Fancy goods, Surbiton

Decades ago this shop must have been a favourite with kids from Surbiton, who would have glanced through the windows at the things they could play with. Yet before that something completely different was available in these premises.

Dolls Toys Games

And Fancy Goods

A close look reveals this ghost sign replaced an earlier one. However, with only a few letters still visible, it is difficult to identify what kind of trade was conducted there.

Dolls
Toys
Games
And
Fancy
Goods
A clue may be found on the side of the building. The sun was badly positioned (or was it me who wasn't there at the right time?) but it is still possible to read what was painted there.

Ladies
Tailor
Did this relate to the aforementioned early version of the ghost sign? I can't really tell.

Somehow for years I felt a bit like the kids. I used to look at this ghost sign through the windows of the Kingston - Dorking bus, whenever we went for a walk through the North Downs and the Greensands. Finally last weekend, on our way to Polesden Lacey, we took an earlier bus to Surbiton so I could finally take my pictures, and caught the 465 from there.

Location: Brighton Road / Pictures taken in March 2012

Stuarts DIY, Surbiton

At first sight, this is a pretty straightforward, easy-to-read sign painted at some point during the second half of 1950s or the first half of the 1960s (the style plus two other elements explained below allow to narrow it down to a decade): Stuarts
Your
Do it Yourself
Flooring Centre
Elm. 1017 [originally 0641]
"Elm." stands for Elmbridge, the name given to the telephone exchange in Surbiton (this name was adopted because the exchange was located on Elmbridge Avenue and not because Surbiton was part of Elmbridge. Surbiton -which didn't exist in Saxon times- would have been part of the Kingston hundred, not the Elmbridge hundred. The present borough of Elmbridge in Surrey was created on April 1, 1974, nine years after the Municipal Borough of Surbiton merged with Kingston-upon-Thames and a few others municipal boroughs to form the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and was transferred from Surrey to Greater London).
Since the Director System for telephone numbers (three letters and four digits) was replaced by All Figure Numbering in 1966, this sign must have been painted before that date.

A closer look at the wall shows the Stuarts sign was painted over an earlier one: ..
Milliner
Hosier &
...
It is this sign that can be seen partially on a picture taken around 1955 (one third from the left). Thus this picture and the change in the telephone numbering system give us a rough date when the Stuarts sign was painted.

Location: Victoria Road / Picture taken on: 15/04/2008