Friday 13 November 2015

Hoover and Au Grand Quartier, Bourg-sur-Gironde

This wall offers a nice palimpsest, with Hoover's logo covering an ealier advert for Au Grand Quartier, one of Bordeaux's most famous clothes shop. There was certainly a third sign but I didn't manage to identify it.


Founded in 1908 in Ohio, vacuum manufacturer Hoover arrived in France in 1932. This ghost sign painted on a wall managed by advertising agency Bézicot (see here) dates from the mid-1960s though.



Hoover

The Hoover signs covers one for Au Grand Quartier, a clothes shop founded in 1929 by Marcel Castelle. Well known by several generations of people from Bordeaux and the surrounding area, who bought all sorts of good quality garments in this shop located Rue Ste-Catherine, Au Grand Quartier (later shortened to Grand Quartier) closed down in 2012.



Hommes   -   Dames   -   Enfants
Prêts à porter et sur mesure
Au Grand
Quartier
22 à 30 Rue Ste Catherine     Bordeaux

[Gentlemen   -   Ladie   -   Children
Ready-to-wear and made to measure
Au Grand
Quartier
22 to 30 St Catherine's St     Bordeaux]

Location: Rue du 4 Septembre, Bourg-sur-Gironde, Gironde

Friday 6 November 2015

Sowden's, Calstock

A very faded ghost sign for a business by the name of Sowden's, painted over an earlier one for Walker.



Sowden's [painted over Walker]

Location: Commercial Road, Calstock, Cornwall

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Otto Dick, Bützow

A not-so-cheerful ghost sign spotted in a street of Bützow, a small town in northern Germany. I wonder whether this house survived the tornado (F3 on the Fujita scale) that devastated the town on May 5, 2015, one year after I took these photos.


Särge          Otto Dick          Möbel
Tischlermeister


Otto Dick
Tischlermeister
[Master Carpenter]


Särge
[Coffins]


Möbel
[Furniture]

Location: Mantzelstraße, Bützow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Monday 2 November 2015

August Haackert, Gustrow

A couple of warehouses are still standing near Güstrow train station, between the aptly-named Speicherstraße (Warehouses Street) and the railway tracks 


One of these belonged to coal merchant August Haackert. The building dates probably from the late 19th or early 20th century and was used to store coal and building materials. Following the fall of the Wall, it was used briefly to store cereals.


Aug. Haackert
Kohlen     Baustoffe     Eisen
[Coal     Building Materials     Iron]


After years of decay, the Haackert warehouse, which is listed, has been recently restored and houses nowadays the "Physiotherapie im Speicher" practice.


Since these photos were taken the windows and the roof have been replaced and the ghost sign given a new coat of paint.

Location: off Speicherstraße, Güstrow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern