Ooh ooh – more woodblocks sighted in Camden Town

Rushing from a bus stop opposite Sainsbury's to Camden Town tube station yesterday, I glanced down at the kerb outside the pub on the corner (these days called The Camden Eye, previously The Halfway House and many more names pre-that) and I noticed a man hole cover plate half filled with wood blocks. 

I just took a quick snap, above left. The second pic is a screengrab from Google Streetview here.

I have added it to the A-Z of Woodblocks here

Guinness advertising in London

My last post about the mural over the railway in Camden got me thinking about other examples of old Guinness advertising on London's streets. We might not have the huge signs that used to be at Piccadilly Circus but there are still a few remnants clinging to the walls, hinting at the colourful ads of the past.  

First, the Millennium Time clock on the side of The Archway Tavern which has been gradually falling apart for decades.

The montage above comes from this post I wrote in May 2017 – but it's looking even more sparse these days with hardly anything left at all. That link also includes my pic of six happy Guinness glasses that used to be on the corner of Rosie McCann's pub in York Way. Below is a screen grab from Google streetview showing the pub with its jolly sign in August 2008. Rosie and the sign were gone by June 2012.

Which reminds me of a few others that have recently disappeared, such as the large painted "Sláinte" (health/cheers!) that used to be on the side of The Eaglet in Holloway, N7. For some reason, in 2019 this 6ft pint of the black stuff was completely overpainted a dull black and nothing has as yet replaced it, as shown in this Google screengrab pic (all pics from here will be from Google unless I specify otherwise):

Back in Camden, but we're now on the High Street looking at the top of The Camden Head, where a neon sign advertising Guinness and The Liberties (its previous name), was still in place until Summer 2015, albeit not illuminated, the pub having reverted to its original name by 2009. 

  

On the same day that I happened upon the railway mural, I'd already discovered another Guinness sign nearby, in the form of a plaque above the doorway of The Lord Southampton public house at the other end of Southampton Road. 

I'd have gone inside and tested this information claim but the pub is closed at the moment. It appears that some moaning minnies who live in the area do not want it to reopen as a pub because of the noise. Hmmm. One wonders why they chose to live close to a pub in the first instance! After all, this pub, with its gorgeous handmade blue Doulton Lambeth tiles and original wooden interior has been a community hub for over a century. It's one of the oldest pubs in the vicinity and would have well-served people visiting or working at Queen's Crescent shops market. Pubs don't have to be noisy and only a handful of people get drunk. I'm guessing the moaners are noisy themselves and assume everyone else is too. 

I took a pic through the window – it's lovely in there and I hope this interior, with its wood panelled walls and bar, is retained.

Probably the best, most intact, heritage pub signage in London can be found on The Crown & Cushion pub on Westminster Bridge Road, almost opposite Lower Marsh where there are two Guinness signs. The panel on the left depicts three flying toucans each balancing two pints of the famous stout on their bills!  Note that the top bird is 3D and protrudes from the board. 

And, d'uh. I almost forgot to mention The Toucan in Carlisle Street, near Soho Square, which is daft because I spent a lot of time in there back in the 1990s, usually in the basement bar which was a welcome refuge on hot days rather than sweating in the noisy street outside. I haven't been in there for over ten years. Is the list of Guinness cocktails still down there? I must go back soon. 

As regards the signage here, the faded hanging sign at the top of the basement stairs is fairly old, but the two flying toucans above the awning are quite new – they were installed in 2013 to fill the spaces where air con units used to be. 

The White Swan, Deptford has two different hanging signs protruding from the building – one is the standard black and gold roundel. I particularly like the other sign of the Guinness mug with a handle, something we rarely see or use these days. The pic below is from 2015, but the pub didn't look open the last time I walked past a few months ago and might well have closed its doors for good by now.

(Update Nov 2024 – no longer a pub, the only sign left here now is the beer mug sign on the left.)

A short walk away, by the river at Deptford, there's the excellent Dog & Bell pub which sports at magnificent toucan ad on the side, however Google streetview shows it wasn't there pre-2019:

Another closed pub is the previously lively Ravenscourt Arms in Hammersmith, a flat roofed pub, looking welcoming in the pic below but the site is currently being developed, the four toucans on the sign having flown away to who knows where.

