For a brief history of Valentine paint, please see the earlier post about the Valentine ghost sign in Saintes.
The sign writer cleverly positioned the painter to the right of the window, making it look as if he were painting the only area that was not white yet.
The painter was originally created by Charles Loupot in the 1920s. Even if his design was later modified, he remained the symbol of Valentine until the 1980s.
Underneath the ghost sign are the names of the two companies that managed successively this advertising space. The original one was the COFRAP. The second company, , which could be reached by calling TRO 15 57, was the AGPP (for Agence Générale de Presse et de Publicité). TRO stood for Trocadéro, a telephone exchange in Paris.
Location: Avenue de la République, Montlieu-la-Garde, Charente-Maritime
Five years later the graffiti was gone and the ghost sign for James Crane could be seen in full.
It certainly dates from the last decade (or couple of decades) of the 19th century. James Crane is mentioned in a couple of publications from that period indeed. In October 1894 readers of the London Gazette learnt that James Crane, builder and contractor, of 121, Church Street, Stoke Newington, was bankrupt. Two years later, a notice of intended dividends was published in the London Gazette and reprinted in several professional journals, including Timber and Plywood.
Location: Church Street
Since it barely sees the sun, the ghost sign as the northern end of the mews is better preserved. Two overlapping ghost signs at least, for the same company, feature on this wall.
The name Boundary Warehouse certainly came from the proximity of the building to the boundary between Notting Hill, in Kensington, and Bayswater, in Westminster.
The wall as the southern end of the former depository was painted on three occasions.
Even what was written there has faded quite a bit, it is still possible to decipher a fair part of those signs but not necessarily to reconstitute each one of them.
Below is what I managed to read, irrespective of the chronological order:
Park, named after Hyde Park, was the telephone exchange for Bayswater and Notting Hill.
Location: Powis Mews
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