Ludstone and Son, Southwark

Earlier this week I noticed another ghost sign had disappeared under a coat of white paint (see yesterday's post), this time in Webber Street.

I have not found what kind of business Ludstone & Son was involved in. However the street number -96- tells us this ghost sign was painted in the late 1930s or later. Indeed the section of Webber Street between Blackfriars Road and the Southwark Bridge Road and Great Suffolk Street junction used to be called Friar Street and street numbers only went as far as 58 on the south side (where the building is located). Between 1936 and 1939 several streets around London changed names. In the case of Friar Street, it was incorprated into an extended Webber Street and house numbers were changed accordingly. This would have been when this building was allocated the number 96.

96 Ludstone & Son 96

Interestingly, while this part of London was already quite built up by the late 19th century, the small triangular plot of land between Rushworth Street and the railway viaduct was still unbuilt by 1915 if the edition of The Post Office London Directory published that year is to be believed.

Location: Webber Street / Picture taken in March 2009

Botes, Southwark

Founded in 1972, Botes Builing Ltd undertook construction contracts, building repairs and maintenance. The company went into administration in 2006. This painted sign outside its London offices survived for a few years but has now disappeared.


Location: Park Street / Picture taken on: 10/04/2008

R. Sullivan, Southwark

The business of R. Sullivan, the wardrobe dealer and maker, certainly closed decades ago but at least the eye-catching Victorian signage has been preserved by the successive owners of the premises. It definitely gives a special touch to the property!
By the way, on Monday I mentioned this series would be about shop signs painted on wood, but as you can see, this one was painted directly on stone.




The extreme right end of this sign was retouched at some point, maybe when the building was restored. Indeed the lettering is clearly not of the same quality: the thin and thick strokes aren't as differentiated as in the original parts, the last letters of 'Built' are squeezed, and the 'e' of 'Size' is far too large.


Location: Southwark Bridge Road / Pictures taken on: 20/03/2009

Safety precaution, Southwark

What does the central character of Prosper Mérimée's novella Carmen have to do with this safety notice painted on a warehouse in Southwark? This puzzled me for a second before I realised there were actually two words: 'car' and 'men'. But why did they stick them together? Or was this notice put especially for an employee called Carmen who got injured time after time by falling cases?

Safety Precaution
Carmen
Stand Clear When
Cases Are Going Up
Update: following JBS's comments, I have updated the transcription of the notice above as it is now almost certain there aren't two but one word: "Carmen." See the comments for more information.

Location: Glasshill Street / Picture taken on: 16/07/2009

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

The Obelisk Dairy, Southwark

Enough of alcohol for this week! (if you've missed the beer and aperitif, look at some of the previous posts) It's time for something healthier. What about some milk? As it happens, there is at present a campaign run by the Milk Marketing Forum of trade body Dairy UK and fronted by Pixie Lott and Gordon Ramsay to encourage people to drink more of the white stuff. Last time I went shopping I even got a coupon for a free bottle (first I thought it was thanks to my smile, but then realized it was more certainly linked to the amount I had just spent). Provided you don't have any allergy or digestive problem, milk is now a perfectly healthy drink. Yet that wasn't always the case, as mentioned in a previous post. Especially in cities, people had to put up with poor quality dairy products for decades. Therefore freshness was a key argument to convince customers.

Obelisk
Dairy
Est^d 1810
New Milk
Fresh From The
Country
Twice Daily
That dairy took its name from the obelisk erected in the centre of St George's Circus in 1771. Designed by Robert Mylne, it offered a focal point for the new thoroughfare from Blackfriars Bridge and the other roads radiating from the circus.

Location: Borough Road / Picture taken on: 20/03/2009

Take Courage, Southwark

How many people realise that in Southwark, between Southwark Bridge and the Cannon Street railway bridges stood what was once the largest brewery in the world? Nowadays few buildings of the Anchor brewery are still standing, but among those that escaped demolition is this house built around 1807 for senior employees.



The familiar slogan must have been painted at some time after 1955, the year Barclay, Perkins & Co. merged with its London rival Courage.

Much has been written over the past two centuries about the brewery. For a short history you can refer to Chapter 9 of Survey of London. Vol. 22 edited by Sir Howard Roberts and Walter H. Godfrey and published in 1950. Edward Walford wrote a longer account of the development of the brewery in 1878 in Old and New London (Vo. 6) (the part about the brewery starts about one third down the page). Much information can also be found by checking the articles about the different owners of the brewery on the website Thrale.com.

The brewery closed in 1981 and the land was subsequently sold for redevelopment. The Anchor (sadly over-redeveloped) and this painted sign are two of the few reminders of what used to be a major industrial site in the heart of London.

Location: Park Street / Pictures taken on: 10/04/2008 and 25/03/2008