In central London, not far from the Law Courts, there are a few tiles in a doorway that used to lead into Craig's Oyster Rooms where Guinness was also on offer:

I have often been told about a Guinness ad that had moving parts, located at the junction of Angel tube station. Having searched high and low, I could find no reference of it at all until this image popped up within a Facebook group. It's clearly a snap of a page in a book but the guy who posted it said he didn't know which book it came from, or the exact year. Please advise if you do know the photographer so that I can add a credit. All the buildings on the righthand side have since been replaced by this huge glass building.

Returning to ghostsigns – I never managed to get to Balham to photograph the remains of a painted sign that used to be on the side of a launderette. A friend who lives near there had told me about it but by the time I visited her in early 2019 it had been overpainted. Maggie has taken a good pic of it here. There must have been more hand-painted ads like this all over the country so it's surprising to have never actually seen one myself. 

Sometimes the brand can be found within street art. In Islington, there was a cute little cherub in Pickering Street (off Essex Road, near South Library) holding a broken bottle of Guinness. But this has since been overpainted white: 

I didn't find out who the artist was – most likely to be the work of Bambi who had other artworks on the same building back in 2014. If not her, then it could be Loretto or Pegasus who have similar pieces in this area.

What else? I only have to look at a wall like this one to think of Guinness, ditto those tubular street litter bins when they have a white polythene waste bag dribbling over the top edge. 
A friend told me about this artwork in Hackney Wick which has clearly been added to and, of course, we've got the Guinness Trust buildings all across London. If you can think of any other instances, on the outside of buildings, not inside pubs or on glasses or mats, please let me know.  

Finally, as a teenager I used to have a black long-sleeved sweatshirt with the Guinness brand in white on the upper left side. I'd bought from a stall on Romford Market. I also had a JPS one (Jane Parker Special!). I wore the Guinness top to take my driving test, which I passed first time, and later that day realised that it was a bit daft to be wearing an alcohol brand whilst driving a car and under the pub drinking age! People sometimes asked me what the other side was. Oh ho ho ho. It wasn't until a few years later when the sweatshirt was old and Mum and I were doing some painting and decorating that she suddenly exclaimed "Martini's the right one"! Too late!

An Elephant with a very long trunk – Guinness advertising in Camden

Here's a thing. I was recently wandering around the Lismore Circus area prior to my Elephants Escape guided tour just looking at buildings, wandering down side streets, etc. As I headed up Southampton Road, approaching the railway line I looked across at the painted walls that surround the railways. This is from google streetview, looking north, the direction I was walking:

As I approached the bus stop on the western side I happened to noticed that the mural to my left included a Guinness bottle. Up close it was hard to make out so I stepped back to the kerb to get a wider view and saw that there was the word Guinness next to the bottle, rendered in a sort of blobby black letterform. 

And then I noticed that the letters are either birds, like an Ostrich making the 'G' pouring Guinness from a bottle into the U and the two black swans at the end depicting 'SS', or the letters created by warped pints of Guinness like the letter 'e'. 

How jolly marvellous. I followed it along and found lots more references to those classic Guinness ads of old. This has to be the best bit of Guinness advertising I have ever seen. 

The legs of a walking female wearing wedge sandals, carrying a bottle and, to her right, what I think is the base of a pint of Guinness

A sealion with four pints of Guinness in front of him, possibly on plates

I think this might be a pale pink bird, possibly a crane with a long beak and spiky head feathers 

And then, there are lots of yellow circles and a pale grey arc coming in from the right...

... which turns out to be the very long trunk of an elephant reaching past the Guinness harp motif and blowing bubbles, no doubt Guinness bubbles. Hard to get a good shot of this section being as the bus shelter is in the way.

The tusks are more like those on a woolly mammoth.

And it appears he's singing a song, as depicted by those musical notes.

The far end of the wall is rather faded. But his front legs clearly show that he is running, keen to get to that Guinness!

The strange thing is, I can't spot anything resembling a toucan which was Guinness's most commonly used bird. And, having googled and searched for images of this mural to see how it looked when it was first installed, I have found absolutely nothing at all. In fact the Google streetview from 2009, below, shows the wall has been looking the same for at least 15 years. 

