Have you ever noticed a small knobbly bit on the top of a post box and wondered why it's there? Well, here's the answer: it once held a double-sided sign which pointed towards the nearest post office, like this one in Lennoxtown on the outskirks of Glasgow. Most of these sign-holders have been damaged over the years, leaving just the central attachment point, and very few retain their original signs.
L’appli de photos a exhumé l’autre jour ce cliché pris il y a tout juste six ans (😢), montrant le somptueux #ghostsign soigneusement conservé de l’ancienne librairie Reedmor Books à Philadelphie. #passionbriques 🧱
Ghost sign for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children on Old Dumbarton Road in Glasgow. The city's first dedicated children's hospital, it originally opened in 1882 in Garnethill. In 1914, it moved to new premises in Yorkhill in the West End of Glasgow where it remained until it was replaced by the new Royal Hospital for Children on Govan Road in 2015.
New Orleans stale beer signs volume II, Regal edition. (Regal was brewed by American Brewing Company on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter c 1891-1961)
Elizabeth's Restaurant, Bywater (old signage since restored)
@Infrogmation@noladon FYI, some folks who are interested in old advertising signs on buildings use the term "ghost signs" and will happily find posts like this if you add hashtags such as #ghostsign#ghostsigns
I love coming across these old decorative thresholds bearing what are often the last traces of long-gone businesses. This one is at 10 Park Road in the West End of Glasgow. I don't know for certain, but it may relate to A. and L. Cameron, Drapers and Shirtmakers, who occupied this shop between 1902 and 1904.
Ghost sign over the back entrance to the former Woolworths store on the ground floor of Charing Cross Mansions in Glasgow. The main store front was at 22 to 26 Saint George's Road (where Tinderbox now is). Opened in 1922, this was the third Woolworths store in Glasgow (after ones on Union Street and Argyle Street, and the 121st Woolworths store overall. It closed in the 1970s.
I found this fantastic little ghost sign today at the entrance to a tenement close on High Street in Glasgow. The tenement was built in 1901, but the phone number (Bell 976) indicates the sign dates from sometime between 1936, when the Bell Telephone Exchange opened on nearby Ingram Street, and the 1960s, when the Bell prefix was phased out in favour of the numerical ones 552 and 553.
I came across this ghost sign outside a tenement in Dennistoun yesterday, which got me wonder about who C. Gregory was. First, there's the initials after their name: A.R.C.O, which was an accreditation introduced by the Royal College of Organists in 1894 as a measure of professional competency. So far, this isn't anything more than others who have come across this sign before me have worked out.
Tout bleu le #ghostsign de l‘ancienne manufacture Lagache à Lille Moulins (fabrication de boîtes en métal, rebaptisée et remarketée depuis). #passionbriques 🧱
There's something rather satisfying about the fact that the word missing from this ghost sign under the Central Station Bridge in Glasgow is the word Missing!
Follow the link above for news of ghost signs lost, partially destroyed, and 'brought back' from the dead, as change is the only constant in the capital.
By way of a brief introduction, I'm Sam Roberts, author of Ghost Signs: A London Story (pictured, and at https://ghostsigns.co.uk/book), leader of the Ghostsigns Walking Tours (https://ghostsigns.co.uk/tours), and all-round ghost sign and sign painting obsessive.
I'm planning to use @pixelfed to periodically share photos of ghost signs, which may be my own, or may have been shared by others.
The former Glasgow Eye Infirmary building on Sauchiehall Street with its golden ghost sign.
Founded in 1824 by Dr G. C. Montieth and Dr William Mackenzie, the Glasgow Eye Infirmary was originally located near Glasgow Cross. It moved to the West End 1874 where it had beds for up to 100 patients paid for by subscriptions, endowments and fund raising activities.
A Galbraith's Store ghost sign peeking out from behind a newer facade on Novar Drive in the West End of Glasgow. Galbraith's was founded in Paisley in 1894. By the time it was bought up by what would eventually become Safeway Ltd in 1954, Galbraith's had over 220 stores.
My new favourite Glasgow ghost sign. It's on Royal Exchange Court and it's a bit faded now, but you can still make most of it out. It reads: Boys found playing at balls or marbles will be handed to the police.
Jacobean Corsetry sign on Virginia Street in Glasgow. Established in 1946, the Jacobean Corsetry shop occupied this site until it closed in 2000. However, it's distinctive and much loved sign remains, and the building itself has since been renamed the Jacobean Building in its honour.
The corner dome of 450 Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. It was designed by Watson and Mitchell in a Free Renaissance Style in 1899.
The ghost sign refers to William Robertson Grieve, a couture dress maker, mantle maker and silk merce whose business occupied this building from 1905 onwards.
Hey San Francisco! I heard they're restoring the Cherin's sign on Valencia and 18th. Anyone able to take a pic for the SF Ghost Sign Mapping Project? #ghostsign#sfba