Vidal, Lille

Doorstep mosaics may be less frequent in France than in Britain but some good examples can still be seen around, like this one in the centre of Lille.

Location: Rue Saint-Nicolas, Lille, Nord / Picture taken in June 2012

Dewhurst, Forest Hill

Once a familiar sight in British high streets, Dewhurst stores disappeared in 2006. All that is left are some doorstep mosaics like the one below in Forest Hill.

I haven't found anything about the first years of J. H. Dewhurst. However in the early 1920s it was bought, alongside other butchery firms such as Eastmans, by the Union Cold Storage Company Ltd, a company based in Liverpool and founded in the 1890s by William and Edmund Vestey.
Over the decades the number of Dewhurst outlets increased to reach 1,400 by 1977. However from the 1970s they were facing increasing competition from supermarkets. In 1980 Union International, part the Vestey empire, rebranded its butchery subsidiaries as Dewhurst The Master Butcher but this was not enough to save them. Profits and consequently the number of outlets declined steadily throughout the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, when Britain was hit by recession. In March 1995 Dewhurst, which had by then around 400 shops, went into receivership. A few months later a team of managers rescued the firm in a buy-out that involved around 210 shops. In 2005 West Country butchers firm Lloyd Maunder took over control of Dewhurst but they failed to revive the fortunes of the high street butcher's. In 2006, 60 stores closed down and the administrators were called in to sell the 35 remaining oulets.

Dewhurst is credited with the introduction of front shop windows for butchers'. Previously meat used to hang outside, fully exposed to the elements and to pollution.

I am sure that Finney will provide some valuable additional information about Dewhurst, so check the comments soon.

Click here to watch a video that includes many pitures of Dewhurst stores and tools associated with the trade.

Location: Dartmouth Road / Picture taken in July 2009

Olivers, Tiverton

With such a name I expected to find a story with a twist behind this doorstep mosaic, but alas, I drew a blank.

Update: it appears Oliver's was a shoe shop. See comments.

Location: Gold Street, Tiverton, Devon / Picture taken in April 2012

Eastmans, Exeter

Since the butchery firm Eastmans Ltd had hundreds of outlets across the country, I was bound to find another of their doorstep mosaics after the one in Exmouth. Indeed a couple of days later, I noticed this one in Exeter.
The post about the Exmouth mosaic includes a couple of paragraphs about Eastmans.

Location: Cowick Street, Exeter, Devon / Picture taken in April 2012

Chemists, Sidmouth

This simple but elegant mosaic has been preserved even though the store is no longer a pharmacy. Several volumes of the Yearbook of Pharmacy published during the last three decades of the 19th century mention Mr R. Chessal, chemist, of Fore Street but in the absence of a house number, it isn't possible to be absolutely sure whether this mosaic greeted his customers. Yet since Fore Street isn't too long, that may well be possible.

Location: Fore Street, Sidmouth, Devon / Picture taken in April 2012

Major & Sons, Tiverton

The store may have changed hands but the lovely mosaic laid for Major & Sons still welcome customers. Nowadays they sell electrical appliances there but I have no idea what was on offer back then.

Location: Bridge Street, Tiverton, Devon / Picture taken in April 2012

Eastmans, Exmouth

Like many British towns, Exmouth once had a branch of butchery firm Eastmans Ltd. The company was formed in 1889, when John Bell & Son Ltd, a firm of Glaswegian origins founded in 1827 with more than 350 shops and stalls around the UK, acquired the cattle and shipping businesses of Timothy C. and Joseph Eastman of New York. This was a classical example of vertical expansion: production, transport and retail came to be controlled by a single company. Although it took the name of Eastmans Ltd, there was no Eastman on the board. By 1900 there were more than 400 Eastmans butcher shops and by 1912 the number had increased to more than 1,400, making the company second only to James Nelson & Sons Ltd, who controlled more than 1,500 outlets. During the 1890s Eastmans sold essentially US meat but in 1900 it sold its interests in the US and started importing meat from Argentina, Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand among others.
During the First World War many shops -up to 500- had to close because of the call up of staff and shortages of meat. Eastmans's case was not unique and the situation of multiple shop firms deteriorated to the extent that by the late 1910s-early 1920s their future was uncertain. This led to a wave of amalgations. In 1923 the Union Cold Storage Company Ltd bought Eastmans Ltd as well as its competitors the British and Argentine Meat Company Ltd, W. &. R. Fletcher Ltd and the Argenta Meat Company Ltd. The Union Cold Storage Company Ltd had been founded in the 1890s in Liverpool by the controversial Vestey brothers, William and Edmund. The names of the different shops, including Eastmans, were kept but in the 1960, in order to establish a strong national brand, most were renamed J.H. Dewhurst, after a small chain of butcher shops the Vesteys had acquired in the early 1920s. The initials were later dropped and in 1980 the shops started trading as Dewhurst the Master Butcher. However competition from supermarkets and the recession of the early 1990s led to a dramatic decline in the number of shops (from 1,700 in 1977 to 300 in the mid-1990s) and in the profitability of many outlets. In 1996 after incurring losses of £33 millions in six months, the company at the core of the Vestey empire Union International was placed into administrative receivership. The Dewhurst shops survived for another 10 years but eventually closed down in 2006.

