J. P. Bastos & Ca, Lisbon

Here is a rather modest sign, spotted while waiting for one of Lisbon's old tramways to arrive at its terminus on Rua da Alfândega. Paint manufacturer J. P. Bastos & C^a was founded more than 100 years ago. The company was known in Portugal for its Redlac brand of paints. In August 2007, J. P. Bastos was bought by one of its competitors, Argacol – Tintas e Vernizes, S.A.

J. P. Bastos & C^a L^a
Tintas - Vernizes
[J. P. Bastos & Co. Ltd.
Paints - Varnishes]
Location: Rua do Instituto Virgilio Machado, Alfama, Lisboa / Picture taken on: 05/11/2010

Gordon, Highgate

It looks as if a couple of signs could have been painted on this wall. It seems even that one business, by the name of Gordon, had signs painted on two if not three occasions. Unfortunately part of the wall is now hidden by the extension to the property and the new chimney stack, and several words have badly faded. Consequently I haven't managed to decipher anything more than that name nor been able to find any detail relating to any Gordon based on Archway Road.


Words in small letters were painted just below the roof across the whole wall but they have been fading too much to make any sense of them. One ghost sign, to the left of the chimney stack reads "char". To the right of the stack there is a barely visible "S." On the same portion of the wall, "Gordon" was written twice, using different characters: first on the lower half, and later, on the upper half. As for the large "...on" letters, they could be spelling the end of "Gordon" too. These letters were painted over an earlier sign, which ended with the word "...gers."
If anyone has any idea about this ghot sign, please leave a comment. Thanks.

Location: Archway Road / Picure taken on: 14/08/2008

Philips, Istanbul

Even though this advert for the Dutch multinational Philips was painted in a small street, it can be glimpsed from Istiklal Caddesi (at least by my mum - thanks for pointing it to me!), Istanbul's most famous avenue located in the Beyoğlu district.
This painted sign must date from the mid-1980s as the only document with the same slogan available on the net is a Philishave advert printed in June 1985 in the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet. At that time each department within each of Philips's national subsidiaries was responsible for advertising and marketing campaigns. Thus several ran simultaneously and with different slogans. This came to an end in the mid-1990s when Philips launched its first global campaign under the slogan "Let's make things better."

Philips alın. Gelecegi yaşayın
[Get Philips, Experience the Future]
Since my Turkish is non-existent, I am not absolutely sure about the translation.

Location: Taksim Caddesi, Beyoğlu, Istanbul / Picture taken on: 17/06/2011

Chemist, Rochester

A simple but relatively classy doorstep mosaic greated customers to this chemist's on Rochester High Street. The design seems to date from the inter-war years (but I may be wrong). It was probably laid for Gerald Arthur Morris, who had been trading as a chemist at this address at least since the early 20th century. Business must have been good and in 1904 The Pharmaceutical Journal reported he had opened a new branch pharmacy on Ordnance Street, Chatham. G. A. Morris was a keen photographer and printed several postcards before the First World War. He also offered a photographic developing, printing and enlarging service, as mentioned in a few journals from the early 1920s.
Nowadays the premises are occupied by a hairdresser whose name was certainly inspired by the doorstep mosaic: Hair Chemistry.


Location: High Street, Rochester, Kent / Picture taken on: 26/06/2011

The Skinners' Arms, Godalming

In early 1957 an advert in The Estate Gazette invited interested parties to the Kings Arms Royal Hotel, where the building at the southern end of Church Street in Goldaming would be sold at auction. Since then it has been divided into four shops but traces of its former use remain in the form of a ghost sign running high up along its façade. For some time it had been The Skinners' Arms. I didn't find when this public house opened but parts of the property date back to the 17th century, although the façade itself dates from the extension of the builing in the 19th century. The name comes from the Worshipful Company of Skinners, whose presence in Godalming goes back to 1588, the year Lawrence Atwell bequested to this Livery Company a row of small tenements with a adjoining small parcel of ground.
The Skinners' Arms was tied to Courage's Alton brewery. London brewer Courage expanded into the Hampshire market town in 1903, when it acquired G & E Hall's brewery. Actually this was the company's first venture outside London. By then Hall's brewery supplied around 20,000 barrels a year to public houses in and around Alton as well as in London but Courage came with ambitious plans. The company contracted William Bradford & Sons to design a new brewery, able to produce 50,000 barrels a year. Courage's Alton brewery, a model of the genre, opened in 1904. Over the following decades the site was enlarged and production increased. By the late 1920s it reached 120,000 barrels a year. Courage continued brewing in Alton until 1969, when it converted the brewery into a canning and kegging plant. Ten years later the site was sold to Bass who demolished the old buildings and opened new brewing facilities. Nowadays the brewery belongs to Molson Coors Brewing Company (UK) Ltd.

