Bread and beer - no flies on us

I thought I’d pick a pretty picture to start the New Year. This gorgeous mosaic sign decorates the doorway of the Fly in the Loaf in Hardman Street, Liverpool. The bar takes its name from the slogan of the Kirklands bakery which once occupied this spot – they claimed there were “no flies in the loaf”. Already appointed as bakers to Queen Victoria, Kirklands opened this building in 1888. According to a Liverpool Mercury article at the time, the bakery was designed to be “a perfectly sanitary bakehouse, combining all the best health arrangements”. It continued as a bakery until the 1970s.

Steam bakery

The perils of being a small blogger on a busy road - this was the only angle I could get on this sign, but there's a pleasing reflection of a crane as a bonus. This is, as the sign says, the Queensland Steam Bakery in St Mary's, Southampton. It's been trading for 120 years and the company is still going - now called Marybake.

Confection of delights

This sign, on the corner of Shaw Road and Heaton Moor Road in Heaton Moor, Stockport, looked so great against the blue sky that I had to take a picture.

When the nearby railway station at Heaton Chapel was built in 1852, shops and houses sprang up around Heaton Moor road to meet the needs of the new commuters. This building was originally George Hallmark’s Bakers and Flour Dealers, and when it was converted to the Kro Bar they kindly kept the old signs.

If you’re interested, there’s a great photo of the shop in 1905 in the somewhat mesmerising book “The Four Heatons through time”, by Ian Littlechilds and Phil Page. For ideal results, read it in the Kro Bar.