Location: Exeter Road, Exmouth, Devon / Picture taken in April 2012

Quality and value, Battersea

This is something all customers like to hear or, in that case, read.

Quality
and Value
But what kind of products did this apply to? This is hard to tell since shops came and went, sometimes very rapidly (in the early 20th century the majority of shops in nearby Wimbledon failed to reach their first anniversary. Such a situation was certainly not unique). Between the end of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, at least a butcher, a provision merchant and the United Kingdom Tea Company traded from this address. I doubt the mosaic was laid by the latter though. A large company would rather have had its name written by the entrance and the slogan "quality and value" was not one used by "The 'Premier' Tea Merchant of the World."
In any case, the mosaic was attractive, and the message good and applicable to all kinds of businesses. That may explain why the subsequent owners of the premises kept it.

While looking for some information on that property, I came across the case of Herbert Hancock, who in 1908 was the manager of the Battersea Park Road branch of the United Kingdom Tea Company. Hancock was indicted for embezzlement, theft, and falsification of documents. He pleaded guilty to the latter charge, arguing he had falsified the books for fear of losing his job as business was bad, and was tried on the others. Although he was found not guilty on one account, his other crimes were considered serious enough to sentence him to six months' hard labour. The edited minutes of the case can be seen here (it starts towards the bottom of the page), here, and here.

Location: Battersea Park Road / Picture taken in March 2012

Kate Miller, Godalming

Unfortunately I haven't found any information about Kate Miller's shop. It was located in The Old House, a historic building she shared with other businesses. Part of the building appears often on old photographs but because most photographers stood on the same side of the street, they do not show enough of the façade to see what was on display in the front window.


Location: Church Street, Godalming, Surrey / Picture taken in May 2011

Ingersoll, Clerkenwell

Since the Ingersoll ghost sign disappeared, the only other trace left by this watchmaking company still visible in London is, as far as I'm aware, the mosaic on the top of its former factory in Clerkenwell.


The factory was built in the 1930s for property speculator Gilbert Waghorn. Before it was completed, Ingersoll agreed to move in. Thus the architect, Stanley Waghorn (the brother of Gilbert Waghorn, who designed several factories around Barking and Stratford) modified slightly the parapet on the St John Street façade to incorporate the green and off-white mosaic with the logo of Ingersoll.


Production of Ingersoll watches in Clerkenwell certainly stopped when the new factory of the Anglo-Celtic Watch Co. Ltd opened in Ystradgynlais, near Swansea, in 1948, or shortly afterwards. Ingersoll Ltd was one of the two shareholders of the Anglo-Celtic Watch Co., the other being Smiths Industries Ltd (Vickers Armstrong was originally part of it but withdrew in 1948).
In the 1950s, the Clerkenwell factory was bought by Condé Nast and became the pattern factory for fashion magazine Vogue. As a result, the building is now known as Pattern House rather than the Ingersoll building. In the mid-1990s, after 60 years of industrial use, it was converted into lofts.

Location: St John Street / Pictures taken in January 2012

The Norfolk Arms, Bloomsbury

It is very frustrating to see perfectly decent pubs turned into would-like-to-be trendy gastropubs. Yet in the case of the Norfolk Arms, it may have been a blessing, at least for the building. Indeed the landlords of what had become a rather seedy place seemed to care little for the premises and one could have been forgiven for not noticing the nice Victorian tiles of the façade or this lovely mosaic by the side entrance as they laid buried under layers of grime.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, patrons of the Norfolk Arms included founders of The Pogues, Shane McGowan and Peter 'Spider' Stacy. The latter once declared about the pub

I don't know why we went in there. The landlady was a real old battleaxe and I must have been barred about twenty times. I wasn't doing very much either - kissing a girlfriend at the bar or something like that. Just general drunkenness.

I wonder if from time to time the joy and rage that exude from Rum, Sodomy & the Lash and other albums by The Pogues can still be heard these days at the Norfolk Arms?


