Fred Palmer, South Wimbledon

Inspired by the amazing work of Peter Vogel at Nutmegger Workshop across the pond, this week is going to be about shop signage painted on wood.
The series starts with Fred Palmer the cash butcher. Sadly this very attractive example of Victorian shop signage, which had been hidden behind a more modern one, re-emerged for a few days only in early 2009, when the new owners of the shop converted it to office use. Then, instead of covering it again, Yelfy at Faded London tells us they removed it and certainly dumped it in some rubbish tip. Vandals!
In Victorian times many customers had accounts in the shops they visited regularly and only paid once a week, a fortnight, or a month. This system may have worked well in middle and upper middle-class areas, but in poorer parts of the country, where people struggled to make ends meet, shopkeepers didn't want to risk losing out and demanded each purchase was paid immediately. Fred Palmer was one of these, hence the "cash" added to the nature of his trade.


Fred Palmer's customers may not have been extremely wealthy but that did not prevent him from getting an elaborate signage. Click on the pictures below to check the complexity of the lettering, with its black and red shades. A close look also shows the sign painter had originally thought of a different design.


Location: Merton High Street / Picture taken on: 20/02/2009

Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, South Wimbledon

As mentioned yesterday, there is nothing left of this sign at all. It promoted the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS), a consumer co-operative whose origins dated back to 1868. Then called the Royal Arsenal Supply Association, it changed its name four years later to RACS. It offered a whole range of products and services to its members, and paid them a dividend, which depended on how much they had spent in its outlets. From its base in Woolwich, the RACS expanded throughout South London (they opened only one shop north of the Thames, in North Woolwich) and the surrounding counties. At its peak, it had more than half a million members. However by the 1970s, like many co-operative societies, it faced growing competition from supermarkets and experienced a sharp decline in members and revenue. In 1985 it merged with the South Suburban Co-operative Society to form the Co-operative Wholesale Society. To find out more about the RACS, you can check the wikipedia page.
This sign was painted on two occasions at least.

RACS [written diagonally]

... to Glisteners ... Dividend & Interest [*]

Royal Arsenal [**]
Co-operative Society
*: 'Divident & Interest' was painted twice.
**: only the 'A' of Arsenal is still visibile. The rest of the word was covered by 'Interest'. To the right of 'Interest' is a 'Y' but I can't connect it with anything else.

As for the big white 'bubble' with a black shade, I don't know what it does there.

Location: Haydon Road / Picture taken on 14/03/2008

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.

Glass cut to size, Bermondsey

If the phone number was painted at the same time as the other parts, then this sign was painted after 1990. Indeed it was in May that year that the London 01 area code was replaced with 071 and 081. Still, the different letterings and colours - all of which work very effectively - and the figure of the glazier seem to give this sign a slightly older touch.

Glass Cut To Size
While You Wait
Mirrors
Made to Order

24 hr

Boarding & Glazing Service

Glass Processing
Framed Pictures
& Mirrors Made to Order
071 - 237 1219

Location: Rowcross Street / Pictures taken on: 23/07/2009

Maides ironmonger, Haslemere

It looks like this wall was painted on two occasions but only one ghost sign can still be read:Maides
Ironmonger
& Co.
The forge of William Maides, a famous blacksmith, once stood across the road from this sign. The guide published by the Haslemere Society and the Haslemere Visitor and Local Information Centre in which this is mentioned does not provide any date but the name appears in an article of The Surrey Advertiser published in 1864 about a meeting that took place at Haslemere Town Hall. Was it the same William Maides though? As it was relatively common to give the first name of the father to the first male child, it is not possible to be sure. In any case, since the sign refers to an ironmonger rather than a blacksmith, it may be that this particular business was started by a heir of the famous blacksmith rather than by William Maides himself. Or maybe it operated in conjunction with the forge?

Location: Lower Street, Haslemere, Surrey / Picture taken on: 30/08/2010

Sociedad Cubana de Ingenieros, Havana

Although the Sociedad Cubana de Ingenieros (Cuban Society of Engineers) was disbanded in 1961, its coat of arms can still be seen by the entrance of its former offices. The building was built in 1920, twelve years after the foundation of the Society on August 11, 1908, and the mosaic was certainly laid at that time.


Location: Avenida de las Misiones (Monserrate), Havana / Picture taken on: 20/03/2010

Hampton, Kew

Unfortunately most of this ghost sign was obliterated when the door was opened.

Hampton
Bro... [*]
Wh...
Ha... [Hampton?]
...s
& Ca... [Cafe or Caterer?]
Lunche. [Lunches or Luncheons?]
(*) this is written in small letters at the base of the 'M' of the first line.
The different lettering used for the fourth line ('Ha...') could suggest Hampton had their sign painted on at least two occasions.
Location: Station Approach / Picture taken on: 30/01/2010