Bart's Market, Clapham

Here is a ghost sign about which I have no information at all. I have not found any mention of a market in Tintern Street or any of the streets near this ghost sign.

My guess is it referred to a shop rather than a proper market.

Bart's
Market

Location: Tintern Street / Pictures taken in May 2011

Nestle's Milk, Clapham (update)

Three months ago I posted some pictures of the Nestlé ghost sign near Wandsworth Road train station taken after the hoarding that covered part of it had been removed.

If I mention this ghost sign again, it is because a new hoarding has been recently put up on the wall. And this time it is a much larger one, that hides most of the lower half. Shame really!

For more information about this ghost sign, please check the original post.

Location: Killyon Road / Picture taken in July 2012

Deane & Co, Clapham

I already posted a picture of this ghost sign three years ago but back then I didn't include any information about Deane & Co. Since there is an interesting history behind this chemist's sign, I thought it deserved a new post, illustrated by some new pictures too.

Henry Deane was born in Stratford in 1807 into a modest Quaker family. By his own admission, he did not have a very good education at all and left school aged 14. Fortunately his father was friend with John Gibson, of the pharmaceutical firm Howard, Jewell & Gibson, who let him experiment in his laboratory. There he rapidly developed a predilection for manufacturing chemical pursuits. At the age of 18 Deane was apprenticed to an acquaintance of his uncle, Joseph Fardon chemist and druggist in Reading. In early 1834 he moved back to London, where he was employed by John Bell & Co., chemists at 338, Oxford Street. Over the following years he perfected his knowledge of pharmacology and learnt how to manage a business. In late 1837 he left John Bell & Co. to open his own business at 17, The Pavement, facing Clapham Common. There he replaced a grocer's in a building constructed in 1824. Many of his friends and colleagues considered this to be a very risky move. Even if Clapham had developed into a wealthy suburb, they doubted he would be able to get enough customers to repay the large debt he contracted from a friend of his. To make things even more difficult Deane was responsible financially at the time for his widowed mother and his sister. However after a few years his business was well established and he was out of debt. In 1841 Henry Deane became one of the first members of the newly-founded Pharmaceutical Society. Over the years he served as the society's examiner and from 1853 to 1855 as its president. He was also heavily involved in the production of a new pharmacopoeia.
Deane was also intereted in microscopy and in 1840, together with his friend Frederick Bell, he joined the Microscopical Society and invested £10 in his first microscope. Given its limitations, he purchased a more powerful one in 1845 and made one of his most remarkable discoveries: that of the existence of Xanthidia and Polythalamia in the grey chalk of Folkestone, below the common white chalk. Deane was also pioneered the use of glycerine jelly to mount fossiles on microscope slides. Since then, it is often referred to as 'Deane's medium.'
Deane was also a keen photographer, and took many pictures of 19th century Clapham.
In 1843 Henry Deane married Jemima Elliott. The couple had two sons (at least). Henry, born in 1847, became an engineer and after working for a few years in England, Hungary and the Philippines migrated to Australia where he is remembered for the electrification of the Sydney tramway system and the construction of several railway lines, including the Trans-Australian Railway. James, born a few years later, trained as a chemist and was registered in 1871. In 1874, upon Henry Deane's death, he succeeded him at 17, The Pavement.
It seems it was James Deane who registered in 1876 the company Henry Deane & Co. Sadly James died in 1885. The business was then taken over by William P. Robinson, the brother of chemist and druggist Richard Robinson, who would become president of the Pharmaceutical Society between 1904 and 1907. It was certainly around this time that the name was changed to Deane & Co. However business was no longer what it used to be and by the end of the first decade of the 20th century Deane & Co. was slowly collapsing.

