J. Nodes & Co., Cricklewood

Several family-owned nineteenth-century firms of undertakers are still in existence today, including John Nodes & Sons Funeral Service, of Ladbroke Grove. Although the family business founded by John Nodes seems to be doing well, it looks like John Nodes himself experienced financial difficulties and on several occasions appeared in front of the courts. On March 7, 1848 having obtained an Interim Order for Protection from Process he was required to appear at the courthouse in Portugal Street, Lincoln Inn's. Fourteen years later having failed to obtain protection from his creditors, he was jailed in Whitecross-street prison and, on March 25, declared bankrupt. Finally on November 13, 1866, The London Gazette printed that

John Nodes, of 94, King-street West, Hammersmith, in the county of Middlesex, Undertaker, having been adjudged bankrupt under a Petition for adjudication of Bankruptcy, filed in Her Majesty's Court of Bankruptcy, in London, on the 7th day of November, 1866, is hereby required to surrender himself to the Registrar of the said Court, acting in the prosecution of the sain Petition, at the first meeting of creditors to be held before the said Registrar, on the 28th day of November instant at twelve o'clock at noon precisely, at the said Court.

John Nodes died in 1895 and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. In spite of all his financial troubles, the funeral business he set up survived him. Over the last century it has even been growing, with branches in several parts of London.


In 1991 John Nodes Funeral Service was contracted to arrange the funeral of Freddie Mercury, who was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery.
In 2000 the documentary 'Great Undertakings' produced by Lion Television and broadcasted on Channel 4 looked at the work of the firm and its employees.

Location: Cricklewood Broadway / Picture taken on: 17/08/2009

Redfern's rubber mats, Wandsworth

As promised yesterday, here is another sign for one of Redfern's products and a bit about the company itself.

Redfern's
Lettered
Rubber Mats
For Office or House
Made in Block Rubber with White L... [Lining?]
The story began in March 1900 when a young Wilfred E. Redfern founded Redfern's Rubber Works with a capital of £4 18s. In 1906 he purchased the four-storey Spring Bank Mills in Hyde, Cheshire (now in Greater Manchester), to make rubber heels and soles for shoes (click here for an enamel advert) and then rubber tyres for bicycles and tubes. During the First World War the company produced gas-mask mouthpieces for the army. After the war the company diversified its production further by offering a wide range of hard and soft rubber goods to both industries and households. In the 1930s it launched its plain and lettered rubber mats, stairs treads and rubber flooring, which was available in sheets or tiles in a variety of colours. 1937 saw it manufacture its first ebonite goods. Having worked for the aviation industry during the Second World War, it continued afterwards and provided the rubber parts for the Comet among others.
In 1941 Wilfred E. Redfern resigned as chairman, a position that was then taken by his younger brother J. Arthur Redfern. W. E. Redfern remained on the board until 1945. He died in 1960. His younger brother was succeeded a few years later by Thomas H. Redfern, who became in 1950 president of the British Rubber Manufacturers' Association. Under his chairmanship Redfern ventured into other sectors, including plastics. In 1958 the company was transformed into Redfern Holdings, with Redfern's Rubber Works becoming a subsidiary. Ten years later Redfern Holdings merged with H. G. Miles, a company originally founded in 1929 to improve the knowledge and uses of rubber in the car industry, which owned Empire Rubber Co., Rubberlines (Hyde), Hull and Mellor, and Rubber Bonders. As a result of the formation of Miles Redfern Ltd, based in Dunstable, the names Redfern's Rubber Works and Redfern Polymers ceased to be used. Rubber continued to be manufactured in Hyde until the early 1980s but it seems the factory shut down in 1982 because of growing competition from abroad. Miles Redfern Ltd continued trading for several years but was eventually dissolved in 2006.

Until a few months ago, a billboard covered most of this sign. That explains why the colours are so vivid when the upper and right edges have almost completely disappeared.
Actually Redfern's didn't have one but two painted signs at this location. Unfortunately the lower one is still largely hidden by a modern billboard.


