News of the World, Seven Sisters and Croydon

Read The

News

Of The

World

Best Sunday Paper

Location: West Green Road / Picture Taken on: 04/06/2008

Enamel signs don't fall within the limits set by the title of this blog but I couldn't resist celebrating the first Sunday without one of Britain's crappiest tabloids, News of the World (for a painted sign, check this picture taken around 1912). Founded in 1843 this weekly publication quickly specialised in reporting crimes and titillating the lowest instincts of its readers (anything that involved sex was always good enough). Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of the title in 1969 didn't lead to any improvement of its contents, far from it. Much has been written lately about the very dodgy, if not illegal, methods used by the paper to get its scoops and which led to its demise. Unfortunately there are still many rags of the same kind out there.

Tullett's
Newsagent . Tobacconist
Confectioner
Order Here
News
Of The
World
Best Sunday Paper
Location: Surrey Street / Picture taken on: 17/06/2008

Stop here for the best overalls, and Herman & Watkins, Seven Sisters

A short passageway in northeast London shelters not one but two ghost signs.

Stop Here
For the Best
Overalls,
Printers' Blouses,
Aprons,
... Jackets
The different typefaces, sizes, colours, and simple interwoven lines seem to indicate this particularly attractive sign was designed in the early part of the twentieth century, if not slightly earlier.


A step further down the pasageway is the second, more modern sign. Whether the two are in any way connected is something I haven't found.

Herman & Watkins
Limited.
Based at 523 Seven Sisters Road, Tottenham, the company is mentioned in a 1938 issue of Chemist and Druggist: The Newsweekly for Pharmacy. In it, it is announced that the partnership between M. Herman and FR. Watkins, manufacturers of toilet and fancy goods under the style of Herman & Watkins, has been dissolved.


A very fine example of manicule pointed customers towards the offices of Herman & Watkins at the back.

Location: Seven Sisters Road / Pictures taken on: 19/10/2010

The Metropolitan Boot Company

With such a grand name, you could be forgiven for thinking the Metropolitan Boot Company was one of Britain's largest shoemakers or retailers. Yet this wasn't the case and books about the industry hardly ever mention it. So when they proclaimed there were 'Branches Everywhere', maybe they only meant across northeast London. I once came across a picture of a Shoreditch High Street taken in the early twentieth century. One of the shops there belonged to the Metropolitan Boot Company.

Metropolitan
Boot Co. Ltd
Branches
Everywhere
This sign was painted twice but the text remained the same. There was slightly more space between the on the original version.

Location: West Green Road / Picture taken: 04/06/2008

Army Club, Seven Sisters

Earlier this year several billboards were removed along High Road in Tottenham, revealing some long forgotten adverts. One of these promoted Army Club cigarettes.


Manufactured by tobacco company Cavenders of Manchester, Army Club made history by being the first product to be advertised by neon sign in Britain. Erected on a thirty-five feet long by twenty feet high display, it was switched on on Picadilly Circus in 1924.
In the aftermath of the First World War, Army Club advertising campaigns played heavily the nostalgia card. The image of the mildly smiling officer smoking casually his fag was an attempt at bringing back memories of wartime camaraderie and male, if not macho, attitude and behaviour. As proclaimed on one of their printed adverts:Army Club
The front-line cigarette
This is a cigarette for the fellow with a full-size
man's job to do. When you're feeling all 'hit up',
it steadies the nerves.
If you ask me, this is complete bull... Still given the popularity of the brand between the wars, it must have worked...

One if not two earlier signs were painted on this wall. Several letters can be seen here and there, in particular at the same level as 'Club.'

Location: High Road / Picture taken on: 17/02/2010

Wine and spirits, Seven Sisters

Contrary to the Medway Coal Company, which did not list the places where it had offices and wharves, leaving people wondering where "Elsewhere" could be, the store below gave the addresses of all the chain's branches in the London area.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find the name of the store yet (I've looked at all the addresses provided but found nothing on the web. I may have more luck with the history books of the local libraries). A picture taken in 1911 shows the premises were occupied by the Olympia Stores, which sold Hoare and Co.'s stout and ales, but the name wouldn't fit. Would the sign below have been painted before or after?


...a.
.nce.
Tea & Coffee
Importers
& Provision
Merchants
...avement
...
Branches
52 & 54 Broadway Stratford
885 & 887 High St. Stratford
175 Drury Lane Holborn
159 Drury Lane Strand
6 Brunswick St. Poplar
62 York Rd. Battersea
18 Broadway London Fields
Agents For
W & A Gilbey's
Wines & Spirits
Walter and Arthur Gilbey began their wine merchant business in 1857. From their first store at the corner of Berwick Street and Oxford Street they expanded rapidly across England through a network of grocers who acted as their agents. For more on the early years of W & A Gilbey, you can refer to Wine and the Vine: An Historical Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade by Tim Unwin, pp. 332-333.

Location: West Green Road / Picture Taken on: 04/06/2008