High class dairy, Tooting

After some bread on Friday, we are coming back to Tooting today to get some milk.
Hopefully this "high class dairy" provided better quality milk than many of its competitors around London (check this earlier post to see what I mean).

High Class Dairy
Location: Longley Road / Picture taken on: 24/02/2011

Hovis, Tooting

When the owner of this bakery changed, Hovis paid for a new sign. In the process, the 'O' of 'Hovis' lost the characteristic tilde (sometimes simplified to a dash or a flattened ring) it had between the 1920s and 1940s.


Therefore the most recent sign, for Kerr's, must have been painted after the Second World War. It reads: Kerr's
Maker Of
Hovis
During the inter-war years (and maybe even before), the bakery belonged to Stenning, who had this wall painted on two occasions (repeated lines are signalled below with a *): Stenning's [*]
Baker & [*]
Pastrycook [*]
Noted for Quality
Confectionery
Baked D...
...o... ...n
Hõvis
Location: Upper Tooting Road / Picture taken on: 11/04/2008

Mixed news from Merton

I've just spent the afternoon around Wimbledon and Tooting, where unfortunately three ghost signs are gone.

• Gillette on Coverton Road wasn't an easy one to spot, but now an extra coat of white paint has been splashed on it,
• a house has been built next to Tooting station on Mitcham Road. It rests on the wall on which the sign for Gorringe Park was painted,
• the sign for the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society at the junction of Haydon Road and Merton High Street has been completely erased (check tomorrow's post). The billboard, which hid most of it, is gone as well, but the wall has been thoroughly cleaned with a Kärcher. There's hardly a trace of paint left.

On a slightly more positive note, the billboards that hid the signs on Hartfield Road and Rogers Road have been removed. However if you thought something quite amazing would emerge, you may be disappointed. Both walls were painted black before the billboards were put and only fragments can be deciphered. I'll post some pictures and let you know whatever I managed to read soon.

Gillette, Tooting

A coat of white paint splashed on this wall makes the ghosts signs more... ghostly?


Although several ads were painted here, only the one for Gillette can be easily identified thanks to its famous words and font:Safety
Razor
Location: Coverton Road / Picture taken on: 11/04/2008

Mystery sign, Tooting

This sign may have faded away but I can guarantee you there is something written there. Actually it is ...

...
Written
Guarantee
...
Location: Mitcham Road / Picture taken on: 30/03/2009

Gorringe Park, Tooting

With three if not four signs painted on this wall next to Tooting Station, reading anything but the most recent one becomes virtually impossible.

Gorringe Park
Hire, Sale or Exchange
Accessories Repairs
Could this have been for a car dealer or garage?

With only a few letters still visible, I haven't managed to decipher the other signs. The only complete word seems to be 'Hotel'.

Location: Mitcham Road / Picture taken on: 07/03/2008

Gardiner's, Tooting

On Monday I was doing some research in the Wandsworth Local History Library on Lavender Hill, when I came across a picture taken on 4th November 1911, the day the memorial to King Edward VII at the junction of Tooting High Street and Mitcham Road was unveiled. Clearly visible in the background was a painted sign that has survived to this day (actually the picture is available online).

Gardiner's
Drapery Stores
Mourning Warehouse
Dressmaking & Millinery
A Speciality
Orders Promptly Executed
At the Shortest Notice
There is another sign (maybe more) but apart from General &
Tarrant(the latter line being written across in large letters), and a few letters here and there, I can't tell what it was for. Maybe I'll come across a picture of it next time I am the Local History Library...?

Location: Tooting High Street / Picture taken on: 07/03/2008

Money advance, Hounslow; Old gold bought, Dulwich; and Perry & Sons, Tooting

I've been neglecting this blog a bit lately so to compensate, today's posting features several painted signs.

Last week the expenses scandal came to haunt MPs again. With the leaders of the main parties insisting that those seeking reelection would have to pay some money back, I thought I should give those who struggle to raise the funds they may have to repay a couple of addresses where they may get some help. I don't guarantee they're still open.

The first address isn't too far from the constituency of the right honourable gentleman whose name sounds a bit like an English county. Being accused of using around £100,000 of public money to fund his own research company, he may find repaying the total sum tricky. However since he has now annouced he would stand down at the next election, he may not need to repay it at all...

General...
Money
Advance
Jewellery / To Any Amount
Even if he decides or is obliged to repay part of that large sum, he may drive past this sign without noticing it as it is largely obscured by an evergreen tree growing a couple of meters from the wall. A close view reveals that the upper and lower parts were used twice ("/" indicates ovelapping text written at the same level)

Location: Staines Road / Picture taken on: 19/07/2008

If Hounslow if a bit far for some MPs, here are another couple of places closer to Westminster where they could trade in their goods for some cash.

Left...
or
Exchanged

Right
Jewelery
Old Gold
Bought
The right-hand part of this sign covers an earlier one. Part of it can still be seen: .w...
.lat...
Special Low Rate
...
Over £2.00
Since the price of gold has been going up lately, those who enter the premises will undoubtedly be given a better deal than the then chancellor, who decided to sell part of the country's gold reserves back in 1999-2002 at a time when the precious metal was at a 20-year low.

Location: Lordship Lane / Picure taken on: 24/08/2009

Finally for those MPs in need of cash but who don't have much gold or jewels, there is Perry & Sons. This may not be obvious from the picture below but they do accept a much wider range of goods and valuables. Indeed for a while I wondered what the words hidden from the street level could be, but then one day traffic was horribly slow so I hopped on a double-decker bus, and had enough time to read this sign before getting off one stop further. Actually not many people may have ever been able to see it in full. On a 1904 picture of the High Street (and the sign can't be much older) it is already partly hidden by the pediment of the building next door. The latter was demolished at some point but the Art Deco building that replaced it wasn't low enough either...

Money Lent To Any Amount Diamonds, Precious Stones Miniatures. Works of Art Furniture & Pianos

Perry & Sons

Old Gold & Silver Purchased Second-hand Furniture

Location: Tooting High Street / Picture taken on: 11/04/2008