As the leaves drop, along with the daytime temperatures of late autumn, so some strange urban vistas in the form of faint letters and pictures are revealed on many urban structures. These reminders of past use, and long lost...
‘JACKFIELD ENCAUSTIC DECORATIVE TILE WORKS’, founded in 1874 by Craven Dunnill & Co.As the leaves drop, along with the daytime temperatures of late autumn, so some strange urban vistas in the form of faint letters and pictures are revealed on many urban structures. These reminders of past use, and long lost businesses and industries, are known as ghost signs.
So what are ghost signs? Typically they are hand-painted advertising signs, old shop signs, or directions and warnings, preserved on buildings which have long since moved on from the use for which the signs were painted. They can be found on any structures, but most frequently can be found on industrial and commercial buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. This are a fading reminder of the shifting nature of industrial and commercial building use, especially in more dynamic urban locations.
I encountered several examples when exploring the Ironbridge World Heritage Site landscape for a new book. These include one of the longest such signs you will find, on the side of the Jackfield Tile Works museum run by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. The inscription, which was recently repainted, reads ‘JACKFIELD ENCAUSTIC DECORATIVE TILE WORKS’. The works was founded in 1874 by Craven Dunnill & Company and although now a museum, some commercial tile manufacture still takes place within the original buildings. Elsewhere within the World Heritage Site there are other ghost signs including a more humble sign, ‘WELFARE OFFICER COALBROOKDALE CO LTD’, that can be found on the side of the mid-19th century offices of the Coalbrookdale Iron Company, behind the Great Warehouse in Coalbrookdale.
Amongst my favourites is a large white-painted sign on the side of a former warehouse by the railway station in Altrincham. This building is a late 19th century brick-built, four storey, general purpose warehouse on the southern side of Moss Lane, Altrincham. Built immediately west of Altrincham railway station it bears the painted inscription ‘G W BONSON’S HEATED STORE ROOMS’. The sign uses individual bricks painted in white to create the advert, which is still visible from the adjacent railway bridge and beyond.
Godfrey William Bonson was listed in Kelly’s Cheshire trade directory for 1896 as a cabinet maker with premises on Stamford Street, round the corner from the warehouse. Later, in 1902, he was listed as a cabinet maker and ironmonger, and in 1914 had an entry as a cabinet maker and carpet beater with premises on Moss Lane, presumably at the warehouse. Geoffrey Bonson later served as a councillor on Altrincham Urban District Council during the Frist World War.
Since 2016 the building has been in use as an Italian restaurant, with a large black painted sign added below the Bonson’s sign. Perhaps this, too, will be left to become a ghost sign from the 21st century.
