The name ‘ghost signs’ suggests something spooky or paranormal, but sightings of these historic artefacts are pretty common.
What are ghost signs?
Ghost signs are old hand-painted advertising signs preserved on buildings that have since changed their identity. They are snapshots in time, relics of social history and a nostalgic window into the past.
Once you’re looking for ghost signs, you’ll find they are frequently hidden in plain sight.
They are all around us: tucked away down alleyways, hidden among rooftops, or among the signage of our modern high streets.
Ghost signs stand in stark contrast to 21st century high-tech targeted adverts of today. Instead, ghost signs whisper themselves to anyone who is tempted to look closely.
Alex Day, Youth Engagement Officer, Norfolk Museums Service
How were ghost signs made?
Ghost signs were initially made using oil-based house paints.
Some of this paint originally contained lead, which resulted in it firmly adhering to the masonry surface of buildings.
As signs were painted repeatedly, the original layer of paint was often preserved and can still be seen today.
Where can you find ghost signs?
The chances are that if you look up at the buildings you pass by day to day, it won’t take long before you spot a ghost sign yourself.
Here are some examples with photographs from the Historic England Archive.
Sankeys Soap, Manchester
Beehive Mill in the Ancoats area of Manchester was built in the 1820s as a cotton spinning mill and was later used to manufacture soap.
The nightclub Sankeys Soap opened in the building in 1994, taking its name from the former factory. The club closed in 2017, but the sign remains.
Curtiss and Sons, Rochester, Kent
After various commercial uses, the former Lion Brewery in Rochester was leased by the furniture removal business Curtiss and Sons, whose painted signage survives on the wall.
Fort Road Hotel, Margate, Kent
Before its recent renovation into a boutique hotel, the Fort Road Hotel in Margate was identifiable by a faded ghost sign.
Today, the sign has been repainted in a similar style.
Sydney Shaw, Staleybridge, Greater Manchester
On the side of a pharmacy in Stalybridge in Tameside, Greater Manchester, is a sign for Sydney Shaw House Furnisher.
F.R. Stubbs Ironmonger, York
Ironmonger F.R. Stubbs was established in 1904 and relocated to the Grade II listed Foss Bridge House in York in 1915.
The company traded there until 2001, when the building was put up for sale. Despite the building changing function over the years, the sign still remains.
Yager’s Costumes to Measure, Stamford Hill, London
This well-preserved sign advertises Yager’s Costumes to Measure, a former wholesale costumier company. This business opened in 1919 in Stamford Hill, London.
South Western Railway Offices, Plymouth
The Grade II listed former South Western Railway Offices at The Barbican in Plymouth dates to the late 18th century.
It now serves as a gift and ice cream shop, but the original South Western Railway signage remains on the side and front of the building.
Fount Pens Repaired, Stoke Newington, London
Multiple ghost signs are painted on this single building on Stoke Newington Church Street in London.
On the left-hand side of the building is a triple-layer painted wall advertising the ‘Westminster Gazette’, Criterion Matches and Gillette Razors. On the front, an advertisement for Fount Pens Repaired can be seen in between the first and second-floor windows.
DC Thomson, Fleet Street, London
This ghost sign serves as a reminder of Fleet Street’s famous past. The Dundee-based publisher, DC Thomson, best known for the ‘Beano’, ‘Dandy’ and ‘Jackie’ magazines, still has staff working in the building.
The signage for the ‘Dundee Courier’ and ‘Dundee Evening Telegraph’ still remains on the exterior of the building.
Empire Café, Leeds
A chef in Leeds uncovered this ghost sign during renovations to his new restaurant. It is thought that the sign dates back to the first half of the 20th century and was hidden for over 60 years.
Little is known about the Empire Café, but its name is thought to refer to the Empire Palace Theatre in Leeds. The café is right behind where the old theatre used to be.
Ghost signs in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
The Time and Tide Museum and Great Yarmouth Borough Council have created a walking trail to introduce residents and visitors to some of the ghost signs in the town centre.