Fortunately at some point between 1911 and 1914, Deane & Co. was bought by Margaret E. Buchanan, one of a few female chemists at the time (click here to see a picture of the pharmacy certainly taken around that time). Women had been allowed to qualify as chemists and druggists and as pharmaceutical chemists under the provisions of the 1868 Pharmacy Act, but in practice they faced discrimination and few managed their own business. Buchanan had trained and registered as a chemist and druggist in 1886. In 1892 she was one of only eight women to qualify as pharmaceutical chemist from the Pharmaceutical Society's School of Pharmacy (and the only one to take double honours in its exams). In 1905 she was the leading figure, together with Isabella Clark, behind the creation of the Association of Women Pharmacists. She served as its first vice-president before becoming president later. The same year she founded the Gordon Hall School of Pharmacy for Women, in Gordon Square. The acquisition of 17, The Pavement gave her pupils the opportunity to gain practical experience in the day-to-day running of a chemist's and to complete their apprenticeship. The premises also included a pharmacology laboratory, where they could conduct their research. In 1914 Buchanan formed a partnership with Agnes T. Borrowman, who became manager of 17, The Pavement. Borrowman, a pharmaceutical chemist, was also involved in teaching and research at both the Gordon School and the School of Pharmacy. In 1924 she became the Pharmaceutical Society's first female examiner. Under the leadership of Buchanan and Borrowman, 17, The Pavement became a leading centre for training chemists and druggists. By 1923, of the 15 women the pair had trained who went on to study at the Society's School of Pharmacy, 14 had obtained prizes and scholarships. Such an achievement was rightly celebrated in The Pharmaceutical Journal: "Is there another pharmacy in the country that can beat this record?"
Buchanan retired in 1924 and Borrowman became the sole owner of 17, The Pavement. She continued to run it as a training facility for women. On 8 January 1945, a V-2 flying bomb fell on Clapham Common near The Pavement. Fortunately there were no casualties but 175 houses and shops were damaged, some, including the pharmacy, quite badly. Repairs were carried out and it re-opened a few months later. At this stage Agnes Borrowman decided to turn Deane & Co. into a limited company with Hilda Wells, a former trainee, as director. 17, The Pavement remained run by and for women until 1958. That year the first man for more than forty years started work in the pharmacy.

Still trading under the name of Deane & Co., the facility remained opened until it closed down in 1986.

Deane & Co.
Chemists

Location: The Pavement / Pictures taken in July 2012

Nestle's Milk, Clapham

A few weeks ago I was travelling on the 87 bus towards the city centre when I noticed one of the modern hoardings along Wandsworth Road had been removed, thus revealing the hidden part of a ghost sign for Nestlé's milk. Earlier this week I went back to take some pictures.

In June 2008, left, and four years later, right.

For years grime accumulated between the wall and the hoarding, leaving the part previously hidden very dark indeed! Even if there has been no lack of rain lately, we will need a few more heavy showers to wash all this dirt out. Still the missing parts of the text have now been revealed.

Mothers!
Nurse Your		Babies
If You Can't
Get
Nestlé's Milk

This slogan was launched by the multinational company around 1920 but seems to have been dropped less than half a decade later. It sometimes ran alongside another similar message: "Fathers! If it's Nestlé's; Come home with the milk." A wooden ruler carrying both is now in Hackney Museum's collection.
I am not sure the combination of three different tyfaces worked really well. It just looks as if there were several signs painted on this wall. Obviously this wouldn't necessarily have been the case when it was freshly painted, but I still find it a bit odd.

This was the second ghost sign for Nestlé painted on this building. Originally, on the upper part of the wall, one could read

Nestlé's
Milk

This would have looked very much like the Nestlé ghost sign on New Cross Road.

The ghost sign visible nowadays is very similar to one in Upper Clapton Road.

When Nestlé stopped paying for the upkeep of its sign, the company that managed this wall painted its contact details. However it failed to attract anyone and Nestlé's sign is still with us today.

To Let
Apply C. J. Lytle
Boro
57, Long Acre, W.C. 2

C. J. Lytle Ltd was a leading London firm of advertisers. It must have managed walls available for painted signs under the name of Boro. The same name and contact details appear on a wall on Stoke Newington Green.
C. J. Lytle Ltd was founded, certainly in the 1930s if not slightly earlier, by Charles J. Lytle, a US citizen who resided in the UK. The company seems to have been prosperous enough during the inter-war years but from the 1950s faced growing competition from wealthy US advertising agencies that tried to grab a share of the British advertising market. In order to remain competitive, several British agencies turned to the City to raise capital. In 1961 C. J. Lytle Ltd became the second advertising firm to float on the London Stock Exchange. However this was not enough to save the company and in December 1965 shareholders decided to wind it up.
C. J. Lytle's contact details may have been painted in the 1930s. Indeed, from 1940 at least, and until well into the 1960s, 57 Long Acre was one of the London addresses of Odhams Press, first of its Advertisers Service Bureau and then of its Managerial Department.

