Ghost signs
I used to live above a corner shop and when this corner shop changed hands the new owners had new signage put up. Revealing, in the interim, a ghost sign. Painted onto the corner of the building, covered by the modern external signs. Just hanging out there all that time.
I love that they are called ghost signs because that's exactly how they look and feel. There are a few I see regularly in my city and I think I might cry if anything happened to them. I really ought to check they are on a database somewhere.
Hovis are really embracing this. They have a map of their ghost signs and a blog post The Fading Legacy of Hovis Ghost Signs: A Testament to Time and Tradition which is pretty cool of them. I've had a quick look around and can't see any other brand that does this, though Hovis always leans hard on the heritage angle.
Ghost signs aren't protected, unless they happen to be on a protected building or in a conservation area. Though they can be taken into account as part of the planning process. The idea, when they were first painted, that however many decades or a century later, people would care about them or want to preserve them as history is probably laughable to their painters. The Victorians were brutal about heritage. Many of the signs were painted over in their heyday, now double or triple ghosts.
The actual advertisements are a whole other kettle of fish, I love a vintage advert as I have mentioned before.
Ghosts all over our buildings, selling us soap.
- Ghostsigns.co.uk has tonnes of articles, photos, books, and run tours
- the same chap's more general signs blog: Sam Roberts
- and particularly Ghost Signs: London's Fading Spectacle of History
- Historic England's Ghost Signs: Spooky Remains of a Hidden Past
- a short Wikipedia article with a few photos
Filed under History and heritage
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