Corsets, Kentish Town

With the preparation of my trip to Germany, I had almost missed the scientific revelation of the year: thanks to Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, we now know for certain that earthquakes are caused by women! As the Iranian cleric declared: "Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes." Ah! Why didn't he speak earlier? Maybe I would have chosen to study seismology instead of politics. Actually one of the few times I felt the tremors of an earthquake was in a small town of Ecuador, where the only hotel was more often booked by the hour than for the night as the continuously squeaking beds clearly indicated. I was enjoying the view over the tropical forest and towards the Andes from the roof when it all started to shake (and hundreds of cockroaches appeared out of nowhere). All this because of these scantily clad women standing about by the hotel's door!

So where do corsets fit in Sedighi luminous theory? Supposed, in most cases, to enhance the curves by reducing the waist and exaggerating the bust and hips, these garments certainly ought to be banned.

...e...
Tw...
Corsets
Fortunately for Kentish town it looks like whoever paid for this sign has been out of business for a while, and therefore many natural disasters have been avoided.
Long live obscurantism!

Location: Kentish Town Road / Picture taken on: 14/08/2008

Spiders Snooker, Bexleyheath

Apparently there is some kind of snooker tournament or championship going on at present and this morning I found a spider under the shower. Those two events, totally unconnected, give me the perfect opportunity to post this sign spotted after a day out at Danson House and William Morris's Red House in southeast London.
The telephone number is slightly more recent than the rest, having been painted after April 16, 1995, the day when a '1' was inserted into all UK geographic area codes.

Location: Percy Road / Picture taken in July 2009

Tobacco shop and Wellness studio, Zwickau

From the rather unappealing to the more enticing...

... in just a few metres! Yesterday morning I was going through the streets outside the centre of Zwickau when I passed by a derelict building where once a small shop sold tobacco and cigarettes.

Tabake
Zigaretten
The bottle and pack of cigarettes lying there just added to the grimy and rather unhealthy feel about the place.
However on the other side of the street was a brand new painted sign of quite a different nature...


Painted on the side of a new building and measuring about seven metres, her majesty is hard to miss.

Location: Marienthaler Str., Zwickau, Sachsen / Pictures taken on: 27/04/2010

Cycle & Motor Works, Catford

At first sight, this is a pretty straightforward sign.

Cycle
&
Motor
Works
But why does it look like they tried to hide the lower half by painting it over? A bit of work in Photoshop shows traces of an earlier sign....maker
Jeweller
...
...eaman [written diagonally and cutting the sign in two]
...
...
...
Actually this isn't it. Although it is impossible to read anything, there was even a third sign on this wall.

Location: Stanstead Road / Picture taken on: 23/07/2009

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

Optician, Eibenstock

We'll we go, won't we go...? We're supposed to fly tomorrow afternoon to attend the confirmation of some relative in Germany. Hopefully our plane will take off but then, will we be able to come back? If you don't see a new post by Wednesday or Thursday, blame the Eyjafjallajökull!

My in-laws have planned a whole programme of visits and although I already know quite well some of the places we'll go to like Erfurt, Leipzig or Zwickau, I'm confident I'll discover something new. So I may come back with some new ghost signs for future posts. In the meantime, here's one I saw last winter on a freezing day in Eibenstock.
This small town in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) became well-known around the world in the nineteenth century for its embroidery. In order to foster trade, the US even opened a consulate on September, 12, 1891. It closed on June 6, 1908, when it was transferred to Plauen, at the time a booming textile manufacturing centre. The large building, which displays some Art Nouveau or rather Jugendstil influences was then converted into flats. The embroidery industry collapsed with the First World War. It re-emerged in the 1950s but without enjoying a similar fame. Although machines were introduced from the 1850s, part of the embroidery remained hand-made and this must have been taxing for the eyes. Thus many women working in the industry may have needed to visit an optician.


Optisches Institut
This sign must have been covered when the optician was replaced by a furrier, as the words pasted on the broken window suggest:... - Pelze - Mützen
[... - Furs - Caps]
Actually this is confirmed by the sign on the door.

Pelze
W. Brenner
This is one of the few houses not renovated yet in Eibenstock, but that could change soon. I hope the painted sign will be preserved. It certainly adds some character to the property.

Location: Postplatz, Eibenstock, Sachsen / Pictures taken on: 26/12/2009

Robins' Brewery, Seaford

After Smithers earlier this week, we return to the world of Sussex brewers but this time move from Hurstpierpoint to Seaford. Indeed in this sleepy seaside town stands a building, now occupied by the Lucky House Chinese takeaway, that displays both a ghost sign and a mosaic.

Robins'
Brewery

I haven't been able to find any information on the internet about that particular brewery. However the name Robins appears in connection with several other breweries in Sussex and it could be that a member of the family either established a brewery in Seaford or took over an already existing one.
Born into an empoverished Jewish family from Hove, Ebenezer Robins had become by 1800 an established brewer (the date of 1789 has been suggested regarding the foundation of his original brewery) and he soon began to amass a respectable fortune. In 1830 he became one of the original Brunswick Town Councillors. During the 1830s he purchased several plots of land to build houses for other members of his family and to build a new brewery. Opened in 1840 in Waterloo Street near the Hove - Brighton limit, the Anchor Brewery replaced the original facilities in Western Street. One of his brothers, Usher, also achieved some success in the brewing trade. The companies they set up passed on to their heirs and documents indicate that in 1877 Usher Robins & Co. took control of the East Street Brewery in Horsham before selling it one year later, while in 1889 E. Robins & Son took over the Albion Steam Brewery in Shoreham. Several generations occupied key positions in the business, even after E. Robins & Son Ltd merged with Findlater Mackie & Co in 1929 (the names of both companies were kept). However the Robins seem to have paid a heavy price during the Second World War, with several men not returning from the front. As a result it looks like the family sold its remaining shares in 1946. By 1949 all activity had ceased at the Anchor Brewery.
It seems E. Robins & Son continued trading until 1964 but there is no mention of it after that date. Perhaps it disappeared in the reorganisation process that followed the purchase of George Prentis & Sons Ltd by Findlater Mackie & Co in 1962. The new company, Findlater Prentis, was eventually bought by Whitbread in 1967 and liquidated in 1971.
Could the Seaford brewery be linked to that family? It isn't impossible, but I can't be sure...

Location: High Street, Seaford, East Sussex / Picture taken on: 25/07/2009