Location: Killyon Road / Pictures taken in June 2008 and July 2012

Hovis, Clapham

If the Hovis ghost sign posted earlier this week is well preserved, possibly thanks to the initiative of an Islington councillor (check here), it is certainly not the case of its Battersea counterpart. Yet it is still possible to decipher enough letters to reconstitute what the message was. The only part that remains incomplete is the name of the bakery.
The peculiar spelling of 'Hõvis' with the dash or tilde on the 'o' suggests this sign, like the ones in Islington, Clapham, Guildford and Tonbridge, was painted during the inter-war years (although the branches of the tree hide the dash or tilde, the 'o' is much smaller than the following letters).

A..oose
Electric
Bakery
Maker of
Hõvis
Location: Wandsworth Road / Picture taken in June 2008

Money lent, Clapham

This ghost sign for a pawnbroker may be barely visible nowadays but decades ago people getting off at Clapham High Street station could hardly have missed it as they made their way down Voltaire Road towards the High Street.

Money Lent
This sign was painted twice, using a slightly different typeface. It is possible these were actually painted over an earlier sign as traces of other letters can be seen here and there.

If the written part of this ghost sign is very basic, the traces of paint to the right are far more interesting. These appear to represent three hanging spheres, the symbol of pawnbrokers. The bars holding the spheres, with their volute ends, are even relatively elaborate. Was this painted sign enough or did the pawnbroker also had a proper three-dimensional version hanging from the façade?

This particular symbol has been used since the Middle Ages but its origins are a matter of debate. In A History of Pawnbroking, Past and Present (1847), William A. H. Hows looked at some likely and unlikely origins of this symbol (pages 44-48). The link with Lombard traders and merchants, whose activities also included banking, is the one generally accepted.

Location: Clapham High Street / Pictures taken on: 09/04/2008

Batten & Davies and a mystery sign, Clapham

While some painted signs advertise well-known products, others promote local businesses few of us would have heard of and are an invitation to look into the history of the area. Such is the case with the top sign painted on this wall found in a little street near Clapham Common.
It seems the origins of Batten & Davies, a printer located at 23, The Pavement, Clapham, go back to the 1740s. Indeed a printed advert published in 1907 mentions the company has "a record and reputation extending over a century and a half". That would give a date of around the mid-eighteenth century or slightly earlier. This is confirmed by Martin P. Lam in his comment (see below). Indeed it appears David Batten published a History of Clapham as early as 1841, and that he was running a library on Clapham Common. A few decades later, John Batten, possibly the son of David, was in charge. Contemporary documents show he had a circulating library in Clapham Common between 1785 and 1805. The business remained in the family and in 1851, David Batten, stationer, bookseller and bookbinder, of Clapham Common, exhibited in the printing, paper, and bookbinding section of the Great Exhibition. There, his binding of Sir Digby Wyatt's Industrial Arts of the nineteenth century: a Series of Illustrations of the Choicest Specimens Produced by Every Nation at the Great Exhibition of Works of Industry, 1851 earned him an Honourable Mention by the jury, which described Batten’s bindings as "elaborately worked, although requiring more careful attention in finishing". That particular copy of Wyatt's work is now in the Royal Collection.
In 1865, following the death of David Batten, his eldest son formed a partnership with Mr Davies, of Maida Hill, and the name of the company was changed to Batten & Davies. The works printed by the firm included religious publications, local history books, as well as forms and registers for hospitals, asylums and homes for children.
It looks like Batten & Davies's output diminished steadily during the first decades of the twentieth century, and in the early 1930s it was bought by John Battley Rose, the printer and future MP for Clapham, who had founded the Westminster City Publishing Company. That's when the name of Batten & Davies must have disappeared, although their press may still have been used. As for the Westminster City Publishing Company it could either have been bought or gone bankrupt after 1949, as they don't seem to have published anything after that date.

