Wet wit

They're realistic about the weather at the Twice Brewed Inn on Hadrian's Wall. As soon as I saw the signs, I knew I'd enjoy it here. 

Blessed be the music makers

Sign at Albert Hall in Manchester. A former Wesleyan chapel, built in 1910, it has also had a career as a dubious nightclub. It is now an impressive music venue, retaining some pretty stained glass, nice tiles and crumbling plasterwork.

It's a deal

By George

This sign advertises the Gallery Restaurant at the George Inn, Southwark. The George is owned by the National Trust and is London’s last remaining galleried inn. It’s 17th century, creaky, sloping and atmospheric. You can nip to the loo on the upper gallery and get a great view of the Shard at the same time. The food is wonderful and the staff even better. The pub’s panelled walls played host to Dickens, of course - I’d be disappointed if he’d missed out the George as he seems to have had a drink in pretty well every other pub in London, apparently. Worth a visit. 

The Common people

This sign is on the Avenue in Southampton, a city with some glorious parks right in its centre, and the fantastic Southampton Common just to the north. It was declared common land in the 13^th century when the borough bought the land and allowed neighbours to use it for fuel, clay and foraging for food. It was also used for grazing, and the Cowherds Inn today is a reminder of the cowherd who was once paid to look after the cattle on the common. With trees, grass, ponds and play areas, the ancient green space became a public park in 1844.

My primary school was on the edge of the common, with playground boundaries marked by oak, ash and hawthorns, and sports day on a strip of common land grass. This idyllic playtime came to an abrupt end in the 1970s when we were moved to a new building with a tarmac playground surrounded by a wire mesh fence like a cage.

The Common is still in good use by the citizens of Southampton. There’s a wildlife centre, boating lake and paddling pool, and it hosts charity runs, fairs and music festivals.

No jokes please

Lovely little sign on a pub in Thornhill, in Dumfries and Galloway. A calm and pretty place, Thornhill was built as a planned town on a grid pattern. Dating back to 1714, it has some welcoming shops, a couple of handsome pubs and a shop frontage covered in this wild mosaic (see bonus picture below).

Ring my bell

Beautiful bell, just urging you to press that button. On the Ash Hotel in Stockport - the building dates from 1901 and is now a food shop and tea room.

Old times, gentlemen, please

This inviting glass sign lured us into the Museum Tavern in Bloomsbury, London - right opposite the British Museum. I’d heard it was a bit of a tourist trap so I had fairly low expectations, but inside it’s a relaxed Victorian pub, with a good mix of customers and some rare cockney accents.

The Tavern was expanded in 1855 and pleasing original features – such as this cut glass window, carved wooden fittings and pretty coloured glass – still survive.

It’s hard to believe now, but the area was full of swamps and ponds in the early 18^th century. The pub on the site was called the Dog and Duck, and the area was a hunting ground for the Duke of Montagu, whose house later housed the first British Museum. 

Jamaica Wine House - an old story for modern times

Dickens, Johnson and Pepys must have spent a great deal of time inebriated, as every old London pub seems to claim them as a patron (there’s a drinking game in there somewhere). The Jamaica Wine House is no exception – Pepys is thought to have been a customer.

This fine sign is suspended above St Michael’s Alley, off Cornhill in the City of London, making it marginally easier to find this tucked-away drinking den. Now called the Jamaica Wine House (though better known for selling beer), it’s also known as the Jam Pot, and was built on the site of the Jamaica Coffee House, previously known as Pasque Rosee’s Head, or sometimes as the Turk’s Head. Do keep up.

Pleasingly dark, creepy and wood-panelled, the current building is Victorian, built in 1869 and Grade II listed. It is on the site of the Jamaica Coffee House, built after the fire of London. The original coffee house was opened before the fire, in 1652, by Pasque Rosee, who is variously recorded as being Armenian, an Italian-born Greek or Turkish.

The first London coffee house

Rosee was a servant to Daniel Edwards, a merchant; they met while working in the Ottoman Empire. When they came to London, Rosee’s coffee was so liked by Daniel’s family and friends that Daniel helped Rosee to set up a stall in a shed in the churchyard of St Michael’s, under a sign of Rosee’s head. This is said to be the first coffee shop in England (a claim made in a Royal Society report in 1699), though some say that glory belongs to a Jewish man named Jacob, with a coffee shop in Oxford opened in 1650.

Keen to educate the London public in this new art of coffee drinking, Rosee promoted the product with a handbill, claiming it had medicinal properties that could help sore eyes, coughs, dropsy, gout and scurvy, and that it would prevent miscarriages and drowsiness.

Hostile hostelries

The coffee was so popular that it angered local alehouse keepers who saw Rosee’s business as a threat. They protested against him on the grounds that he wasn’t a freeman of the City, sending a petition to the Lord Mayor to stop Rosee trading. Sounds depressingly familiar, doesn’t it? These immigrants come over here, they open historic coffee shops …. The challenge was overcome by forming a business partnership with Daniel’s father-in-law’s coachman, who was a freeman of the City. In 1656 they were able to move to a building on the current site of the Jamaica Wine House, just 27 feet deep and 19 feet wide, at an annual rent of £4. 

Latte legacy

Between 1674 and 1680, the coffee shop became the Jamaica Coffee House, serving business people with interests in Jamaica and the British West Indies. It seems that Rosee was later obliged to leave the country as a result of an unexplained misdemeanour. His story lived on, and his character and coffee were featured in plays and popular street poems, making fun of his foreign accent and poor English (English was probably his third language, after Greek and Turkish).

His legacy was a new type of business which spread all over the country. London’s coffee houses were known as great meeting places to share news, discuss business, debate politics, write and exchange ideas. And, of course, they still thrive today. Drink to Pasque Rosee in the Jamaica Wine House, and remember him next time you pop in to a café for coffee.

Plough on

This handsome stained glass window advertises the Plough on Heaton Moor Road in Stockport. Heaton Moor is now a thriving suburb, but it was largely farmland until the mid -19^th century. The railway station, just up the road from the Plough, was built in 1852, and shops and houses developed along the road to service the needs of the new commuters. The Plough was built in the 1880s, and reminds us of the area’s rural roots: over its door is a lovely sandstone picture of a ploughing scene.

Local hero

Nelstrops Albion Mills in Stockport.

I’ve gone past this mill countless times, and have always admired the white wash of flour up the side of the building. It was only when I saw Nelstrops flour for sale in a local shop that I was prompted to look into its history.

It turns out that Nelstrops is the only independent family miller in the North West. The company was founded in 1820 by an enterprising 19 year old, William Nelstrop, who later became Mayor of Stockport. According to the company’s website, he was offered a knighthood by Queen Victoria for his role in defusing the anti-corn law riots, but refused the honour – partly because he sympathised with the poor who could not afford bread, and partly because the lower wheat prices would benefit his business.

The business is still run by his descendants, and the Albion Mills on Lancashire Hill have survived fires and blitz. The sign on the top says the building was erected in 1820 and rebuilt in 1894.

Read more on the company's website