Here are two new ghost signs, one from Croydon and the other, on the Walworth Road, very ghostly indeed!
This Millett's sign is not technically a ghost since you can still 'see our windows round the corner'. However, it's a while since the shop has specialised in 'motorists' equipment, leather coats, gloves, etc'. The name also appears to contain a spelling mistake since the shop is actually Millets; such errors were not unknown. (I'll say nothing about the disappearance of the apostrophe: you don't want to read that rant!)
Definitely ghostly is Banks', a shop on the Walworth Road just before it turns into Camberwell Road. Today it's a beauty store, but back when it was Banks' it clearly sold 'fancy goods' and other items which are harder to decipher.
Update: Aztec West has worked out the wording. 'Banks Ltd, high class rugs and fancy goods'.
Finally, this is a good point to mention that the Ghostsigns Archive opens very soon, on 19 March. Thanks to Sam Roberts' hard work, it will have over 600 ghost signs from the UK and Ireland (including some featured on this blog), and the sponsors are - very appropriately - Hovis. Find out more about it here.
This Millett's sign is not technically a ghost since you can still 'see our windows round the corner'. However, it's a while since the shop has specialised in 'motorists' equipment, leather coats, gloves, etc'. The name also appears to contain a spelling mistake since the shop is actually Millets; such errors were not unknown. (I'll say nothing about the disappearance of the apostrophe: you don't want to read that rant!)
Definitely ghostly is Banks', a shop on the Walworth Road just before it turns into Camberwell Road. Today it's a beauty store, but back when it was Banks' it clearly sold 'fancy goods' and other items which are harder to decipher.Update: Aztec West has worked out the wording. 'Banks Ltd, high class rugs and fancy goods'.
Finally, this is a good point to mention that the Ghostsigns Archive opens very soon, on 19 March. Thanks to Sam Roberts' hard work, it will have over 600 ghost signs from the UK and Ireland (including some featured on this blog), and the sponsors are - very appropriately - Hovis. Find out more about it here.
6 comments:
Thanks for the plug Caroline, very much looking forward to opening the archive, still a little to do before it's finally ready but all progressing in the right direction.
Yes, I can make out ''glass'' - the satellite cable runs diagonally over the A. Maybe the -gs word is RUGS.
I think there's a 'to' immediately below ''BANKS'' though it might perhaps be too far to the right for that.
Why isn't there a historical google street view...?
Looking forward to seeing the Ghost Signs gallery when it's launched.
Marmoset, I dream of that historical street view! Even with several books of old photos of Lewisham & Deptford, they always seem to miss the particular bit of street I'm looking for.
Mind you, in time this project could go some way towards providing it: Sepia Town.
I'm not sure about Millett's being misspelt. I used to work for a while in a Millett's shop and was initially surprised to find out that there are two separate companies selling camping gear etc with almost the same name. One had 2 Ts and one has 1 T. I believe that previously they were the same company and split apart after a family dispute, and one branch had to change the spelling of the name. I'll need to do a bit more research to find out the whole story, but that could explain the differences here.
Oh, that's more interesting than a spelling mistake! I never knew there were two companies, I wonder if they've re-merged?
Thinking back, where I worked in the 90s was a "Milletts". It was owned by Peacocks at the time and as you can imagine, was a kind of downmarket version of the more commonly seen "Millets"!
From what I can work out today they are owned by Blacks, but it's all a bit confusing!
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