Batten & Davies

Established In the Year 17.0

The Si... [Sign?] of the Oldest Printers in South ... [London?]

Printers Telephone Macaulay 2505

Some of the books printed by Batten & Davies can still be found. I spotted recently one published in 1904: Leytonstone and its History.
The space just below the Batten & Davies sign was used to advertise two successive businesses, but whatever was written there has faded too much for me to be able to identify any of them.

The most recent sign was written in green on a white background:

...l...
...ators
...ire
...
What is left of the older sign are just a few black letters in bottom half:...or
...er.
... & ... Quality
Location: Bromell's Road / Pictures taken on: 09/04/2008 (top) and 05/03/2010 (bottom)

Car service, Clapham

Near Clapham is a series of four wonderful painted signs on what used to be a garage. They date from the first decades of the twentieth century. Each part of the wall was painted twice if not three times.

(in large letters)
Essex
Service

(in small black letters)
Battery Charging
Electrical
Repairs
Dynamos
(in large letters)
Chrysler
Service

(in small black letters)
...e. beat...
...

(in small pinkish letters)
...
... Building [?]
(in large letters)
Many Brands
Of Cars
Repaired

Something else was painted in small black letters and possibly in (now) pinkish ones.
There is definitely an 'S' and a 'A' here, with something in between. Looking at lists of old car manufacturers, one that could possible fit is 'Spartan', but it seems this US car maker produced vehicles for a very short time only c 1910.

On the first sign, Essex certainly doesn't refer to the English county but rather to the Essex cars manufactured first by the Essex Motor Company (1918-1922) and then by the Hudson Motor Company (1922-1932).

Location: Landor Road / Pictures taken on: 10/10/2008

Deane & Co chemists, Clapham Common

Last night we went to see the fireworks on Clapham Common. Hadn't it been pitch black, we might have been able to glimpse the painted sign below, one of several found in that part of London.

Deane & Co.
Chemists
Location: The Pavement / Picture taken on: 07/03/2008

I haven't posted many signs or mosaics this week, but to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I'll post several electric signs from the former GDR on Monday...

Gillette: the different designs; Clapham, Spitalfields, and Willesden

Judging by the number of painted signs for safety razors still around, Gillette must have been one of the most prolific companies. However most of those ads, such as the one below in Clapham, are very similar, with their blue background and yellowish lettering.

Gillette
Shave
Like many Gillette signs across London, this one was painted over an earlier one for Iron Jelloids. The name and part of the familiar slogan for the great tonic, painted in white letters, can still be seen: For Health
And Beauty
Iron Jelloids

Location: Clapham High Street / Picure taken on: 09/04/2008

Gillette signs of a different design seem to be quite rare, especially those with a drawing. This is why I was amazed, and very happy, to find the one below.

Gillette
Safety Razor
The Shave With the S...

Location: High Road / Picture taken on: 14/08/2009

A building was erected certainly not so long after this sign was painted and, as a result, it is (unfortunately) barely visible, and (fortunately) rather well-preserved. The lettering looks definitely older than on most Gillette signs. As for the man gently stroking his cleanly-shaven chin and feeling refreshed, he reminded me of the sign in Spitalfields, even if here the figure seems to be a bit fuller (maybe it is an effect of the warmer colours). The other major difference, of course, is that here he is still holding a "mask" representing his unshaven, tired face.
Another sign was painted, above the Gillette one, but has peeled off. Some letters can still be seen:

The ...luction
...ite
S...

Gillette
British Made
Razor & Blades

Location: Commercial Road / Picture taken on: 02/04/2008

I suspect the sign above on Commercial Road would originally have looked like the previous one but Gillette had it repainted at a later date using its more modern design. A couple of words (twice "The") and traces of letters from the earlier version can still be spotted in the lower left-hand corner. A few more letters belonging possibly to a third, intermediate, Gillette sign can also be seen here and there ("...ety" and "...or", making "Safety Razor").

In the picture below, I have altered the perspective and done a bit of retouching in Photoshop to try to give a better idea of what the faces are like. The one on the left looks much more like King Camp Gillette, the head of the namesake company, whose portrait appeared on the packs of disposable razor blades. Click on the picture to enlarge it.