Roy Reed

Hi Roger - this is what I had:

Hodgins Depository
For Storing
Furniture
Luggage
Motorcars &c
At Lowest Prices
Carpets Beaten
Estimates Free
Phone 1710 KEN

Vertical brick wall with a fading painted sign on it. The barely legible letters have been transcribed as follows: Hodgins Depository For Storing Furniture Luggage Motorcars &c At Lowest Prices Carpets Beaten Estimates Free Phone 1710 KEN

Working through updates to our ghost signs book I was reminded of this one that proved somewhat elusive back in 2020/21. Can anyone find out any more?

Here's its current entry, with its transcription by @RoyReed in the alt text for what is his photo.

Hodgins […]

[Original post on typo.social]

Stand up for our wild places! The Prime Minister is backing proposals to weaken protections for our most important wild places by expanding the Fingleton Review’s recommendations. Help stop the rollback before it starts.

With 1 in 6 UK species already at risk of extinction, our environment cannot survive more cuts.

There is no evidence current laws are blocking growth. Yet weakening these protections is being backed at the highest level.

We have less than two weeks to stop this 👇
action.rspb.org.uk/page/186397/...

A Eurasian Curlew stands alert in rough grassland dotted with white seed heads, its long, downcurved bill clearly visible as it scans its surroundings. A species of peatlands and wetlands, the Curlew is shown in habitat typical of the wild places at risk from weakened nature protections.

URGENT: our most precious wild places need your voice. ‼️

The Prime Minister is considering weakening the laws that protect nature.

Estuaries. Peatlands. National Parks. The places & species we love are in the firing line again.

All on the false assumption this will speed up nuclear projects.

A panoramic view of the Castlerigg stone circle taken in pouring rain with misty hills in the background.

A photo of three of the stones of the Castlerigg stone circle taken in pouring rain.

I haven't been there since 1983. It was raining so hard we only stayed for about 5 minutes. Must go back one day.

I've already got this one marked, but it's too faded to make anything out and I can't find any references to 103 Ordnance Road in the old directories. 105 was a bakers in 1914.

Harry Delarue, baker, 105 Ordnance Road, Wash

George Smith (possibly)
High Class
Baker & Confectioner
Daren [Bread]

Listed in Kelly's Directory of Middlesex 1914
George Smith, baker & sub-postmaster, 156 Lancaster Road

A grey heron standing in the branches of a fir tree.

A grey heron in Battersea Park.

Technical drawing of the front elevation of a few properties on a terrace. The floors at street level have their fascia signs drawn in, including Church Street Bookshop, Kitchen Provisions, and, in the middle, Chris' Auto Repairs.

When faux hand-painted fascia signs make it onto technical drawings attached to planning applications.

In this case, Chris' Auto Repairs by This Is My Costume (TIMC) on Stoke Newington Church Street, Hackney, London.

Here's the full TIMC story […]

[Original post on typo.social]

Loving Rachel's alphabet.