Note that 'Redfern' was painted twice, the first time using the same design as on the New Cross Road sign posted yesterday

Location: Lambourn Road / Picture take on: 05/03/2010

Nestlé, Criterion, Redfern, and more; New Cross

Like yesterday, here is another palimpsest but at least this one is a bit easier to read.


The most recent sign advertises: Nestlé
Milk
Richest in Cream

Prior to Nestlé, this wall carried an advert for Redfern's, a company far less known that the Swiss multinational but whose painted signs can still be seen in several locations across London. Here only 'Redfern's', slightly above 'Nestlé' has survived. Whether it was rubber heels, mats, or another of the company's rubber goods that was advertised here I don't know.
I shall write a bit about Redfern's Rubber Works tomorrow.

It seems Redfern's used the blue background of the previous sign for: Criterion
MatchesWith the open box of matches, it is similar to those found in Stoke Newington and Kilburn (this one will be for a later post).

That's it for the easy part. Several other signs were painted over time on this wall and I wonder whether one wasn't for Gillette. After all signs for Criterion and Gillette are often found together.
Then just below the 'N' of 'Nestlé' are some words written diagonally. They seem to be: Greetings ...
School ...
Partly hidden by the 'ILK' of 'Milk' is:B...e &
Between 'Milk' and 'Richest in Cream' are:...te and S...
Finally at the same level as 'Richest in Cream' is:... Talking [?] ...
Location: New Cross Road / Picture taken on: 23/07/2009

Gorringe Park, Tooting

With three if not four signs painted on this wall next to Tooting Station, reading anything but the most recent one becomes virtually impossible.

Gorringe Park
Hire, Sale or Exchange
Accessories Repairs
Could this have been for a car dealer or garage?

With only a few letters still visible, I haven't managed to decipher the other signs. The only complete word seems to be 'Hotel'.

Location: Mitcham Road / Picture taken on: 07/03/2008

Le Paysan: flower and vegetable seeds, Saintes

Back to Saintes for a brand well known to several generations of gardeners across France.
The story began in 1854 when André Blain founded Les Docks de l'Herboristerie (The Herbalist's Warehouse) to produce and market seeds. Originally these were sold in bulk but shortly afterwards a new company, Le Paysan, was created to sell seeds in sealed paper bags to amateur gardeners. The two companies remained closely connected, with Le Paysan purchasing its vegetable and flower seeds from Les Docks de l'Herboristerie, until the heirs of André Blain brought them together in 1949 to create the Société de Production Grainière. The brand Le Paysan was kept: by then it had become a leading suplier of quality seeds in France and was increasing its presence abroad. Around 180,000 bags of seeds were dispatched every day. These were sold not only in specialized shops and stalls at markets and fairs but also by mail order. I remember my grand-pa in Saintes used to have a catalogue from Le Paysan, even if he always bought his seeds in a shop or at the monthly fair.
Le Paysan's seeds and now bulbs are still widely planted today by anyone with a plot of land.

Even if the first line is hidden by the billboard, it can be guessed as it used to be one of Le Paysan's catch phrases.

Célèbres graines en sachets [The Famous Seeds in Bags]
Le Paysan
Fleurs Légumes [Flowers Vegetables]
There used to be another painted sign on this wall but only a few letters appear between 'Fleurs' and 'Légumes'.

Location: Rue Gautier, Saintes, Charente-Maritime / Picture taken on: 08/06/2010

E. Reeves, Croydon

It's funny how a change of typeface and a curvy line can suddenly make a sign stand out...

E. Reeve,
House Agent & Decoraator
33, West Street.
Repairs in All Branches.
Est^d 1884.
Location: Tanfield Road / Picture taken on: 27/08/2009

Lunch, drinks and ice cream in Havana

At the corner of San Ignacio and Obrapía in La Habana Vieja, the colonial part of the Cuban capital, is this decaying little gem: a former bar and restaurant with painted adverts from the 1950s-60s on its walls. The building was later turned into a small neighbourhood store -the Nuevo Centro Mercantil- and currently lays abandoned, awaiting a possible restoration.

