Garage, Saintes

Eleven minutes in Saintes, part 7 (Go to part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9)

With nothing else around to take a picture of on the eastern side of the railway tracks (see parts 1 to 6), I went down the Gambetta underpass, only to discover some new signs as soon as I emerged above ground.

Unfortunately, this series of painted signs is not easy to decipher, partly because it is hidden by the modern signs of a well-known car rental company, but also because there are several layers including one with many elaborate floral motives.

Gaston
Dor...
To the left of the window: Cycles
...struction [Construction ?]
...obiles [Automobiles]To the right of the window: Accessoires
Réparation
Pièces détachéesAnother sign here ended with: Teintures [Dyes].

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Location: corner Avenue Gambetta / Avenue de la Marne, Saintes, Charente-Maritime / Pictures taken on: 06/06/2010

Salon de couture, Saintes

Eleven minutes in Saintes, part 8 (Go to part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9)

Next door to the repair workshop is yet another sign...

Salon
Couture
Dames Messieurs
...
Spécialité de teintures [Dyes A Speciality]
Maybe at some point the same business operated in this building and the previous one?

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Location: Avenue de la Marne, Saintes, Charente-Maritime / Picture taken on: 06/06/2010

Les bières de l'Atlantique, Saintes

Eleven minutes in Saintes, part 9 (Go to part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

Finally, just down the road from the signs in parts 7 and 8 is this façade on which another drink was being promoted. Like the Byrrh / St Raphäel sign, this one was designed to be seen from passing trains.

Les bières
de Bordeaux
L'Atlantique
sont
supérieures
Whether these beers brewed in Bordeaux were really superior I don't know...
The Brasserie de L'Atlantique (Atlantique Brewery) was founded in 1901. It stood south of the city centre on the Quai de Brienne. The brewery adopted a cockerel as its emblem and its trademark beers were the 'Bière du Coq', a lager, 'Cynthia', a semi-brown ale, 'Le Coq Export', a golden lager, and 'Le Coq Monopole', a pale lager. Other beers on offer included 'Alsacienne Blonde', 'Bière Bock', 'Bière La Cigale', 'Bière Cristal', 'Bière Galacta', 'Bière de Mars', 'Bock Cristal', 'Elfenbein', 'Excelsior', 'Hallerpils', 'Moldovia', 'Monopole', 'Monopole Atlantique', 'Monopole Export', 'Prosit', 'Spalthaller', and 'Thallerburg'. Between 1912 and 1932 under the management of Emile Schirber the brewery increased its regional presence, with warehouses in Périgueux, Brive, Rochefort, Mont-de-Marsan, Bayonne and Angoulème, and took over a small brewery, the Brasserie Fischer et Leppert. In 1966 it was its turn to be taken over, by the Brasserie de la Meuse, a group of twenty breweries disseminated across France, which that very same year merged with the Grandes Brasseries et Malteries de Champigneulles to form the Société Européenne de Brasserie, a group of twenty-three breweries. At the time the SEB was the largest brewing group in Europe but it was a heavy structure, particularly costly to manage, and inadapted to a market in which the demand for small bottles was growing rapidly. As a result in 1970 glassmaker BSN purchased the SEB. Three years later BSN merged with Gervais Danone to give birth to the multinational company now known as Danone.
I haven't been able to find out when the Brasserie de L'Atlantique closed down but the site where it stood was redeveloped in the 1960s or early 1970s when the wholesale market across the road expanded.
You can see some of its labels and posters here, here, and here. More images of beers brewed by the Brasserie de L'Atlantique can be found here (look for 33 Atlantique towards the bottom of the page and click on the different letters in the columns to the right).

If the words are still visible on this façade, the logo of the Brasserie de L'Atlantique has almost completely faded. On the second picture below I have pasted it and rewritten the name of the brewery. The result isn't great but you can compare the two pictures and get an idea of how it would have looked originally.



After so many stops it was time to meet my parents and girfriend by the fishmonger's stall to help them select some seafood and fish for dinner the next day. I wouldn't have been against looking around for a bit longer but that will have to wait until my next visit to Saintes.