Courage Alton

The Skinners' Arms

Ales & Stouts

Courage Alton
The Skinners' Arms
Ales & Stouts
Location: Church Stret, Godalming, Surrey / Pictures taken on: 02/05/2011

Sächsische Malzfabrik, Bad Sulza

As the name of the town suggests, much of the activity in Bad Sulza revolves around its mineral waters and the benefits they bring to one's health. Yet a few industries developed during the 19th century in this little town surrounded by agricultural land, 22 km northeast of Weimar. One of these was a malt factory, founded in 1864 by Ludwig Groß, an entrepreneur from Leipzig, who also opened the 'Hotel zum Großherzog von Sachsen' near the town's train station. The malt factory with its distinctive square tower was built near the River Ilm and in the proximity of the Erfurt-Halle railway line. Very little information about its history is available other than in 1912 the factory was bought by Robert Deinhardt, the owner of Weimar's brewery. This made him the largest malt producer in the region.
As for the Sächsische Malzfabrik (Saxon Malt Factory), it was founded on 29th January 1889 in the industrial district of Plauen in Dresden. Once more I haven't found much about this company. It seems it remained in private hands until the early 1950s but was certainly taken over by the East German authorities afterwards.


Looking at the ghost sign on the tower, I would assume the Sächsische Malzfabrik bought at some point the Bad Sulza malt factory from the brewing business controlled by Robert Deinhardt or, following his death in 1937, his family. However that may be totally wrong.

Sächsische Malzfabrik [Saxon Malt Factory]
...
Bad Sulza
Unfortunately I haven't been able to decipher what was written between "Malzfabrik" and "Bad Sulza."


Location: Bergstraße, Bad Sulza, Thüringen / Pictures taken on: 23/04/2010

Dubonnet, Pons

Rue George Clémenceau may be a quiet dead end street now but until a few decades ago it was the main thoroughfare through the historic little town of Pons in France. The street follows the course of the Saintes-Bordeaux road originally built by the Romans. Since the Middle Ages it has been part of the Via Turonensis, one of the four French Ways of St James (the one that goes from Paris to the Pyrenees, and passes, as the name indicates, by Tours). In 1160 Geoffroy III, lord of Pons, built a hospice where pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela could rest and recover. The different parts of the hospice extend on either side of the road while the central building, resting on three bays, spans the road. Eight centuries later cars had replaced pilgrims in a street that had become part of the Nationale 137, the trunk road running from Saint-Malo in Brittany to Bordeaux via Rennes, Nantes, La Rochelle and Saintes. This explains why advertising agencies bought or rented spaces on several properties along its course and painted large signs on the gables. Needless to say, at peak times traffic didn't flow steadily through Pons. The streets were narrow and cars could barely pass each others under the arches of the hospice. That gave car drivers ample time to take in the names of alcohols, lubricants, and of other products and services promoted on the town's buildings. As for lorries they had to follow a diversion. This lasted until the opening of the Pons bypass in the 1970s. Traffic through town declined and the advertising spaces on the walls of houses ceased to attract new adverts. As a result several painted signs can still be seen in town, including the one below for the well-known aperitif Dubonnet. A French classic!

Actually it is a double Dubonnet. The original sign covered the entire gable. It was partly covered when a much smaller sign was painted on the part of the gable closer to the road. Was this because something obstructed the view of the original sign? Or did Dubonnet want to have its name on a newer red background (as in Montrichard) instead of the traditional blue background but was unwilling to pay for a whole wall?

Dubonnet
Vin tonique au quinquina
[Dubonnet
Tonic Wine With Cinchona]
The smaller and more recent Dubonnet sign was painted just above a billboard which has now disappeared.


In 1998 the hospice was listed and was one of the 71 monuments added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites under the description Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. A restoration campaign followed and to prevent any careless driver from damaging the structure, including the Romanesque portal, and make the visit more pleasant, the street was blocked. What used to be a major thoroughfare is now a dead end street and only visitors to the hospice may notice this ghost sign!

Location: Rue George Clémenceau, Pons, Charente-Maritime / Pictures taken on: 19/08/2011