The façade on Obrapía
Unfortunately I haven't been able to discover the name of this bar as it was covered when the premises became the Nuevo Centro Mercantil.


By one of the former entrances is this wonderful sign advertising ice creams, with a scoop in a stylized cup.

Helados [Ice Creams]
Even if it is possible to distinguish a few letters here and there, what was written on the scoop, including the brand, has faded too much for me to be able to make any sense of it.

Before customers enjoyed a dessert, they could have a cheap lunch.

Almuerce aquí..! Pruebe los más Exquisitos y variados Blue Plate - 60 c.

Lunch Here..! Try the Most Exquisite and Varied Blue Plate - 60 c.

Originally used in US restaurants, the expression 'blue plate' made its way across the Straits of Florida, an illustration of the close links between the island and the US prior to the fall of dictator of Fulgencio Batista. What 'blue plate' refers to, vacuum-cleaner salesman turned spy James Wormold discovered it when he attended the lunch given by the European Traders' Association at Havana's Hotel Nacional:

'I was telling you,' Mr MacDougal went on energetically like a Scottish reel, 'that you would do better to drink now. It's all you'll be getting.'
'There will be wine, won't there?'
'Look at the table.' Small individual milk-bottles stood by every place. 'Didn't you read your invitation? An American blue-plate lunch in honour of our great American allies.'
'Blue-plate?'
'Surely you know what a blue-plate is, man? They shove the whole meal at you under your nose, already dished up on your plate - roast turkey, cranberry sauce, sausages and carrots and French fried. I can't bear French fried but there's no pick and choose with a blue-plate.'
'No pick and choose?'
'You eat what you're given. That's democracy, man.'

Graham Greene, Our Man In Havana (1958, pp. 170-171 in the Penguin edition)

Often 'blue-plate' meals were served in plates with partitions and were among the cheapest food restaurants would serve.

To wash down the food, what could be better than a "Cafe express" costing 3 c., as advertised on both sides of the pillar at the street corner?


Yet some customers might have prefered something a bit stronger. Some Enxebre perhaps, as this lovely advert encouraged them to.


The Galician word 'Enxebre' means 'genuine', 'authentic', 'typical' as well as 'pure'. When it comes to alcoholic drinks, it refers to a straw-coloured white wine made with very ripe grapes from the oldest vines, or to an aguardiente made purely from grapes, as it is the case on this sign.
The Enxebre sold in this bar was imported by Jacinto Rodríguez, who owned the 'Galicia Moderna'. I haven't found when Jacinto Rodríguez set up his food and wine import business, which operated further down the road at Obrapía 26, just by the harbour. However a study about the reconstruction of the Galician identity in Cuba between the early nineteenth century and 1920 mentions that in 1907, to add a touch of authenticity to the different celebrations organized by the Galician community in Havana and around, he imported a typical ox cart from the motherland to carry his products to the aforementioned events. Another source adds he was a founding member of the Peña Gallega club. Clearly an influential member of the community, and certainly a relatively successful one too. Obviously the business survived the political upheavals of the first six decades of the twentieth century but what happened to it after the triumph of the Revolution I do not know.

Pida... [Ask for...]
Enxebre
Jacinto Rodríguez

Aguardiente Puro de uva [Made of Pure Grapes]

El mejor [The Best One]

The bottle has a very fine label on which one can read above the coat of arms "Arguadiente puro de uva", and below the three gold medals the product was awarded at exhibitions, "Jacinto Rodríguez".

What will happen to this building? It really depends on whether the Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana, the institution in charge of the capital's heritage, considers it should be restored or not (and on whether or not it will have the financial resources and the material to carry out the work). The Oficina del Historiador is already doing a fantastic job restoring the architectural jewels of a city with one of the finest collection of buildings in the Americas. The job is dauting and many that are worth preserving are still in a dilapidated state. To be fair, the architectural merit of the building where this bar was located is very limited. Yet those painted signs are certainly worth preserving. At least the Oficina del Historiador has a good record regarding the preservation of ghost signs so let's hope something can be done about this place.

Location: corner San Ignacio and Obrapía, Havana / Pictures taken on: 20/03/2010