I am also wondering, considering that many things depicted here seem to be decapitated, if an extension to the brick wall was in place when the mural was painted, such as a 2ft strip of wood running the full length.

It's amazing that it's still here at all, especially as the walls on the other side of the road have been overpainted a few times. See here.

If anyone has any information or can date this please do get in touch. Similarly if you have any photos of this it when it was all bright and shiny, I'd love to see them.

Wood block paving in Camden (Part 4 in a series)

You might have already seen my posts about remnants of wood block paving still in situ in today's roads. See here. This kind of surface was implemented to minimise the clippity-clop noise of horses' hooves back in the days before the motor car, yet here and there on today's Tarmac'd streets you'll see small patches of this old surface type, though mostly within man hole covers or on private forecourts.

I'd been told there are some examples hiding in plain sight in Camden, and so last week, on a walk from Hampstead to Mornington Crescent, I kept an eye open for them. 

Heading down Chalk Farm Road, the first cover plate I found with rectangular blocks within it was between the railway bridge and Regents Canal adjacent to Camden Lock Market, shown above looking north. 

I then found a second one on the other side of the canal, this next pic is also looking northwards:

There are more cover plates along that western side of the road, almost evenly spaced, between the canal and the tube station. 

Another woodblocked example can be found on the corner of Inverness Street, viewed here from outside Offspring shoe shop:

I thought I'd found four examples, but when I got home and looked at my photos it seems I only took pics of three of them. Camden is always so busy, it's hard to see where you are going, let alone go on a woodblock hunt. 

The man hole at the end of the road, opposite the tube station, almost at the junction with Parkway, is infilled with Tarmac. I did a quick search around the junction in the hope I might find some others but, no.  

I'm sure there are more to find in this busy zone. After all, with the amount of distribtuition going on in this vicinity, plus Gilbey’s stabling and tunnels linking the various buildings, today converted into subterranean market spaces, there surely must be many more pockets of wood paving here are there. Woodblocks would have been prevalent here to assuage the noise of all those horses’ hooves. In due course, I’ll go for a wander around the market areas as I am bound to find something. I'll update you if and when I find more evidence.

………

Update August 2023: I have set up a London A-Z Directory of Woodblocks. If you can add to the list, please leave a comment under this blog post or email me at jane@janeslondon.com

The changing face of Warren Street – long-lost pubs and international cuisine

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Fitzroy Square, particularly when I used to work at Gannaways/ArtIntegrators within No.4 in the late 1980s. I had intended for that piece to include some other places in the vicinity but as I started typing I started to recall many other things associated with the company and that particular post just got longer and longer.

Here I am returning to the area as a sort of Part 2; the shops pubs and cafes that I used to frequent on this northern part if Fitzrovia during that same era. Today, wandering around the streets immediately adjacent to 4 Fitzroy Square, I can see quite a lot has changed, although at first glance it's not immediately obvious. On closer inspection, I can see that many pubs have been irrevocably ruined, many shops and cafés have changed, and many businesses I knew then are no longer there now, some having completely disappeared without a trace even though the building that used to house them still stands.

Back in the 1980s it was usual to go to the pub at lunchtimes (not just after work!) whether to have meetings with workmates and/or clients or simply just for a bite and a pint. This being before the age of mobile phones it was relatively simple to find employees 'still out at lunch' by sending someone out to do a quick circuit of the local taverns. And we had a marvellous choice here. 

Exiting from the rear of 4 Fitzroy Square into the mews and turning right there was the Grafton Arms with its lovely upper room, evoking the days of Georgian splendour. Today's website makes the whole place look a bit too sanitised and MDF pastiche for my liking. What is this obsession with 'boutique' – This isn't Carnaby Street or the Kings Road in the 1960s. I don't want to buy a Biba dress!

At the other end of the mews on the corner of Warren Street there used to be Rive Gauche, an excellent French café that had absolutely best cherry clafoutis I have ever tasted. They also served marvellous lunches accompanied by a short but good wine list. Today it's home to Little Nan's.

