Up a back passage

Well, it made me smile. Humble sign in an unprepossessing alleyway in an otherwise charming West Didsbury, Manchester.

Ghostly plumber

This great ghost sign in Liverpool city centre is at the junction of Knight Street and Roscoe Street. It advertises a plumber, painter and general contractor. A bit of research reveals that Joseph Glover was a certified plumber at 39 Knight Street in 1897; he also appears in the 1901 census at the same address. 

Horse and motor contractor

I couldn’t resist featuring this old sign just off Great Ormond Street, London. Although much photographed and written about, not least by the excellent Caroline's Miscellany blog, there doesn’t seem to be much information to shine a light on G Bailey & Sons Horse and Motor Contractors, which was wound up in 1951. Intriguingly, a new company of the same name was registered in 2013 (classified as “Media representation services”) so the name may live again. 

In at the deep end

This sign is at the luscious Victoria Baths in Hathersage Road, Manchester. Opened in 1906, the baths are a sumptuous celebration of public bathing. With three swimming pools, a Turkish bath, slipper baths and a laundry, the facilities were described at the time as the most splendid in the country.

Victoria Baths closed in 1993, and a gutsy restoration campaign has worked hard to get the building open and to restore the glory of the stained glass, mosaic floors, terracotta and tiles that make it so gorgeous.

If you’ve not yet visited, you’ve probably seen it without realising, as the Baths have often starred as a TV location (Life on Mars,  Floggit, Antiques Roadshow and Peaky Blinders to name a few). They run an imaginative programme of arts events, open days and vintage fairs – but it’s worth a visit for the tiles alone. Find out more here.