A couple of weeks ago, I took the bike for a jaunt around the leafy surrounds of Kew, Balwyn and Surrey Hills. Tomorrow I'm giving a talk on ghost signs at the University of the Third Age in Kew, and I wanted to see what I could find. Also, in June I'm talking to the Surrey Hills Ephemera Society (what a good name) and so I checked out that suburb too - plus Balwyn in between.
As expected, there wasn't a lot to see compared to the parts of town that used to be poorer, and that so saw less repainting. But I did find a few - here they are:
This fomer Briquettes dispensing shed is on the site of the bridge over a former railway line that has since been turned into a linear park:
And the rest in Kew/Balwyn:
The next lot are from the cute little shopping strip adjoining the railway station in Mont Albert:
As expected, there wasn't a lot to see compared to the parts of town that used to be poorer, and that so saw less repainting. But I did find a few - here they are:
This fomer Briquettes dispensing shed is on the site of the bridge over a former railway line that has since been turned into a linear park:
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| The coin-operated dispensing system |
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| Had to take this one from the middle of a busy intersection |
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| Only remaining remnant |
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| Layers of stylists' signs |
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| Largely disused suburban shopping strip (and following). |
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| Saw this dry cleaning firm pop up a couple of times - see below |
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| Pick of the day - layers of signs on Union Road in Mont Albert. The sign superimposed on the Braemar heating sign is a Mobilgas one. Exciting for me since Lewis & Skinner had the contract for much of the Vacuum Oil Company's signs. |
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| Not a ghost sign technically, but a brilliant old-school milk bar in Balwyn. |
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| ...and down the road, another milk bar straddling eras. |
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| Union Road, Surrey Hills - it's still there, across the road from the superb Lewis & Skinner uncovering of 2012 (see: http://findingtheradiobook.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/for-limited-time-onlymelbournes-best.html) |
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| This is what the site of the 2012 Surrey Hills ghost sign cluster looks like now: hidden for another few decades. |
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| ...and in the same Surrey Hills stretch: adorning the old theatre that's currently being stripped and transformed. |
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| The old sign in Chatham, stuck to the window of the still-running milk bar |
I'm going to claim the 1056 no. next to the hair stylist.
ReplyDeleteI did that one during the second half of my apprenticeship at Omega Signs in Box Hill. That would date it as about 1982.
I remember the client was really fussy and wanted 3 coats on everything. The "helpful" hair dresser kept telling her that "his" signwriter put 5 coats on his window sign.
It still looks pristine so you must have done a good job! Actually I thought it was much older, given the style :)
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