Heading eastwards along Warren St towards TottCt Rd you'll find The Prince of Wales Feathers public house almost oppostite the side exit of Warren Street tube station. In the 1980s this pub had the most amazing horsehoe-shaped bar. I recall even back then thinking how marvellous this was and how there weren't many pubs that still had a similar interior. Being just one shop wide it was a little cramped such that there was perhaps more space behind the counter than there was customer area, but I loved how conversations were held across the bar thus involving the staff. It was really inclusive. There was proper seating at the rear, like a snug. No surprises to find that the interior has been completely gutted (I know not when) and replaced with a long boring bar along the rear wall, with laminate flooring and homogenous furniture and fittings. They call it progress.

On the plus side, I am glad to see that Jai News, the family-run newsagent next door, is still going strong. I used to take my rolls of 35mm film into there for processing, this being the local Colorama collection point.

At the other/western end of Warren Street, on the left, just before Cleveland Street, there is the Smugglers Arms public house. This was another favourite of mine when working in this area in the late-80s. But today, the 'olde worlde' seaside exterior complete with its mini-smuggler-figurehead belies its boring ubiquitous interior. I recall distinctly c1990 taking a group of friends there a life drawing class nearby, telling them how this pub that was reasonably similar inside to The Crosse Keys in Endell St, Covent Gdn, that it was run by a family with a marvellous friendly dog, lovely atmosphere and hand-made doorstop sandwiches in a cabinet on the bar (thick slices of crusty bread packed with proper fillings such as ham salad, corned beef and pickles, cheese and coleslaw) ... the minute I stepped across the threshold, and noticed that the pub carpet had been replaced with something modern, a lump came to my throat and I looked up to see a renovation that as good as broke my heart. Deciding that I couldn't bear to go inside (I still haven't returned) I instead took the group to one of the other pubs adjacent to Gt Portland St station. 

The Smugglers Arms was one many pubs to be stripped of any interest and history during the 1990s; something that was spreading like a disease, a plague, across the whole country at that time. The big breweries, having seen how well a pub was doing under independent management, sought to cash in and many leases were not offered for renewal. Families who had run a successful and popular business for decades now had no source of income and no homes. Gone in a flash was individuality and decades of layered history, and in came blandness and homogenisation. A particularly great loss during this time was the marvellous White Swan in Covent Garden; OK that pub is still there but since that transformation it has never regained the popularity of the 1980s*. 

Another good thing – nearby in Warren Street, at the corner of Conway Street is the marvellous corner shop of  J. Evans, dairy with its gorgeous blue tiles and shop fascia, today an Italian deli. And opposite, a building of the 1930s with geometric pattern details, which is one of the stops on my Art Deco Fitzrovia tour.

Heading back to Fitzroy Square there is a building that really intrigues me. At 43 Fitzroy Street the house is painted or maintained to look like it is in a permanent state of decay. I say this because the five pics at the top here were taken in July 2021, yet the bottom row shows my pics of 2008. Bizarre huh. Look at those layers of painted history. And I am fascinated by the little lock-up shed in the basement area. Whatever the are owners are (not) doing here, I just love it.

Writing this reminded me of other places long gone, yet fondly remembered, perhaps you can add to the list?:

The Adams Arms in Conway Street. This was another early loss in the early 1990s. Much missed and probably the favourite choice of the staff at No.4 Fitzroy Square. This 1742 building had a marvellous front bar, many Georgian and Victorian fittings, an enclosed conservatory area at the rear, and good friendly staff lead by jovial Colin the manager, also a bit-part actor/extra and often to be spotted in ads and videos of that era including Holly Johnson's Love Train where he appears both as a bridgegroom and a flag-waving guard.

Il Pappatore – an Italian restuarant that used to be in a 1970s development at 235 Euston Rd, where now sits the green and white University College Hospital. Although I continued to go there when working at Fitzroy Square, my best memory of the place is a few years earlier when I spent all day there from 10.30am until well gone midnight with Del, the account handler at Strata, just over the road at 22 Stephenson Way. I remember the pale pink on white tablecloths. This extra-long lunch was a treat for successfully managing and completing a job that our client was really pleased with. We had brunch, lunch, dinner, nibbles and alcoholic beverages of all kinds. Other staff from the company popped in to join us throughout the day. And, being as we both lived in the Romford area, it was just one cab ride home also part of the reward. We both showed up for work the next day at 9.30am. And probably went to a pub after work!

