Comments on: Keeper Of The Dead Signs

By: Layers of History in Spitalfields – Salterton Arts Review

Layers of History in Spitalfields – Salterton Arts Review — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 14:42:07 +0000

[…] and around the Moorish Market we see the marks of different generations on the built environment. This site has a good blog post on ‘dead’ signs around Spitalfields including the one I have […]

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 17 Jan 2021 02:59:49 +0000

I love this. I just LOVE this.

By: Sue

Sue — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 23:11:56 +0000

Dexion Cheap.
Always puzzled me in the small ads. in the Evening News on a Saturday. I never liked to enquire of my parents in case it was rude!

By: Steve Shinners

Steve Shinners — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 19:58:43 +0000

Create no nuisance is great . As are all the signs, gives a kind of footprint of previous people and businesses.

By: Lady Dod

Lady Dod — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 16:05:11 +0000

This last sign “Diaphanous oblivion on Commercial St” very much intrigues me. I would love to take different light spectrums to the paint and see what it says underneath!

By: David Antscherl

David Antscherl — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 12:29:00 +0000

Well, those signs triggered some memories! I recall Dexion shelving as well, Caroline. Fortunately, as my father was an engineer, no injuries were sustained.

The ‘courteous hand’ directional sign was known as a ‘printer’s fist’ in letterpress days. It was faithfully copied by the sign painter, whose work has survived remarkably well.

Thank you, G.A. for today’s reminiscences.

By: paul loften

paul loften — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 12:25:58 +0000

There was a sign outside my old school, Parmiters in Approach Road which read”Raines Foundation.” it could have been both a dead sign and a ghost sign. Our school was at this site for hundreds of years and the sign appeared when Parmiters moved to Watford in the 70’s.
Raines took it over around 1985 and now they have gone. they were not there for 30 years but when it recently closed the East London advertiser sent a journalist there to write an article about the sad closure. The article somehow forgot to mention that the site was originally Parmiters school for hundreds of years and that Raines was only there for around 30 years. This fine old building will now probably turn into an office block or expensive flats.
The ghosts of the Parmiter’s old boys were said to be heard whispering “It was us that wore away the steps” not Raines. The old school keeper BillRoberts swore he saw a ghost in one of the classrooms on the top floor.

By: Roy Reed

Roy Reed — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 11:48:31 +0000

I love these old signs.

By: Borin Van Loon

Borin Van Loon — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 11:44:19 +0000

This is a fine post about ‘ghost signs’ (in the current vernacular). I have one two of these Fashion Street locality examples on my Ipswich Historic Lettering website (which garners old lettering from other towns, wherever I happen to pitch up) on my Spitalfields page. I’m delighted to see other signs in the area. I have two other examples of ‘Commit no Nuisance’: one in Tewkesbury and one in St Albans.

Caroline’s Miscellany (online) has information about the elaborate building taking up much of the north side of Fashion Street (including the derivation of the street name): The Moorish Market on part of which is the ‘Steam Dept.’ sign.

Let’s hope the ongoing gentrification of the area preserves and celebrates these parts of local working class history, rather than expunging them.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 11:22:03 +0000

Many are the old signs that I wish I had photographed. Perhaps my favourite was within the old Whitbread Brewery in Chiswell Street. I had occasion to work there for a few weeks back in the early 1970s. This was when the stables were still operational and the magnificent shire horses were still employed to deliver beer by brewers dray. The exit door from the gents toilet had a beautifully etched decorative glass panel upon which was inscribed “Gentlemen please adjust your dress”. Sadly, like so much of the old City of London, the brewery was closed down in 1976 and eventually redeveloped. I sometimes wonder where that door is now…