If you made a visit to the fashionable spa town of Harrogate, you would want to know who else was in town. (Good company might distract you from the taste of the water!) If you were one of the businesses serving those taking the waters, you would want to advertise the high-toned visitors to be met there. And if you were an enterprising newspaper publisher, you could keep both groups happy by publishing regular lists of visitors.
That's just what these Harrogate ghost signs are advertising. Above the former offices of the Harrogate Herald, now a pub, are painted signs promising 'List of visitors Wednesday' and 'Saturday'. To the side, the company name (R Akrill) is now illegible; they were also 'general printers'.
2 comments:
I think quite a few newspapers in resort towns used to do that. I remember a family holiday in Southport in the 1960s when the paper ran lists of visitors, who would then buy a copy to take home with them. Great for sales.
I didn't realise the lists lasted until so recently! You're right, it's a brilliant sales technique, which I'm sure also always played a part.
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