'Ghost Signs' Haunt London's Reviving Neighborhoods

[marmar]

‘Ghost Signs’ Haunt London’s Reviving Neighborhoods
Hundreds of hand-painted signs endure in parts of the U.K. capital, marking the city’s 19th century boom. But many of these advertising artifacts are fading fast.

By Feargus O'Sullivan
December 2, 2021, 1:00 AM EST


(Bloomberg CityLab) Study the buildings flanking London’s older streets closely and you’ll see one soon enough: an old painted sign that, once bright and eye-catching, is now faded into the masonry, the name of the business or product it promoted flaking and faint.

Such “ghost signs” are fixtures of older neighborhoods in many cities around the world, but the U.K. capital, which bustled with competing commercial enterprises in the 19th and early 20th centuries, is unusually well-supplied with them. Ghost signs aren’t always easy to spot, but for sharp-eyed passersby and enthusiasts of urban history, they add an extra dimension to London’s appearance, their florid Victorian or cheerful art deco script and images a spectral reminder that once, not that long ago, these were somebody else’s streets.

Sign expert Sam Roberts has been cataloguing his obsession with these advertising artifacts in a blog since 2006. Now, with photographer Roy Reed, he has collected over 270 of London’s most attractive and intriguing — about one third of the city’s total — into a new book published by Isola Press. Ghost Signs: A London Story records a neglected part of London’s heritage, provides some fascinating insights into the bygone trade of sign-writing — and even helps chart the growth of literacy in the U.K.



These old signs are by nature fragile. They only start to count as ghost signs, after all, after they have fallen obsolete and faded, and they are vulnerable to new development. Roberts’ longtime favorite, an ad for Black Cat cigarettes featuring a giant cat, disappeared from view in 2016, when a new building went up next door (opening up the possibility that future demolition might allow it emerge again). Survivors are most likely to cluster on busy streets in the part-residential, part commercial doughnut of neighborhoods surrounding central London that developed roughly between the years 1875 and 1925. The street will likely have undergone a period of neglect before being recently revived or protected by historic preservation orders. ..............(more)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-12-02/artifacts-of-a-lost-london-live-on-in-fading-ghost-signs?

[Tomconroy]

1. I remember that Take Courage slogan was still around in

The 1970s. Rather than urging the Brits towards civic virtue, it was advertising a brand of beer.

[brooklynite]

4. And a fine Bitter it was...

[StarryNite]

2. Neat that somebody is cataloguing the signs because once gone...

they won't be back. At least not the originals.

[brooklynite]

3. Plenty to find in NYC...

…and in both cases, an indication that cities are dynamic entities with neighborhoods that change frequently. Which is for the best.

[Shellback Squid]

5. a beer called "Courage"

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Named after the founder John Courage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courage_Brewery

possibly of French Huguenot origin.

[crickets]

6. Interesting.

The signs are lovely for as long as they remain. Glad to see someone taking pictures of them before they're gone.

[Wounded Bear]

8. Have one in my home town...

on the old JC Penney's store downtown.