At first sight the bright background to this ghost sign seems regular but a closer look shows that it was actually too narrow for "Whitbread's" and had to be extended towards the left and the right, in unequal measure, at that level: the first half of the "W" and the "S" are out of frame. Was this wanted to make the name of the brewer stand out or was that bad planning by the sign writer?
The sign for Strike's Stores can be seen on
this postcard printed c. 1912 and posted on the excellent blog
Postcards Then and Now. Back then the sign looked rather recent.
Strike's
Stores
Agents For
Whitbread's
Bottled
BeersMatured
In
Bottle | | The
Natural
Method |
Location: High Street, Thames Ditton, Surrey / Picture taken on: 25/08/2009
1 comment:
Thanks for the link to my postcards blog Sebastien! I've had a good look at the original postcard, it seems that the text for 'Whitbread's' has a slightly darker background. This would indicate to me that Strike's stores were originally agents for a different brewer and when they struck up a deal with Whitbread only part of their sign was altered. Perhaps the sign-writer was paid by the letter?
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