Friday, March 15, 2013

Fabulous uncovering in Glen Iris - and some others from the neighbourhood


This evening I managed to get down to Glen Iris to check out Janet's recent hot tip on an uncovered grocer's sign. I wasn't disappointed - a simple, but brilliantly colourful example.

Lucky that I got down there when I did - the building works have begun and the site was fenced off. Luckily though, the builders helpfully left the scaffolding up, which (just between you and me) allowed me to climb up and over. Plus the light was great.









 Here, also is an example of what the sign would have looked like in its heyday (a 1940 pic in a North Melbourne street, courtesy of Museum Victoria):



And here's an letter from the company (from the Lewis & Skinner site): http://www.lewisandskinner.com/archive/fullsize/1e78d5754638ed8ba322aa91199fd78f.jpg

Now here are the others from the area, also taken today. Firstly, Glen Iris:


Hard to see and snap with no zoom. It advertises the Weekly Times.
On the other side is a sign for the Herald (later they would merge)
A White Crow sign (tomato sauce, made by Swallow and Ariell).
Significant for me because there are loads in the Lewis & Skinner archive.
Now to see if this very sign is in the archive.

Now Ashburton and one from Ashwood:


This and the next neon sign are across the road from each other.
They are both above businesses that are  still what they were (carpet shop and Chinese restaurant)
but under different names.



Lastly, Malvern:



Great sign, just inopportune light and crappy camera.

A ghost as of two days ago - a note on the door says due to unforeseen circumstances,
the new owner won't be continuing the squash centre


Again, good sign but bad light/camera...
you can hardly see it here. It's for Perdriau Balloon Tyres.

...when an uncovering doesn't work. A tantalising glimse of what used to be a sign.

2 comments:

  1. That grocer sign at the top is fantastic. I found an uncovering on Malvern Road in Toorak/Hawksburn today, opposite Beaurepairs where we went to get new tyres. Coincidentally, the old sign was for tyres - Perdriau Master Cord Tyres. Unfortunately there was no scaffolding to elevate me enough to take a photo of the whole thing. Pic to be posted on my Gleeful blog soon.

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  2. Ha. There's a Perdriau sign above too, but you can hardly see it (Perdriau Balloon Tyres). A gent at the seminar, Rod, was actually talking about Perdriau...he'd done some research on the company. And funnily enough I was on Malvern Road too for some of these, but a little further east.

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