From A to Z: Rachel Joy’s Playful Alphabetic Explorations Freeing oneself from the constraints of client work can come in many forms. For Rachel Joy, it has recently involved designing and painting an alphabet laced with personal meaning and, in the process, working on canvas for the first time. She has been sharing the stories behind the letters in her periodic newsletter, and now here for BLAG readers. Introducing the alphabet, Rachel refers to her intention to create “pieces that make you smile, coming from a place of play”. She didn't work in alphabetical order, with the earlier letters in the series inspired by “a trip down memory lane, thinking about times of play through my life”. These memories informed sketches of letters “that might work for that memory” before painting the final executions on 50 × 50 cm (20 × 20 in) pieces of stretched canvas. Work-in-progress on the G, K, and V respectively. While those earlier letters were rooted in specific memories and sources of inspiration, “as I got closer to the end they became more about playing with the shape of the letter”. However, despite their different origin stories, the letters at large are given coherence through Rachel’s use of a consistent palette of blues, pinks, reds, and browns. Here is a small selection of those origin stories and, if you see something you like, some of the original canvases are available in Rachel’s online shop, where you’ll also find her ‘TOGETHER’ mini-series. * * * ## The N The cylindrical city. > “I love London, I grew up in south London and used to get the train into town with my parents at weekends and holidays to visit museums — mainly the Natural History Museum, we used to have membership cards that I was very proud of. I recently moved to Paris and wanted one letter to be rooted back in my hometown. > “I have fond memories of going on the London Eye in my teenage years. I remember the feeling of being high up and seeing the tops of buildings I only knew from the ground. More recently I felt this same feeling again at the top of the Shard. This N started as more square shapes looking more like buildings, but I wanted it to feel softer, so built a little city from cylinders instead.” * * * ## The Y The enduring impact of M.C. Escher’s optical illusions. > “It’s funny the things that stick in your mind. When I was younger I remember staying over many times at a friend’s house who had ‘Waterfall’ by M.C. Escher on the wall in their bathroom. I used to, and still do, find it mesmerising. It was this piece and the general trickery of Escher that inspired my sketches for the Y.” * * * ## The L ‘Check’ out the L and the hand-painted checkers board that inspired it. > “Board games were a big part of my childhood and that’s still the case today. During the Covid lockdowns, my husband and I hand-made a checkers board. I really enjoyed painting the squares; there was something therapeutic about it, so I knew I wanted to do a letter with repetitive squares. This became the three-dimensional checkers-board L.” * * * ## The O Rachel’s O and a detail from ‘The Persistence of Memory’ by Salvador Dalí. > “The O is a bit more obvious! Early in 2024 I got to go to the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Seeing the wonderful world of Dalí’s mind gave me an opportunity to do something different with the prismatic lettering style I usually work with. Thanks Dalí.” Rachel was one of the artists profiled in the BLAG 03 feature, ‘Tricks of the Eye: Optical Illusions in Murals’. Read it online or get a copy of the magazine itself in the online shop. Inside BLAG 03 * * * ## The Z A folded fortune teller, and the letter Z it inspired. > “As with a lot of this alphabet, I went back to thinking about my childhood and play. We spent a lot of time making things, and I have many fond memories of playing with paper — pop-up books were a big go-to for me, and of course the classic paper fortune tellers. This Z started with me folding paper trying to make a Z shape, adding stripes in afterwards when I was drawing it up.” * * * ## The M Mmmm, a stripy big top? > “I am really pleased with how this M came out and I’m excited to try some other letters in this same style. I can’t quite place how this one came about — it was one of the earlier ones — but let’s say straws, circus tents and a little bit of _Alice in Wonderland_ thrown in for good measure.” * * * ## The T T is for Toppled. > “I am the middle of three kids in my family and spent hours of my childhood playing games with my siblings. (Board games continue to be an essential part of family time, now with my own children.) The T is a bit of an ode to a classic childhood game, and one we spent hours playing.” * * * ## The W The dots on the W are drawn from Roy Lichtenstein’s work, such as this detail of his ‘Sunrise’ which references of the Ben Day printing process. > “The W came a bit later in the series. I had been on a trip to New York and really wanted to do a piece that felt like a piece of Pop Art, the art movement I feel most connected to in my work. So I have Roy Lichtenstein to thank for this one. I have to say I really enjoyed the repetitive process of painting this one; it felt like a meditation to sit and paint each dot individually.” Lichtenstein (and Dalí) were also among the artists and artistic movements explored by Archie Proudfoot in his series for Tate Modern. Read More at bl.ag * * * ## Playing Around In the spirit of the collection, here’s BLAG rendered in Rachel’s alphabet. Although Rachel didn’t work in alphabetical order, the A was the first piece she painted. It was an existing design used as a “warm up” to practise working on canvas. * * * ## And the Rest See if you can figure out the sources of inspiration behind these letters that complete the alphabet... Each piece is 50 × 50 cm (20 × 20 in) painted in enamels on canvas. You can find these letters, prints, and more in Rachel’s online shop, and her mailing list is a great way to keep informed of future projects. Finally, thank you Rachel for sharing these stories and their final manifestations on canvas. * * * ### More Projects Sign Painting and Lettering ProjectsSign painting and lettering projects from around the world.BLAG Magazine: Adventures in Sign Painting Craft, Community & CultureBetter Letters ### More People Sign Painter Profiles on Better Letters MagazineInterviews, films, and profiles of sign painters past and present.BLAG Magazine: Adventures in Sign Painting Craft, Community & CultureBetter Letters

Memories, games, artists, and experimentation have inspired Rachel Joy’s deeply personal alphabet.

Tall gable-end wall with chimney stacks on top. The bricks are covered in a medley of overlapping fading painted signs, with "Save Money, Gillette" being most prominent.

I'm working with @RoyReed on a reissue of our book, Ghost Signs: A London Story. Sadly this is having to report on some signs lost since it was first published in 2021.