Location: Leigh Street / Picture taken in January 2012

Tailor and habit maker, Putney

The tailor and habit maker may be long gone but the attractive if rather sober mosaic survives to this day. Somehow the overall shape reminds me of the patterns used by tailors to create suits and other garments.


Location: Upper Richmond Road / Picture taken on: 15/08/2008

Dyson, Eton

The Gothic-style lettering used on this doorstep mosaic at the beginning of Eton High Street is quite unusual. Unfortunately I haven't found any information about Dyson's business. In 1883 these premises housed the jewellery shop of Alexander Nehetnias Joseph. Was Dyson there before or after that date? Nowadays 4, High Street is home to the Rhubarb & Custard photo gallery.

Dyson
N^o. 4
Location: High Street, Eton, Berkshire / Picture taken on: 20/03/2011

Chemist, Rochester

A simple but relatively classy doorstep mosaic greated customers to this chemist's on Rochester High Street. The design seems to date from the inter-war years (but I may be wrong). It was probably laid for Gerald Arthur Morris, who had been trading as a chemist at this address at least since the early 20th century. Business must have been good and in 1904 The Pharmaceutical Journal reported he had opened a new branch pharmacy on Ordnance Street, Chatham. G. A. Morris was a keen photographer and printed several postcards before the First World War. He also offered a photographic developing, printing and enlarging service, as mentioned in a few journals from the early 1920s.
Nowadays the premises are occupied by a hairdresser whose name was certainly inspired by the doorstep mosaic: Hair Chemistry.


Location: High Street, Rochester, Kent / Picture taken on: 26/06/2011

Millicent, Soho

I was lucky the door of this building was open, otherwise I would have missed this doorstep mosaic. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly in which street it was: Noel Street, Berwick Street, D'Arblay Street or Wardour Street.


Location: - / Picture taken on: 14/08/2008

Rochester Co-operative Society, Rochester

Founded in 1884, the Rochester Co-operative Society beginnings were humble. There is very little information about this particular component of the co-operative movement but the few documents available suggest it amalgated with other societies and changed its name accordingly. By the mid-1900s it had evolved into the Rochester and District Co-operative Society, before becoming in the early 1920s the Rochester and District Co-operative and Industrial Society Ltd.
In the mid-1920s the co-operative owned several oulets located at 21-27 and 33 High Street. Some of these were demolished and in 1928 a brand new department store was inaugurated. There, by the main entrance, the Co-operative proudly displayed its logo on a doorstep mosaic.

RCS
If the logo incorporated only the initials of the original co-operative society, its full name -Rochester and District Co-operative and Industrial Society Ltd- stretched along the façade as a picture taken c. 1955 shows.

Location: High Street, Rochester, Kent / Picture taken on: 26/06/2011

Freeman, Hardy and Willis, Reigate

After Wimbledon and Littlehampton, here is a third mosaic found by the entrance of a former Freeman, Hardy & Willis shoe shop. This one can be seen in Reigate, Surrey. Being composed mostly of square tesserae, it was certainly less complicated to assemble than the other ones: only those used for and around the initials and the ampersand, and in the corners (as in the lower right corner of the picture) needed a diagonal or curved cut. The overall effect is much more modern and either this branch of F, H & W was refurbished completely or it opened at a much later date than those in Wimbledon and Littlehampton.


Location: High Street, Reigate, Surrey / Picture taken on: 20/03/2011

William Plummer, Eton

With its uninterrupted succession of neat letters, the name on this mosaic seems to come straight out of a schoolchild's exercise book. Sadly that's the only trace left by William Plummer so I don't know what was on offer in this shop. Stationary for the kids at the school up the road maybe?

Location: High Street, Eton, Berkshire / Picture taken on: 20/03/2011

Vigor, Richmond

What could a Victorian shop called Vigor have been selling? If anyone has any idea, please leave your suggestions through the comments link. Somehow, even if the meaning is similar, I'd like to think it is the Latin word, "vigor, -oris", rather than the English one that is written there.


For years the shop remained empty and a thick layer of grime and dust covered this doostep mosaic. Then last year the toy and bookshop Story Explorers moved in and after much scrubbing the mosaic has now regained its colours.

Location: St Mary's Grove / Picture taken on: 06/03/2011

Sociedad Cubana de Ingenieros, Havana

Although the Sociedad Cubana de Ingenieros (Cuban Society of Engineers) was disbanded in 1961, its coat of arms can still be seen by the entrance of its former offices. The building was built in 1920, twelve years after the foundation of the Society on August 11, 1908, and the mosaic was certainly laid at that time.


Location: Avenida de las Misiones (Monserrate), Havana / Picture taken on: 20/03/2010