Location: Avenue de la Marne, Saintes, Charente-Maritime / Pictures taken on: 06/06/2010

Benson & Hedges, South Wimbledon

Following Brian Duffy's death on 31st May, BBC4 broadcasted on Saturday night "The Man Who Shot the 60s", originally shown earlier this year. If you missed this tribute to one of the iconic photographers of the 60s and 70s, you can still watch it on BBC iPlayer over the next six days.
After working for some of the most influential fashion magazines, Duffy ventured into advertising, something he didn't particularly enjoy. As he put it himself, by the 70s, "99.9% of what I was shooting then was advertising – crap. The people who were hiring me, I didn't like. It was like being on the game and disliking the men who are fucking you..." Still Duffy shot some amazing pictures, especially for Collett Dickenson Pearce's Benson and Hedges 'Pure Gold' campaign launched in 1977. The surreal images of this award-winning campaign certainly captured people's imagination far more than the posters, TV ads (until 1965), or painted signs that had been promoting 'Pure Gold' cigarettes since 1962.

Benson
and
Hedges
Pure Gold
Even if this sign at the end of a row of closed-down shops has been painted over, with a double or triple coat on the lettering, it is still possible to read what was written when the sun is at a right angle (and with a bit of work with Photoshop).
The whiter patch on the left masks what looks like an old logo of "B&H". The letters are much more curvy and fluid. Very similar to those my school teacher drew on the blackboard when she showed us how to write capital letters. The patch on the right may hide a similar logo but I am not sure.

Location: Merton High Street / Picture taken on: 14/03/2008

G. Smith, family grocer; Worthing

Once upon a time, shortly before entering Worthing station, passengers on the eastbound trains could catch a glimpse of four neatly-framed signs. Sadly only one remains and it isn't in a very good state.

Canton House
.1 & .. Montague St. [ ^* ]
G. Smith
Family Grocer
Provision ...r [Dealer ?]
^*: this is a bit of a guess but Montague is the only street in Worthing whose name includes the letters "TAG". Also, following the opening of the first shops c. 1820, Montague Street became one of the area's main shopping streets.

Looking at the design of the sign, we can assume that G. Smith was providing food to the people of Worthing during the Victorian period. Could searching the net tell us more about him and his business? Unfortunately not. Only three results could be relevant, and the first one is even a bit of a long shot.
The 1823 Pigot's Directory of Sussex mentions one Jas. Smith, grocer and tea dealer of Worthing (the unusual name 'Jas.' may be the result of a failure by the text recognistion software used when the pages were scanned). Could this be the father of G. Smith?
The second result could get us closer to G. Smith, provided 'G' stands for George that is. Indeed such a name appears on the register of baptisms of Heene church. On April 2, 1874, Frederick George, son of George and Jane Smith, Grocer from Worthing, was baptised in this former civil parish just outside Worthing.
Finally an article on the Worthing Herald's website about "The Changing Face of the High Street" mentions that among the many department stores and shops found in this seaside town one century ago

In George Smith Junior’s window were “extremely pretty tea cosies, as well as a selection of dainty aprons and pinafores for tiny children”.

Could it be that G. Smith's son had expanded the family business beyond comestibles?

In Montague Street, G. Smith would have faced competition from Feest & Sons, a leading fruiterer and greengrocer with branches in other parts of town. Maybe somewhere in Worthing is a ghost sign for the latter as well?

Location: Cross Street, Worthing, West Sussex / Picture taken on: 30/05/2010

George Clark & Son's Breakfast Food, Mornington Crescent

Here is a sign that bugged me for some time. Some of the text is obviously easy to read, but on the pictures I took two years ago, what was written on the box drawn on the left remained largely a mystery. Finally I managed recently to go back to Mornington Crescent to take more pictures from a different angle. Then it all became clear...

George Clark, a grocer based on Westminster Broadway, started his business by refining and supplying sugar to the brewing trade. In 1897 John Badger Clark, trading under George Clark & Son Limited (was he George's son?), moved to Millwall Docks, where in 1898-1899 the Broadway Works were developed. Once in its new premises the company also started manufacturing caramel, not as a sweet for direct consumption but as a colouring matter for the food industry. More information about the Broadway Works can be found in Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs, edited by Hermione Hobhouse. This excellent work is available online (the part on Broadway Works is half-way down the page) and includes several photos taken during the first decades of the twentieth century.
In 1955 George Clark & Son was bought by Brown & Polson Ltd. The new owners transferred the production of sugar for the brewing trade to Manchester in 1958. The site at Millwall was then used to produce glucose-sugar mixes to the jam and confectionary industries. However as a minor player in this particular business B & P found itself in a difficult position and in 1964 it agreed to sell the Millwall refinery to Tate & Lyle Ltd.

If George Clark & Son was essentially a supplier of sugar-based products to the food and brewing industries, the ghost sign below could suggest the company tried to diversify its production in the early 1920s.

