Briggs Stores ghost sign

Briggs Stores ghost sign, on the side of a house in Heaton Norris, Stockport, on the corner of Belmont Street and Clement Street. This photo was taken a few years ago. When we lived in Heaton Norris in the late 1980s/early 1990s, Belmont Street boasted some fabulous ghost signs, including a smart green and gold Hovis sign, and a chip shop with an interior straight out of the 1950s. It's all smartened up now, of course.

Saved

This is the fancy sign on the window of the Glasgow Savings Bank building. Built in the 1890s, it served as a bank until 1999, and has since made a handsome shop, currently occupied by Jigsaw.

Signs of retail past

Glasgow has a fantastic shopping centre, and for a moment I almost believed I could go shopping in the past when I saw these gorgeous ghost signs just off Sauchiehall Street. 

Builder undertaker decorator plumber

Ghost sign in South Brent, Devon. Well, if you live in a village, you've all got to muck in, haven't you? Let's hope the trades didn't get muddled ....

Need a whip maker?

There's never a whip maker around when you need one. But James Smith & Sons has been around since 1830, as the sign on its handsome shop front will tell you.

Known simply as the umbrella shop, it's in New Oxford Street in London, and remains pretty much unaltered since Victorian times. Its gorgeous shop front boasts of tropical sunshades and golf umbrellas, and a rather more interesting range of life preservers.

Why not pick up a dagger or swordstick while you're there?

Wild thing

Here's a pretty tiled entrance sign in Stockport's lovely old market place. I believe Wild was a shoe shop - the building is now part of the excellent Stockport Story museum. It's in an interesting part of town: the beautiful Victorian covered market has a great vintage fair once a month. The atmospheric Staircase House museum is next door. And once you've done all that you can treat yourself to a fantastic Art Deco afternoon tea in the Plaza. All this just seven miles out of Manchester. If you're coming from that direction, why not treat yourself to a trip on the fabled 192 bus route too?

Gun ho

This ghost sign in Lisbon city centre looks like it's straight out of the Wild West. Advertising shotguns, revolvers, pistols, loads, all accessories for hunters and articles for fencing (more swordsmanship than gardening, I guess) it's on a building which now sells men's clothing. I've no idea how old it is (can anyone enlighten me?) but it's not alone - there are a number of fine ghost signs in this pretty city.

Dreaming of summer

I really rather like this thoughtful sign at B&Q, urging us to dream of summer - in case the real thing doesn't actually materialise.

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).

When is a sign not a sign?

When it's a piece of public art.

In an unassuming alley in Stockport, you can get a glimpse of five great murals on the side of the BHS shop. When the store was built, it was agreed that the wall in Deanery Way wouldn’t be left blank, but instead would show something of local interest, and these mosaic and concrete murals were commissioned.

They were designed in 1978 by Henry Collins (1910-1994) and Joyce Pallot (1912-2004). There are five murals, four showing the history of Stockport, and the one shown above, advertising British Home Stores.

It’s easy to rush past with your head down and miss them, but I love their bright colours and careful detail. Seek them out if you’re in Stockport.

Withy Grove Stores

I love this decrepit old Manchester building and its once-fine sign. And its history is more colourful than the sign suggests. In 1723, a group of Spanish steel workers were working their passage to New York. They stopped in Liverpool and put their steel skills to good use, joining a company which supplied the maritime trade with iron clad strongboxes and seaman’s chests. When the Leeds and Liverpool canal was opened, the business expanded with this store in Withy Grove, Manchester, which opened in 1850, and in Leeds. The business is still trading today.

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.