The Warren – a marvellous large wine bar underneath The Grafton Hotel, accessed via the alley at the side of Caffe Nero or from Whitfield Street. It was lovely down there. It was often the venue for leaving dos and birthday parties. I tried to take a friend there in the 1990s but found it had gone. 

There were many excellent Indian restaurants to suit all pockets at this northern end of Whitfield Street. I particularly liked the ones that offered fab value help yourself vegetarian lunches. Of these restaurants, only Agra seems to remain. There are still some marvellous Indian restaurants to be found in what's left of Drummond St on the other side of Euston Rd. 

Directly opposite Agra on the corner of Whitfield Place was Stern's African record shop and I recall going in there quite a few times with a friend who would come to meet me for lunch. He often DJ'd and was really into World music of all kinds. The shop had an amazing atmosphere.

Pirroni's on Tottenham Court Road – another Italian restaurant where I used to go for lunch or meet friends in the evening. I can't find any ref of it now, but I'm pretty sure it was where Honest Burgers is today. I was told that the name had links to Marco Pironi the guitarist in Adam and The Ants which could be true seeing as he hails from Camden.

I think I'll leave it there. If I think of more, and I am sure I will(!) I will add them in.

*Some time I'll do a series of Covent Garden in the 1980s posts.

RIP Clark's Creamed Barley (CCB) ghostsign, Mornington Crescent

Yesterday I happened to notice that one of my favourite ghostsigns has been lost beneath an extension to a neighbouring property.
Above Mornington Crescent station, facing north, in prime site for traffic coming down Camden High Street (before it was one-way northwards) there used to be a sign advertising a breakfast cereal. Specifically Clark's Creamed Barley.

BREAKFAST FOOD – It's Cooked And Ready To Serve

For decades it was hidden in plain view. I recall when I spotted it in 2010 how befuddled I was that I had never noticed it before, especially as I worked in the area in the 1990s-2000s.

View from corner of Mornington Crescent, 2010

View, yesterday, 1st July 2020

As you can see, two floors have been added to the next-door building, covering the CCB ad.
The building work looks to be excellent – this is a very good, sympathetic renovation. But, sigh, I do miss that ad which I believe dated from the early 1920s. Even though it's gone it will still continue to be the first stop on my Camden ghostsigns tour as it's such a fascinating product.
From ads of the 1920s: It makes a meal in a moment. No cooking. No waste. Every grain toothsome. It is the most nourishing of all cereals, and it's all-British.

A potted history:

1925. Artist: John Hassell

George Clark started as a grocer but saw the potential in refining and supplying sugar to the brewing trade. By 1897 the family had moved from Westminster Broadway (near St James's Park tube station) to large premises at Millwall Docks, E14. Within two years they had built Broadway Works, a large premises in Aplpha Road complete with a large fancy entrance-way/gate. It was here they started producing caramel as a colourant for the food industry.
Specialist breakfast foods were the new 'big thing' at that time. Decades earlier, Mr Kellogg had created Cornflakes and other companies were swift to jump onto the ready-made bandwagon, offering all sorts of cereal-based one-dish fast-foods to set us up for the day.
Clarks obtained sugars from barley (not just from cane) and then turned the creamed husks into breakfast food enhanced by their caramels. Basically using two by-products to make one new product.

