Permission to misbehave

Sign spotted at the Women's Organisation, Liverpool 

Nice day for a nuclear bunker

We visited Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker last weekend, and it's surprisingly interesting. Offering a careful mix of the chilling and cheerful, this ugly bunker nestles in the Cheshire countryside and is now a successful tourist attraction.

Hack Green was a radar station in World War two, and went on to play a key role in the Cold War, its long-range radar designed to detect hostile Russian bombers.



With nuclear weapons still in the news, it's a sobering visit. The usual Protect and Survive leaflet is there (hide under the table, built a shelter out of your house doors), which would be funny if it wasn't serious government advice to its citizens.

A huge amount of memorabilia and equipment has been gathered together and displayed in a thoughtful way, with a great soundscape and a smell of damp which I don't think had to be artificially created. There are lots of great signs for the sign enthusiast - my favourites feature here - and best of all there are three bunker cats.

It's worth a visit, even on a sunny day.

Neat

Neat, no-nonsense sign and great use of space at the wonderful Whitechapel Gallery, London.

Wisdom and effort

I walk past signs like these all the time and rarely make the effort to look at the detail. This pretty milestone in Didsbury bears Manchester's coat of arms. Granted in 1842, the symbol is packed with information. The motto "Concilio et labore" means something like "Wisdom and effort". The ship represents Manchester's trading. The lion is of course a symbol of bravery and the antelope symbolises peace and harmony; both bear the red rose of Lancaster.

Most familiar is the worker bee - the globe at the top is covered with them; you can see it more clearly on this larger sign near Spinningfields. The bee is a symbol of industry, adopted during the industrial revolution. You can find bees all over Manchester, from the tiled floors in the Town Hall (a giveaway when it's used in films as a stand-in for the Houses of Parliament) to bins and bollards.

Take cover

Rather a chilling sight on a sunny afternoon in Stockport: a sign directing you to shops, taxis - and the air raid shelter.

No, it's not a bleak peak into a seemingly inevitable future, but an invitation to step into the past and see the second world war air raid shelters cut into the sandstone cliffs. They're still there, and they're worth a visit. Check out my previous post for more information. 

Shh!

Shh, please close the doors quietly at St Katharine Cree in Leadenhall Street, London. How can you ignore such a graceful sign? Spread across two doors, it seems to have stood the test of time.

Modern effigy

Slightly creepy figure of a girl, acting as a signpost for the nearby school. The figure is a few years old now, leaning a bit and somewhat reminiscent of a medieval effigy. The staring eyes and dirty legs don't help - this one will haunt me in my sleep.