thief?!), standing on the nose of a seal and the beak an ostrich (which has a pint glass stuck in its throat) as he reaches up to the clock, with a toucan flying in from the right balancing two pints of the black stuff on its bill. It all looks rather precarious. But I love it.

York Way, June 2008

I am hoping that when the pub opens again the new owners will see fit to replace the missing letters on the sign.
Signs such as theses this become iconic local landmarks. Many have disappeared from our streets over the years including one that used to be on York Way opposite the end of Agar Grove – it had five happy Guinness pints under a clock.
An assessment of the sign here.
See also the Guinness collectors' site.

Spots V Stripes

Hello, my names's Jane, and I'm in Stripes. Or is it... I'm a Stripe?. Oh I dunno.

Whatever it is, it's a Cadbury's thing in conjunction with the Olympic Games.

Last week I went to a games evening thing organised by phd where we tried to break some Guinness world records. These consisted of daft things like making a bed, stacking coins with one hand, clicking windows closed on a PC, chucking teabags in cups etc.

I didn't win any prizes on the night... I was too busy trying to break the red wine drinking record.

Thanks guys, it was a fun night... see a short vid of the evening here.

More info about getting involved here.

Three coal hole covers, a spotty dog in Mayfair, spotlights (Baron menswear RIP) and chocolate in Piccadilly, chewing gum outside the Astoria (RIP boo hoo) and the base of the Gherkin.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Clockwise from top left:

St Patrick's International College, W1; ghostsign for Craven 'A' cigarettes, SW9; side alley of The Lamb and Flag, WC2; The Dublin Castle, NW1; Connolly's, W4 (and Robin Hood wore green!); The Green Man and French Horn (which he seems to have lost) and, yes, I do know he's a ref to England, not Ireland, but I couldn't find a pic of a leprechaun; Paddington coal hole cover; Guinness advertising board, SE1.

The Dusk Bar, Somerset House Terrace

Last week, along with 4 other London bloggers, I was invited to Gintelligensia at Dusk, the pop-up bar on the terrace facing the river at Somerset House, for a promotional eve of gin mixology. I had ideas of being a gin-soaked DJ for the evening but it turns out we were there to learn about Bombay Sapphire gin; how it's made etc.

As we sat bouncy on Tom Dixon chairs, Sam Carter, Bombay Sapphire Brand Ambassador, no less(!) took us on a BS historical world tour of the botanicals (spices) that go into the gin, using his globe trolley wotsit, with its fancy plinth (I love that word) and sapphire pins indicating where each of them comes from.

Sam was great but, to be honest, my mind kept wandering. I kept saying to myself "This is his job; how bizarre!", "how much is this costing?", "this isn't my kind of thing*; can I go now?" and, more to the point, "Can I have a Guinness please?". I very quickly got to the point where I felt I'd sniffed and chewed quite enough seeds and bits of dry wood; I didn't really care enough and as for making a cocktail myself, I always think people look really silly shaking their shakers, and spinning the bottles about like Tom Cruise in 'Cocktail'. No. Thank. You. I am a pub girl.

According to Sam's delicate palate, my version of BS Berry Spice (as created by Marcius Dzelzainis of Quo Vadis), was the best of the four. So, seeing as we were each given a goody bag containing a bottle of BS (result!), a cocktail shaker, a strainy thing that looks like a face, a stirrer, soda water, even some little sachets of sugar and a lemon, I will be trying to replicate the taste at home. I may have to keep trying until I get it right....

But the drinks did taste good. And who knows, I may yet become a BS convert. I will ask for it next time I fancy a G&T. I did have a nice time and it was good to see Tom again, and meet Jem and Jennie.

If all this cocktails in a plastic tent sounds like your kind of thing, Sam will be doing these eves up until 18th October – just contact him through the Bombay Sapphire Site.

There you go... promotion over!

*The last thing I was invited to do that wasn't my kind of thing got the one of the longest entries on here too.

Another elephant spotted in Camden... and a few other beasts too!

On Friday afternoon, after spending a pleasant hour or so at The Ben Uri Gallery looking at The Anthony Rudolf Collection, specifically his relationship with the marvellously talented Paula Rego (wow!), I headed north up Abbey Road and, as I approached the road bridge over the railway adjacent to Langtry Walk, South Hampstead, I noticed there are faded murals on either side and I wondered if the walls might also be a form of advertising as per the Guinness mural just east of here in Southampton Road.

The artwork here is actually difficult to see when you are up close or walking past – probably best viewed from the top deck of a bus or, if on foot, from the middle of the road, which isn't really possible as regards the traffic, and the railings rather obscure the view from either side. 