1930s. Location unknown. Possibly Broadway Works. Note the beer barrels

Promo postcard purchased from Ebay

The advertising, like a lot of products back then, and even today, promoted it as healthy energy-maker for young and old alike or, as an ad from 1929 puts it, "from weaning to old age" explaining that those with "impaired digestion" can readily absorb its elememnts of life and energy" because it was pre-digested. Basically, the husks had been removed and it was soft, no chewing involved. another major selling point was that there was no actual cooking involved.  And CCB = Cheerful Chubby Bairns.
A prominent feature on the packaging is the Star of David within a ring of wheat, so we can assume that the Clarks were a Jewish family. If I find more information I will update this. Last year, I was delighted to find and purchase an original 1927 promo postcard on Ebay that has a nmarvellous depiction of the carton on it. It also epitomises the save your tokens, get a 'free' gift style of advertising. Clarks appear to have used this tactic often. As early as 1922 they were advertising a £5 cash prize to anyone who colllected all six parts of their logo being one of the points on the star. One wonders if this was ever actually achieved, if at all possible. In 1929 the company offered four thousand 14" wheel pedal bikes to the first subscribers who collected 100 special red seals which where hidden inside the packets. Other promotions during this era included 'free' Christmas presents (also on redemption of red seals) and, likewise, little toy delivery trucks like the one in the picture, one of which sold for £1,560 at Bonhams in 2008. One wonders if by obscuring the hand-painted sign at Mornington Crescent the product is now even more exclusive. But the price achieved was more likely the condition of the car, especially its rubber wheels, rather than the branding on it.
Other promotions included adaptations of nursery rhymes such as Old King Cole (a merry old souldwas he) calling for his CCB. An ad in 1935 called the product an "All British Health Food" and explained it as: Possessing all the food value of the finest English Barley, these crisp puffed golden grains literally melt in the mouth. They have a rich nutty flavour all their own, and are as nutritive as they are delicious. Other mid-1930s ads have instructions how to make barley water from the product, in an era when Robinson's had already secured product placement at Wimbledon. 

1929

Ads fizzle out post-WWII and the product is only referred to in editorals about rationing and food facts. However the caramel side of the business continued to prosper. George Clark & Son Ltd's Caramel Isinglass Finings ads indicate that for a time pre-WWII the company had additional premises in Bletchley and Manchester. In the 1940s and 50s they advertise themselves as 'makers of every sugar used in brewing.' The most recent ad I have found this far is this one from July 1960.
Clark's Isle of Dogs site continued until 1964 when it was taken over by Tate & Lyle. The buildings no longer exist but a nearby street, Alpha Grove, echoes the past.
The UK appears to have moved on from creamed barley breakfast-style meals, with perhaps the exception of Quaker Oats and the like. But brands similar to Clark's continue to be popular in the US and a Chicago-based company still manufactures today (see below).

If you'd like to find out more about Clarks and the company's products simply do a googlewoogle or why not join me for one of my ghostsigns tours, specifically in Camden or Kings Cross.

 

Locks and Keys

Whilst we're in a form of lock down I thought I'd put together a relevant collection of images I've taken over the past few years.
You might be able to recognise some of them.
Stay safe.

Approx 95% of business doorways look very similar these days to the pics above shown at top left, bottom right and third one in on the second row, with shutters down and padlocks in place. Some establishments, such as pubs are even boarded up to obsure the view inside.
It's a stange world we are living in at the moment. Like we are in a bad movie such as 28 Days Later or Day of The Triffids.

Carved reliefs by G. Herickx at Cecil Sharpe House

A couple of weeks ago I went to an interesting exhibition at Cecil Sharp House, the home of english folk dancing, in Camden NW1. The building is fairly nondescript and belies what goes on inside.
It was first built in 1929 by architects Henry M. Fletcher and Godfrey Pinkerton and at that time was thought to be very modern which seems at odds with folk dancing which keeps old traditions alive.
During WWII the building suffered bomb damage. John Eastwick-Field and Hugh Pite were engaged to make renovations and extensions and in June 1951 the building was reopened by HRH Princess Margaret.
It was during the post-war revamp that six lovely carved reliefs were added around the entrance, three on one side and three on the other, depicting old english dancers, musicians and revellers. A signature at floor level shows the artist as G. Herickx. I particularly like the man on his hobby horse – he looks so stern, so serious compared to the others!

I tried to research the artist in the hope of finding his carvings elsewhere. Nothing of this kind but I did find a Geoffrey R Herickx who, with a name like that, I thought might be the same person. Sources say he was born in Birmingham (but when?!). He painted pastoral/english scenes then, in the 1980s, he produced a series depicting aircraft in flight. He now specialises in miniatures. If this is indeed the same person we can assume that if he was in his early 20s when he created these six panels he will be almost 90 by now.

I asked for further info (see comments below) and have since found out that these are by Gordon Herickx.

As for Cecil Sharp House – there's always a variety things on offer with many different kinds of dance classes, not just Morris, such as tango, clog and salsa. Plus there's live music, workshops and more.
More about what's on at CSH here.