Part of this sign has disappeared but we can still read Breakfast Food
It's Cooked -
Ready to Serve
To the left is the box previously mentioned, with in its centre a yellow Star of David (were the Clarks Jewish?). Around it, on a roundel similar to a lifebelt, is the name of the company: George Clark & Son LimitedAbove this is: Creamed [almost completely faded]
BarleySomething else was written below the 'lifebelt' but I haven't been able to decipher it.

What makes me believe this sign was painted in the early 1920s is the publication in the June 24, 1922 issue of the British Medical Journal of an advert placed by the company to promote the nutritional value and health benefits of its new product (it is at the bottom of page 17). It reads: Vitamines.
For Food Value and
Digestive Properties you
should recommend
Clark's Creamed Barley
The New British Breakfast Food
Write for a Free Sample.
George Clark & Son, Ltd.,
7, Broadway Works, Millwall Dks.,London, E. 14.
This printed ad could give us an idea of what was written on the now-faded upper part of the wall.

Judging by what is available online, it doesn't look like Creamed Barley was a huge success. That certainly made the Clark's Creamed Barley Breakfast Food delivery van sold at Bonhams in late 2008 all the more valuable (item 505 on the page). This tin toy sold for £1,560...

Location: above Mornington Crescent tube station / Picture taken on: 07/05/2008

In the defence of Socialism, Santa Clara

Yesterday Cuba celebrated Independence Day. Although the country gained independence from Spain in December 1898 following the defeat of the colonial power in the Spanish-American war, the island fell under US occupation. In 1901 Cubans were allowed to draft a constitution and one year later the American troops withdrew from most of the Cuban territory. Independence was officially declared on May 20, 1902 at midday, but in practice the new republic became a US protectorate. Indeed Cuba had been forced to incorporate in its consitution the Platt Amendment (after US senator Orville H. Platt from Connecticut), which gave the US the right to oversee the island's economy, veto international commitments and intervene in domestic politics whenever Washington considered it necessary. It was only with the 'Good Neighbor' policy of Franklin D. Roosevelt that the Platt Amendment was repealed (still the US did not give up its long-term lease of Guantanamo).
Following independence, most cities renamed one of their streets 'Independencia', and it is at the eastern end of Santa Clara's Calle Independencia that today's sign can be found. However it doesn't commemorate that particular event but the fifty-year-old Comités de Defensa de la Revolución (Committees for the Defence of the Revolution).

50 años
con la guardia en alto
defendiendo el socialismo
[50 Years
Keeping One's Guard Up
In the Defence of Socialism]
The CDRs were created immediately after Fidel Castro's speech on September 28, 1960 with a view to defend the new regime against any potential invasion by Cuban exiles and/or by the US, as well as against any internal threat. While Castro addressed the crowd that had gathered in front of the former presidential palace (now the Museo de la Revolución) several bombs exploded in Havana. Thus the CDRs were given the task not only of defending the interests of the Revolution and promoting its achievements, but also of checking on the population for possible counter-revolutionary opinions or activities. This means CDR officials keep files on each individual living within the block they are responsible for and report any suspicious behaviour to the authorities. Obviously what a 'suspicious behaviour' is can be sometimes wide-ranging. Yet as time passed the CDRs were allotted other responsibilities such as cleaning the streets, sorting out rubbish for recycling, enforcing energy saving measures, providing assistance to the disabled and elderly, or looking out for drugs dealers and consumers. Additionally the CDRs have been important relays for the government's education and health campaigns. Finally, as the predominant neighbourhood organisations, the CDRs are often given the task of organizing community projects including festivals and mass rallies.
Nowadays, around 7.6 m Cubans above the age of fourteen (total population: 11.2 m) are affiliated to the 133,000 branches of the CDRs.

Over the past five decades this controversial mass organisation has been behind a large number of political painted signs in Cuba. It has been particularly active lately as its 50th anniversary approaches.
This sign in the capital city of the Villa Clara province, 260 km east of Havana, is still in the making: the horizontal guiding lines are still visible and the red hasn't been applied to the shield on the CDRs' logo and to the shading of some of the letters.



Location: Calle Independencia, Santa Clara / Pictures taken on: 01/04/2010

The picture below shows what a completed logo of the CDR looks like, with the Cuban flag on the shield. The raised arm symbolizes the role of the people as actors and protectors of revolutionary progress.


Location: Avenidad de los Martires, Camaguey / Picture taken on:30/03/2010