Thursday, 13 January 2011

Ghost signs (47): W...LEY


I seem to spend a lot of time moaning about partially-obscured ghost signs, but at least when they're covered by hoardings there's hope of seeing them uncovered one day. This Brockley example has suffered rather more permanent erasure of its middle.

The Eddystone Road sign still has snippets of information: the business was at number 108, possibly Brockley Rise, SE23 and its telephone number was Forest Hill 5743. Confusingly, though, the large word at the top seems to have been overpainted: two Ls appear to have pre-dated the final EY. I'll probably need to browse some old trade directories to sort this one out!

4 comments:

Steve Grindlay said...

I wonder if it could be Walter Tilley (W.Tilley), who had an upholstery shop at 108 Brockley Rise from before 1925 until after 1939?

CarolineLD said...

That would fit perfectly - thank you!

Sam Roberts (Ghostsigns) said...

This popped up on Twitter today, have referenced these comments in my response. Has the Tilley theory been verified?

CarolineLD said...

Thanks for the reminder, Sam - I've just checked the 1935 telephone directory, and it has a Gladys Tilley at that address and telephone number (Forest Hill 5747) so I think we can consider it confirmed!