Defaced ghostsigns in Chalk Farm Road

Last month I went out for strol and ended up in the the Camden and Primrose Hill area. I was just enjoying the bright weather, following my nose, look at stuff aimlessly.

As I passed Camden Lock, walking northwards, I noticed that the +120 year old ghostsign for Edwards the tailor which overlooks the canal at Hawley Wharf might be soon lost to us. As you can see here the artist's impression on the hoarding shows a clean wall. I hope this will not be the case as these little hints of the past help to give the area a sense of history.
Moving on northwards I then stopped to wonder what happened to the big rocking chair that used to be on Camden Interiors, at No.19 on the corner of Hawley Avenue. It had been there for decades and was a really good identifier.  I am pretty sure it was still attached to the building after the furniture company moved out so I hope whoever removed it has made good reuse of it.

Then on the next corner, Hartland Road, there is a relatively new ghostsgign. Silks & Spice thai restaurant had also been there for decades but, perhaps, latterly struggled to compete with all the additional food outlets that opened up in the area over the past 20 years, specifically all the Asian streetfood within the Stables Market area opposite.  
And so I continued up the road, fondly remembering happy days in the '90s meeting friends in The Lock Tavern when it was owned by Mick and Iris. Stuff hanging from the ceiling, doorstep sarnies, and oh those fireworks parties in the ramshackle garden!  They sold up and made quite a bit of money on it. Iris probably bought her own helicopter. The new owners tarted it up and used it for C4 TV productions such as Chris Evans' progs and the like. It's never been the same since.
And then past The Monarch, which is not The Monarch if you get what I mean, indeed neither is the Enterprise further up the road and, oh, I miss The Engine Room with its fab music quizzes attended by teams from NME and Melody Maker. Always packed, lively evenings.
And then amid my reminiscences.... BOOM!  Ouch!
I stopped in my tracks... one of my favourite ghostsigns and another one that features on my Camden ghostsgns walk (plug plug again) has been vandalised.
For +70 years this south-facing prime site has been showing us some understated hints of times gone by – a palimsest of signs advertised Johnson the bookbinder, Bacon the stationer and Laurence the draper. Today we can also add Man the egotist and whatever those other two bits underneath are supposed to be.

Chalk Farm Road, opposite entrance to Morrison's

Below is how it used to look in Jan 2009 (slightly enhanced) and I am little annoyed with myself for not taking some pics last year as, since 2009, the sign had further faded such that the [older] draper's sign, had become the strongest element.  

Ah well. What can we do? We can't hold on to everything. The sign will still feature on my tour. And its defacement will help to highlight the plight of these ads... blimey sound like I am talking about endangered animals here...!

Primrose Hill coal hole cover plates

Out wandering about in Primrose Hill the other week I noticed quite a few unusual names and designs on the coal hole cover plates embedded in the pavements there. Most cover plates have patterns on them to stop them from being slippery underfoot. Many just have patterns on them but canny ironmongers realised it was a good way to advertise themselves.
As you see these ironmongers are not all local to the area – Abbott of Great College St, West Bros of Marchmont St, Young of Davies St, Persons of Notting Hill, Watkins of Regents Park (the most local), Philp of Fitzroy Sq (oops, I now see I have put two of those in there!), Davies of Clapham &Camberwell, Ward of Edgeware Rd and Wood & Barrets of Tottenham Ct Rd. I didn't see any company names from addresses in Chalk Farm Road or Camden High Street, which seems odd.
The one I like best is the one that reads, Charles's Safety Plate, by patent act Vic, which I assume is a ref to Queen Victoria. This needs a bit of research. And also some better pics because the light was fading by the time I reached this terrace where almost every house had one of these outside.
Also notice the second pic which shows one of the Abbott covers embedded into two lovely pieces of Yorkstone. This is not the only cover I noticed where a feint keyhole or toilet bowl shape is evident around it. Does anyone know how/why this shape was made?
Another ironmonger, not shown in this collection, was repeated a lot in various different designs. I will post about that company sometime soon once I have put them into some kind of chronological order and done a bit of research.
See also the coal holes of Warwick Square and the contemporary ones in North Audley Street.