A big collection of Melbourne ghost signs spotted in my travels

Here's a collection of Melbourne signs I've photographed over the last few months, and that I haven't had time to download off the phone and upload here. It's always a pleasure to stumble on new signs, even ones less spectacular than some of those posted recently.

Finding one can make a less-than-optimal day that much better (I know, tragic...):

CBD...wonder why I've never noticed this before

Richmond - brilliant palimpsest (and below)

Prahran (obviously)

North Fitzroy. In honour of this week's announcement that General Motors Holden will cease manufacturing in Australia after 60 years of producing Australia's 'own' car.

And now a group from around Glenferrie Road, Armadale and Malvern, mainly near Malvern station:

The front of the building is below on the left.

And here, notice how even some Victorian-era folks were grammatically challenged!

Once a milk bar, now a shi-shi gourmet deli opposite the Malvern tennis courts (darling). At least they kept the ice cream sign.

Once a Greek grocery, now a shi-shi eatery.

Now a few from around Hawksburn train station:

Old shop...can juuust make this out. The rest is covered by a big old red brick wall.

Now a few more....

North Fitzroy. Had to use the bad iPhone zoom. I'm pretty sure the one on the brick wall was a Robur Tea sign (you can see the 'tea')

North Melbourne

North Fitzroy

North Fitzroy (and following)...one of my favourite palimpsests.

Fitzroy

Ditto

Kensington

Kensington

Footscray...in honour of the former Forgers department store

Footscray

Ditto

Fawkner

CBD...a famous sign. I knew of the sign but stumbled on it completely by accident.

CBD

CBD

CBD - on display by RMIT

CBD - not a ghost sign but good nonetheless

Brunswick

Brunswick (and below)

Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe (and below)

Ivanhoe

Brunswick

Preston

Footscray...Little Saigon market is still in operation but the 60s sign is cool

Abbotsford

Abbotsford

Now where was that?

Armadale...a new sign on top of an old one that looks like an old one?

A few more signs snapped by friends in regional Victoria

Check out these ghost signs from regional Victoria. Firstly, Geoff's fabulous Nagambie pics:

And here's a brlliant one from Warrnambool - thanks James:

Spectacular Lewis & Skinner uncovering in Armadale

 

How grateful am I to Tony Mead from the Industrial Art Co for telling me about this? (rhetorical question there...)

Today I went to High Street Armadale - upmarket epicentre of Melbourne's antique trade and equally old money - to take a look at a large Lewis and Skinner wall sign for Bourneville Cocoa that has just been revealed. The sign's sudden appearance is due to the demolition of a building that last housed an outlet for the expensive (natch) hi-fi brand Bang & Olufsen. The demolished building looks like it was from the 1930s, as seen in this Google Street View pic:

Below are the photos. I managed to sneak into the building site earlier today for a closer look. Luckily the site was fenced off with boards (there's a busy café across the road) so I could look around at my leisure without anyone in this very respectable area calling the police.

 One great thing was that under the Lewis & Skinner sign was an area where bills were posted, similar to the Surrey Hills uncovering from last year (see: http://findingtheradiobook.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/for-limited-time-onlymelbournes-best.html). Whereas the Surrey Hills one had a range of bills from the early 1950s, this one was older, with fragments of pasted bills mainly advertising films that were playing at nearby picture theatres.

The two films advertised I could make out were The Battle of the Somme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_the_Somme_%28film%29) and Greed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greed_%28film%29) - from 1916 and 1924 respectively.

 

There's another one too I haven't found anything on. The title is 'Billie Bu...' and it describes itself thus: 'When this dainty creature whirls into a little Highland village in a big red motor on the Sabbath, the...villagers are horrified...'

Anyway, all this points to a sign that is pretty damn old, much like the Indian Root Pills sign uncovered earlier this year (http://findingtheradiobook.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/spectacular-ghost-sign-uncovering-in.html). The building's owners probably had a space rental contract with Lewis & Skinner not unlike this one (for a premises also down the road in High Street Armadale) which was renewed for at least 20 years:

http://www.lewisandskinner.com/items/show/1954

Lastly, I also like the way that some people in the 1910s and 1920s didn't follow instructions either :)

The rest of the pics follow.

Edited book on ghost signs - interested in contributing an essay?

This is a callout to see who might be interested in contributing to an edited volume of essays on ghost signs and related digital/historical/urban practices, such as digital ghost sign photography, archival practices/dilemmas and the resurgence in hand-painted signage.

Let me know if you're interested (stefan.schutt  (at) vu.edu.au). There are six of us already, both academics and those with an interest in the signs :)