Tout bleu le #ghostsign de l‘ancienne manufacture Lagache à Lille Moulins (fabrication de boîtes en métal, rebaptisée et remarketée depuis). #passionbriques 🧱
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 🧱
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
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.
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.
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.
It's all offered free of charge to broaden access, but for those that can, a suggested $10 contribution to the running costs is appreciated: https://bl.ag/tip.
Please #Boost to help reach more people that might like to indulge in these adventures in sign painting.
The Light Capsules initiative from Craig Winslow had me hooked from the moment I saw it.
Craig's latest installation in Winnipeg was the 'Ghost Sign Corner' feature in BLAG 04 (https://bl.ag/04) and he will be sharing a little of that at this weekend's BLAG Meet, before diving into some of his process, and what's in the pipeline for future installations.
Craig's session is one of 18 across 11 hours, all online and free to join: https://bl.ag/meet.
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.
In 1971, the in-patient accommodation building on Berkeley Street burned down and in-patients were instead housed at the then newly built Gartnaval Hospital, which became the permanent home for all the eye infirmary's services in 1998.
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
Threshold of the former James McFarlane Wholesale and Retail Ironmongers on Trongate in Glasgow. The business was founded by William Spence in 1844, and was purchesed by James McFarlane in 1886.
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.