Old Bond Store

No, not the place to store Sean Connery, Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan, but a 19^th century Grade II listed warehouse in Back of the Walls, Southampton.

A great pear

I’m not sure whether the great fat pear on the top of this building is, strictly speaking, a sign, but I’m including it because I love it. This is Pear Mill, in Bredbury, Stockport, one of the last cotton spinning mills to be built. A Grade II listed building with six storeys, it started production in 1913, employing about 300 people. Apparently mills of this period were often flamboyantly decorated – the pear tops the mill’s water tower. Its life as a textile mill ceased in 1978 and, happily, the mill and its pear are now home to a variety of thriving businesses, including a play centre, home furnishing, a gym and a cycle shop.

Performs 10 hours

I love this wonderful old sign, spotted on the Star Hotel in High Street, Southampton. The 18^th century coaching inn has seen better days (probably in the 18^th century – its current external paintwork certainly looks sadly ancient) but happily the sign survives. The Star is just a few doors away from the Dolphin, a lovely 17^th century inn where Jane Austen once danced. A 10 hour journey time from Southampton to London was presumably good enough to boast about in stone two hundred years ago. By contrast, National Express now runs 16 coaches to London a day, and the trip takes just two hours 15 minutes.

The Star Hotel 
The Dolphin Hotel

Press once for attention

This bell is at the front door of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. I love the way it's been worn away by years of impatient bell-pushers. It makes me want to press it and run away.

Street Street?

I know Manchester, so I know this sign is telling me that Princess Street is to the right and Brook Street to the left. But the unfortunate use of justification might misdirect strangers to Princess Brook and Street Street. Come on, folks, align to the left!

Spotted in Southampton

Well, it made me smile.

Crossbones graveyard

Down a quiet road in Southwark, London, Crossbones Graveyard is marked by this modest sign.

First recorded in 1598, the graveyard is the final resting place for the prostitutes who worked in Southwark’s brothels. Somehow the sign, in its rough and ready state, is a touching tribute to the struggles of the women buried here.

Activities forbidden within London’s city walls flourished across the river in Southwark. It became home to the seedier, smellier side of life that wasn’t welcome in the city: tanneries, breweries, bear pits, taverns and brothels.

The graveyard was closed in 1853 and largely left until the 1990s when the Museum of London excavated it during the course of some London Underground work. You may have seen the BBC documentary (2010) which identified one of the skeletons as a child prostitute and detailed the difficult life she would have had.

The local community has taken this neglected burial ground of forgotten souls into its heart. There are regular vigils, offerings are left on the gates and the shrine attracts around 50,000 people a year, remembering the outcasts.

Bonus picture of the offerings on the gate