This is one of them, now time-capsuled beneath the new, taller, structure that has been […]

[Original post on typo.social]

All Saints Church, Margaret Street - ReedDesign This page shows a 360° panoramic tour of All Saints Church, Margaret Street.

You can have a look around the whole of St Margaret's here:

reeddesign.co.uk/panoramas/al...

view looking up at the underside of a stone pencheck stair built of Mississquoi marble, with one end if the treads unsupported and the other sitting on a wall of Tyndall limestone

We’re dismantling a stone pencheck stair right now and so it seems a good time to revisit a short 🧵 on the subject.

How pencheck stairs work (resist torsion), and how they don’t (cantilever):

“The only art you saw in a town like Bradford was the art of painting posters and signs. This was how one made one’s living as an artist, I thought... Of course I knew there were paintings you saw in books and in galleries, but I thought they were done in the evenings, when the artists had […]

An old enamel sign printed in blue on white with some red initial letters, saying: Established 1835 F.W. Collins Elastic Glue Manufacturer (Sole Inventor 1857) Leather, Grindery & General Ironmongery Warehouse

A three storey terraced building with a shop on the ground floor and an old enamel sign at the first floor level saying: Established 1835 F.W. Collins Elastic Glue Manufacturer (Sole Inventor 1857) Leather, Grindery & General Ironmongery Warehouse

Technically, not a #ghostsign but a nice example nonetheless.

Established 1835
F.W. Collins
Elastic Glue Manufacturer
(Sole Inventor 1857)
Leather, Grindery & General Ironmongery Warehouse

Original enamel sign in Earlham Street, Covent Garden, restored in 2022.

#London

Love this ghost sign painted on a wall beside the entrance to a tenement on West Princes Street in the Woodlands area of Glasgow.

Cont./

#glasgow #glasgowhistory #tenement #ghostsign #woodlands

Detail of weathered boards with hand-painted lettering on them. The upper most board has a small signature, "Ware", following the number 510 and a trade union insignia.

Cal Callaghan’s ‘ACME and Web 2.0’ tells the story of how he salvaged and pieced together part of an Acme Beer ghost sign, including the sign painter’s signature.

https://callaghan.org/acme-web-2-0

Also check out these two Acme Beer labels in the online […]

[Original post on typo.social]

Sunlight Soap

There are two similar at Leytonstone tube station (in the book) so if they are painted I'll add them. I'll have a look next time I go there. Where's the Tooting one?

Magazine cover with a person painting flamboyant lettering under the masthead. It’s set on a poster of the same lettering.

New at bl.ag online, ‘What's Inside Issue 08 of BLAG (Better Letters Magazine?’:

https://bl.ag/whats-inside-issue-08-of-blag-better-letters-magazine/

Don’t forget that fediverse folk can get a discounted first year with BLAG using https://bl.ag/md20, the […]

[Original post on typo.social]

The dog ate my robot?!

Good spot.

For more on the #IrishLondonHistory ☘️ of the Donovan Bros #GhostSign in Spitalfields, check out this writeup by @blag.typo.social.ap.brid.gy
ghostsigns.co.uk/2022/02/the-...

New York street scene with traffic below and buildings rising above. The most prominent wall is brick and it has a modern mural-style advertisement painted on it. On the portion of wall to the left of this there are fading traces of an earlier painted sign for Coca-Cola.

Spotted this ghost sign in Colossal Media’s roundup of their work in 2025:
https://www.colossalmedia.com/field-notes/best-of-2025

The fact that they were able to solicit the site for contemporary advertising was decided by a Landmarks Commission hearing. This […]

[Original post on typo.social]

An abstract photo - a detail of shadows in a rock pool surrounded by rainbows caused by diffraction on the surface of the water.

Rainbows in a Rock Pool, Treyarnon Bay #Cornwall

Thanks for letting me know.

A redshank showing its bright red legs wading in the river looking for food.

A godwit with a long pink bill tipped with black wading in the river.

A curlew standing in the river backed with golden light.

A curlew in flight with its wings outstretched.

I saw redshanks, black-tailed godwits and curlew on the River Camel at Wadebridge today.

@cbwps.org.uk #Cornwall

A dramatic sunrise over a rural town with a river in the foreground. The sky glows with vivid orange and yellow hues, reflected in the calm water. On the left is a row of houses and a church tower. Rolling hills and fields stretch across the horizon under a cloud-filled sky.

This morning's sunrise over Egloshayle church on the bank of the River Camel.

#Cornwall #dawn