Wednesday 31 August 2011

Western's Laundry, Crouch Hill

This ghost sign has been slowly fading away but when freshly painted it would certainly have caught the attention of the passing public with its modern design and its deep blue frame, a colour that matched the ultramarine tiles used on the front of the laundries (unfortunately these and the chrome lettering are long gone).
From the few pieces of information I could find, it seems Western's Laundries Ltd was founded during the first decade of the 20th century. By the 1960s, if not earlier, it had become part of the Sunlight group. Its laundries, located in north London, remained open until the 1980s.

Western's
Laundry
Service & ...
Every ...
...

A white band with the letters "has a" is wrapped around the first letter of 'Service.' Was this part of the Western's Laundry sign or of an earlier one?


Location: Middle Lane Mews / Picture taken on: 19/10/2010

3 comments:

Sam Roberts (Ghostsigns) said...

Never noticed that 'has' on the S. My guess would be it is part of the sign as painting white over black isn't really done by signwriters. Also, it would be a very unusual fade if it existed underneath the S as most of the letter is still in pretty good condition.

Sebastien Ardouin said...

The rest of the 'S' is still in good state indeed. This white strip is slightly puzzling: it doesn't extend beyond the 'S' and doesn't match the style of the sign. One more ghost sign mystery!

Sam Roberts (Ghostsigns) said...

It almost looks like a 'sash' or banner/flag of some kind wrapped around the S.