Here is the West side as I approached:

And this is the East side as viewed from more-or-less the same spot:

The paintwork is rather splishy-sploshy and in many places very faded or obscured by graffiti and I was half way along this west side before I noticed anything discernible – a spotty yellow beast caught my eye, followed by a few bizarre 'humans' and then something that looked like a dinosaur and a date of Summer '78, indicating that it's been here 47 years! 

So out came the camera and I started taking pics along the whole wall, finding it was easier to view the illustrations on a small screen. There are no references to any alcoholic beverages, instead we have a series of loosely-painted figures and animals. I am at a loss as to whether there is a theme here and I wonder if the things depicted relate in some way to this part of Camden. 

Returning to beginning, here's the wall from the left/south end heading northwards. The first figure is a dark-skinned lady with wings in a white dress and white shoes next to a pale-skinned brunette in a pink dress who appears to be inside a room/turret. Perhaps they are characters from fairytales? I can't decide if the yellow spotty beast is a horse or a leopard. The big peach-coloured creature is either a cat or a dog wearing glasses. 

I now see that I forgot to take the pics of the section between the ladies and the spotty beast, but by zooming in on the wide shot below and looking at google streetview I can make out a figure in yellow, lots of flowers and shrubs, and a small child in blue that looks to be balancing an octopus on its head.

 

After the dog/cat, there's a pointy-eared, masked and muscly, superhero character who is waving his pointy brown hand at us. He is either wearing something striped or is a zebraman hybrid.

The fella next to the zebraman could be wearing a crown, or perhaps he's a strongman as it looks like he's holding a bar at chest height that has pendulous phallic things at each end. The last one of these three gentlemen also looks to be wearing a crown enhanced with rubies, or perhaps that's a shock of blond hair. He's very happy about his diagonally-striped jumper. 

There follows a huge bit of tagging where 'DOGGS' has covered quite a lot of the artwork (not shown here) after which the mural is signed and dated but the powers that be have seen fit to slap a Danger sign across the wording. 

I can make out D S….NTING, Summer '78 on a banner which is supported on the right side by a dark haired man in a blue stripey jumper. Next to him we have the little stick man from The Saint TV programme that starred Roger Moore the titular role (eh? why?) and then that aforementioned dinosaur which, I didn’t realise until I started pulling this together, better resembles The Gruffalo. 

But it can't be The Gruffalo because that didn’t appear in print until 1999, seventeen years after this mural was painted, so perhaps it’s supposed to be one of the monsters from Where The Wild Things Are which was published in 1963. After the horned beast there is an igloo beneath a night sky complete with crescent moon and two colourful men having a jig about near a forest of fir trees.

A tobogganist wearing a green roll-neck jumper, hat, scarf and goggles, then whizzes down the side of a snowy landscape that might be a nod to Parliament Hill Fields in the wintertime, and the whole thing ends with a mountain range which surely can't be Hampstead.

The eastern side of the road starts at the northern end with a double decker London bus. Across its advertising space it bears the the name of the people who made this mural in Summer 1973. Unfortunately this has been tagged and the original hand-painted lettering has been partially obscured making it rather hard to discern. 

I suspect it’s a local school. Two words beginning K... R...?

After the bus there is a large head and shoulders of a green-skinned man with black hair and beard. There are lots of people behind him, and similar crowds continue for half the mural because, as we see, as they have come to see a parade. 

It starts with a zebra pulling circus cage that contains a tiger. Then we see a moustachioed policeman and a fella that resembles either Elvis or The Fonz. Then a man running followed by a man wearing a red coat and striped trousers who, on close inspection, is playing a trumpet. Aha, the band has arrived!

Then more members of the brass band – two trumpeters and a man playing the symbols – who are wearing a slightly different uniform. 

And here comes the elephant with another ill-positioned warning sign has been slapped over its eye and ear.

A tall tree or post begins a new section with a large area of black paint behind what I think is a either sea lion (part of the circus) or a short-legged grey dog within a bucolic scene which includes a colourful butterfly, a fox, and a small animal or bird hiding in a hollow in a tree. 

A wooden fence around a lake (not shown here) could be one of the ponds on Hampstead Heath. 

This is followed by some kind of strange tall striped thing. At first I wondered if this depicted a firework display and/or a bonfire referencing local events but, having again looked at the google streetview, I now believe it's a Punch and Judy tent. This wall ends with a raven haired lady in a red coat carrying a large yellow sack decorated with blue spots.  

Intriguing eh? If this is 47 years old, then there must surely be come ex-Camden schoolkids still around who remember this being installed, or even helped to paint it. Any additional info most welcome.