John Brown's Whiskies, Stoke Newington

When I met some friends in a pub after one of my lectures and told them I had just been discussing with my students, among many other issues, the territorial loss of Bolivia following its defeat in the 1932-35 Chaco War, the conversation drifted immediately towards the adventures of Tintin... Indeed there are several references to that terrible war in The Broken Ear. From there we went through the international events which influenced Hergé, from the Mukden Incident in The Blue Lotus to the Cold War in The Calculus Affair, and so on... (after all my three companions that evening were all history teachers at the Lycée français) Then as one of us mentioned Land of the Black Gold, we discussed the different versions that exist of several Tintin books. That finally led us to The Shooting Star, a comic book that was partly redrawn after the war, and ends dramatically, when Captain Haddock collapses. As serving president of the Society for Sober Sailors, he had been invited to give a radio talk on the dangers of alcoholism but collapsed after drinking water instead of... whisky! In several other books we learn that his favourite brand was Loch Lomond, but who knows, maybe the Captain would have appreciated a sip of John Brown's as well? What a twisted way to introduce today's painted sign!!!

Unfortunately a quick look on the web doesn't reveal much about John Brown's whiskies apart from the fact that they ran an advert campaign in the late Victorian era. It is mentioned somewhere that the company's name could be connected with Queen Victoria's servant, something I find hard to believe. After all there is certainly no lack of John Brown in Scotland...

Good Judges
Drink
John
Brown's
Whiskies
Location: Cazenove Road / Picture taken on: 10/04/2008

Farwell, Weymouth

Earlier this year, inspired maybe by my recent reading of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan and convinced by the special weekend offers of South West Trains, we decided to go for a walk along the South West Coast Path, from Weymouth to Abbotsbury. As the train approached its final destination I noticed a lovely Victorian or Edwardian frontage of what was certainly a butcher's shop, and almost next to it, this doorstep mosaic. The current state of the building doesn't do justice to the elegant lettering but at least it has survived. Let's hope it will still be with us for a long time.

Location: Ranelagh Road, Weymouth / Picture taken on: 08/08/2009

Floor coverings, Borough

Painted signs not only appear from behind billboards, but, more sadly, they also vanish, sometimes for good when buildings are demolished or façades are given a new coat of paint.
True, the façade below looked a bit scruffy when I passed there in spring 2008 and the sign wasn't in a very good state. Since then the whole building has been thoroughly "restored" (I think it is now a restaurant or cafe of some sort) and several layers of paint have been applied onto the façade. As a result the sign has been lost forever and part of the commercial history of this area erased.

Given the state of the sign it took me a while to decipher it. It even looks as if there are two signs, possibly for the same business.

Floor Coverings
[Retailer & ?] Wholesaler
Location: Tabard Street / Picture taken on: 10/04/2008

Therm House, Wandsworth

Not much of a story behind today's painted sign, what suits me well as I have many things to do... The logo is quite interesting: a flower, with one petal ending with a flame.

Correction: I clearly got it wrong! This is not a flower but Mr Therm. See Wellwynder's comment for the proper description.

	Therm House
Convince Youself		Get Up To Date With Gas

Location: Ram Street / Picture taken on: 04/04/2008

The Temperance Permanent Building Society, Richmond and Lewisham

With the holidays in China and the extra work that goes with the beginning of a new academic year now behind, it's time to bring this blog back to life.

China was full of painted signs, especially in rural areas. My guess is that most of them, and virtually all the older ones given the nature of the regime and its past policies, were of a political nature but in the south I came across plenty of large ads for China Mobile, one of the country's mobile phone providers (easy to recognize: the company's name was written in English), and several for a couple of building companies. Unfortunately I saw most of them while travelling by bus and couldn't take all the pictures I would have liked. Still, I came back with some but before posting them I'll ask my Chinese colleagues from the languages department if they don't mind translating a few for me.

Unfortunately on the day I flew back home clouds were low and the only thing we could see before landing at Heathrow were streets after streets of 1920s-30s houses. That reminded me of the painted ads for the Temperance Building Society, which feature such a typical suburban house.
I came across the sign in Richmond in February. It had certainly been hidden by a billboard for some time, and that would explain why one part is so well preserved while the rest has disappeared. It would also explain why I hadn't noticed it ealier as I pass there quite often. Even though only part of the name is visible, a quick search on the net pointed to it being for the Temperance Permanent Building Society, one of many building societies that appeared in the 1830s-40s. As the name suggests it adhered to the principles of the temperance movement, and its directors were required to sign The Pledge on a yearly basis. This was confirmed a few months later when I spotted another, this time complete, sign in Lewisham. Its incredibly good state is due to the fact that since 1933 it had been almost completely hidden by the building of the former Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society! On the picture, I have slightly brightened the sign while leaving the rest unchanged (you can click to enlarge it).

Choose Your House
And The
Temperance
...
A suburban dream...
Location: Sheen Road / Both pictures taken on: 17/02/2009

Choose Your House
And The
Temperance
Permanent
Building Society
4 Ludgate Hill EC4
Will Help You
To Buy It
Location: Lewisham High Street / Picture taken on: 23/07/2009

In 1974 the Temperance Permanent Building Society merged with the Bedforshire Building Society to form the Gateway Building Society. In 1988 the latter was bought by the Woolwich. The requirement to sign The Pledge was dropped at the time of the merger with the BBS.

Wok Away, Brixton

After 30 posts, this blog it taking a break as this afternoon my partner and I will be on our way to China. I know there are still some slogans dating back from the Cultural Revolution in Beijing and a few other places, but I am not sure whether I'll come across some painted signs. In the meantime, here is one in Chinese, spotted not even in Chinatown but in Brixton. I am not so sure about the name of the restaurant though: Wok Away...


Location: Acre Lane / Picture taken on: 09/04/2008

Garage, Norwood

The two signs painted on this wall, certainly for the same business, are modest enough but the cars inside are not. Looking at the number of Rolls Royces and Jaguars in this garage, you may want to look somewhere else to get your Fiat Uno serviced or repaired. As for me, I only rely on public transport...

The older sign reads: Garage
Repairs
Overhauls
Cars for Hire
Phone STRM 3646

The newer one reads: Thompson's
Engine
Specialists
STRM was the area code for Streatham.

Location: Beulah Hill / Picture taken on: 17/06/2008