Gilbert, Holloway

I couldn't find any information about Gilbert, so what the firm imported is a mystery so far.

Gilbert
Importations
2 Hercules Place, N.7.
----->

Location: Hercules Place / Picture taken in April 2011

Elli's florist, Holloway

March 8th marks International Women's Day. The aim of this day is to raise awareness of the discriminations far too many women suffer from around the world and of their struggles to end these, and to celebrate women's achievements. In several countries women are traditionally offered flowers by their husband, boyfriend, or father and in some cases even by their employers (although that person may still deny them the right to earn the same wage as their male colleagues). So if men around Holloway are looking for a shop where to get some flowers, why not try the one below?

Elli's
Florist ..
Fresh Cut
Flowers Daily
Interflora
Bouquets
Weddings
Arrangements
Funerals
& Tributes
Etc.
0171.272 8217
This sign was painted between 1995 and 2000. Indeed the area code 0171 for Inner London only existed for five years. Before 1995 it was 071 and since 2000 it has been 0207.
For a sign that is so recent, it is rather worrying that it is already peeling off.

Location: Holloway Road / Picture taken in January 2012

Academy, Holloway

At the back of a building overlooking Digswell Street is a barely noticeable ghost sign. The main entrance to the academy it advertised was most certainly in Crane Grove. Unfortunately I haven't been able to discover what this academy was for.

Academy
Limited

Location: Digswell Street / Pictures taken in January 2012

The Royal Coffee & Dining Rooms, Holloway

Such a grand name! Such a large ghost sign! But, sadly, these coffee and dining rooms don't seem to have left much of a trace, at least online.

Coffe & Dining Hillyard's Rooms
-------
The Royal
Coffee & Dining
Rooms
Location: Holloway Road / Picture taken on: 14/08/2008

For a glass of good wine, Stoke Newington and Holloway

Ever since I first saw it, I've been wondering about this glass of wine. What is it doing just next to a school? And why was the glass left intact when the rest of the wall was rather clumsily painted black? Could this have been the work of a street artist?


Location: Stoke Newington Church Street / Picture taken on: 01/04/2008

Then three years later and a couple of kilometres further west I spotted the same glass of wine (it used to be hidden behind a modern billboard) and this time there was something written underneath. However a search on the internet with the slogan "For a glass of good wine" didn't lead to any identification. I guess this ghost sign was promoting a local wine merchant and the logo would have been enough for people to recognize it. Maybe someone could cast some light on this little mystery.

For a Glass of Good Wine
Location: Holloway Road / Picture taken on: 06/04/2011

High class grocers, Holloway

This ghost sign still dominates Holloway Road but not many people may notice it nowadays.

High Class Grocers
Wholesale & Retail
Distributoer of Choice [of]
Englih & American
...a.. Pro... [Made Products?]
Location: Holloway Road / Picture taken on: 01/04/2008

Iron Jelloids, Holloway

Hadn't the sun come out this weekend, I would have posted either one of the Sunlight soap signs or the doorstep mosaics of the Rising Sun on Tottenham Court Road, in the vain hope of making it appear. However since they both featured on Jane's blog on Thursday, I've decided to keep them up my sleeve for a bit longer. In any case Jane's posting did the trick: after a rather mixed week, it was all sunshine over the South West Coast Path between Weymouth and Abbotsbury on Saturday, and even though yesterday wasn't as gorgeous, the sculptures on the facade of Salisbury's cathedral really came to life in the warm late afternoon light. So, thanks Jane for saving our weekend! By the way, I found a couple of painted signs and mosaics in both Weymouth and Salisbury and shall post them later.
In the meantime, to start the week on a good footing, here is one of the many painted signs for that "great tonic [that] makes healthy, happy homes": Iron Jelloids!

The origins of the tonic and restorative medicine date back to 1895, when Warrick Bros. (also spelt in some journals as Warwick Bros.), manufacturing chemist of 18 Old Swan Lane, London, submitted a new pill made by mixing freshly precipitated sub-carbonate of iron with jujube mass. One year later ads for Iron Jelloids were being printed in medical journals and doctors started recommending it in articles. To handle production and marketing of their new product, Warrick Bros set up The Jelloid Co., of Finsbury Pavement, and by April 1913 The British Journal of Nursing could write that "Iron Jelloids are now well-known as a neutral, palatable, non-constipating form of Iron Tonic." In 1917 The Jelloid Co. was incorporated as a limited liability company and became Iron Jelloid Co. Ltd., with headquarters in City Road / Central Street, EC1, and production lines in Watford, Herts. The company ran several campaigns in the press (example of the 1912 ad) to promote "the great aid to health", and even sponsored in the early 1920s at least two books: The Iron Jelloids Nursery Rhymes Painting Book and A Humorous History of Britain by C. Harrison. Everybody in the household could have his or her Iron Jelloids. Children could be given the gelatinous lozenges No. 1 to help them grow, men and women with anaemia or feeling a bit down could try a fortnight of N. 2, while men could even take the extra-strong No. 2A (examples of a 1921 ad, printed in The Sydney Mail, and a 1924 ad). It seemed there was little Iron Jelloids could not do! In 1922 the remedy even got a mention in James Joyce's Ulysses:

Gerty MacDowell who was seated near her companions, lost in thought, gazing far away into the distance, was in very truth as fair a specimen of winsome Irish girlhood as one could wish to see. She was pronounced beautiful by all who knew her though, as folks often said, she was more a Giltrap than a MacDowell. Her figure was slight and graceful, inclining even to fragility but those iron jelloids she had been taking of late had done her a world of good much better than the Widow Welch's female pills and she was much better of those discharges she used to get and that tired feeling. (Episode 13 - Nausicca)

In 1930 Iron Jelloids Co. Ltd. was acquired by Beecham Pill Ltd. Production continued in Watford before moving to the main Beecham's factory in St Helens, Lancs. Beecham must have discontinued Iron Jelloids in the mid-1970s or 1980s.

The sign below is one of several I have come across in London. Since the prices quoted are the same as those on the 1924 printed ad, it may date from around the mid-1920s.

For Health & Beauty
Iron
Jelloids
...
Great ...
All Chemists 1'3 & 3'

Location: Windsor Road / Picture taken on: 01/04/2008