Tuesday 4 January 2011

Gillette, Criterion and Iron Jelloids, Southwark

Happy New Year to all my readers! If you haven't done so, I invite you to visit my other blog for a festive picture.

Meanwhile on this blog I shall start 2011 by looking at a disappeared palimpsest. Unfortunately the building it was on was restored a few months ago and the painted signs disappeared in the process. Prior to that act of vandalism, three adverts could be seen above the entrance to a newsagent's.


Modern signs for The Times, The Sun, Today, and News of the World used to hide the lower half but a close look at the upper part revealed a combination of three products well-known to aficionados of ghost signs.


The most faded sign was for
Iron
Jelloids

For some information about these sub-carbonate of iron and jujube mass tablets and the company that made them you can refer to an earlier post about the Windsor Road ghost sign.

The other two signs are much easier to read. One promoted
Gillette
Safety
Razor

while the other one encouraged customers to
Buy
Criterion
Matches

This isn't the only wall occupied successively by these brands. A combination of Gillette and Iron Jelloids can be seen in Clapham High Street (first sign of the post), while a palimpsest with Criterion and Gillette still adorns Stoke Newington Church Street. Other walls with those three products will be posted in the future, so keep visiting!

Location: Southwark Bridge Road / Pictures taken on: 10/04/2008

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