Download the Uncovering Yarmouth: Ghost Signs (PDF) booklet for examples of the many signs across Great Yarmouth and their history.
The trail is part of our Great Yarmouth High Street Heritage Action Zone.
Do you have a favourite ghost sign? Upload your images and stories to our map to help us understand more about where these pieces of our past can be found.
Further reading
It’s really nice to see this article and other samples of fabulous ghost signs. I’ve taken photos of a few ghost signs in East Devon, where I live. My favourite was an old bakery in Exmouth with a sign advertising ‘H. Law Hygienic Baker’ (a name given to bakers using equipment which took the grit out of flour). That was on the front and side of the building but below the side advert was another one advertising a later photography shop called ‘Memory Makers’ in lovely curlicue lettering.
For photos I’ve cheekily added the link to my blog page about the bakery at https://pastremainsblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/hlaw-bakery-and-memory-makers-exmouth.html
Similarly, in Aberdeen the old Esslemont & Mackintosh department store, 1873 to 2007, still has the name discreetly on parts of the old granite building, which survives.
John Lewis closed during Covid and it’s brutalist building may be demolished, see 20th Century Society campaign – https://c20society.org.uk/buildings-at-risk/norco-house-aberdeen
My old bank building FOLLYBANK HOUSE. Has original ghost signage for bank of Liverpool ltd from 1912. Local residents are amazed when I point it out to them. It was removed in 1919. When taken over by martins bank
There is a nice one at ground level in witton st in Northwich Cheshire nr the old library opp side of st.its for a long gone tobacconist selling cigars….
I have a blog about the British Isles (http://mybritishisles.blogspot.com), and where I have been exploring Kent in more depth, I have found several ghost signs. There is one for a fertiliser factory on Standard Quay in Faversham, the London and Paris Hotel at the bottom of Tontine Street in Folkestone, a glorious gilded one in Bank Street, Herne Bay for Smeeds Smart Signs, one for a temperance commercial hotel in Margate, along with the Crown Hotel and another for Stuppell Hair Cutter now the home of the Thanet Times, in Whitstable ‘celebrated ales and stouts’ on the side of the former Guinea pub, Sun Fire Office in St Peter Street Canterbury, and in Derbyshire, in Youlgrave, the Youth Hostel still has its gold leaf lettering on the door and windows, proclaiming it to be the Co-Operative Stores
Sue, I couldn’t find the Smeed’s Smart Signs details on your site, but you may be interested in this bit of research I did on the firm, including a picture of Smeed himself: https://bl.ag/smeed/
The Dundee Courier one raises the question ‘what is a ghost sign?’ as it is mosaic rather than painted. I explore the origins of the term ‘ghost’ sign in this post: https://ghostsigns.co.uk/2017/01/tracing-the-origins-of-ghost-signs/.
For those interested in learning more about these fascinating relics of advertising past, our book (https://ghostsigns.co.uk) is probably the best primer you can get, with a wider reading list available at https://ghostsigns.co.uk/publications/reading-list/.
Well known in York, Bile Beans, a landmark!
This has been well documented by Lisa at York Stories, and I collated a number of the key links in this post: https://ghostsigns.co.uk/2013/06/bile-beans-york-correction-and-update/
Numerous ghost signs have been photographed and are on the Geograph website, all listed with OS grid refs as to location. Here are a couple of links:
http://www.geograph.org.uk/discuss/index.php?&action=vthread&forum=6&topic=7207&dontcount=1&page=71
http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=192103059
Not only commercial advertising signs, but those painted on buildings during WWII such as “Rendevous Points” and location of emergency water supplies “EWS” for emergency services.
I give Power Point Presentations to various local groups on the Ghost Signs that I have gathered within Whitby as I am a member of Whitby Civic Society … I have approximately 40 such signs.
I find these Ghost Signs absolutely fascinating, and loved researching their details. I describe them in one of my Power Point slides as :-
. They are the fascinating echoes of the past
. In fact, they could be anything that still exists now , that existed in the past, but has changed, providing that link to the past
. They could be old advertisements or names of old businesses that are fading with age.
. They could be in the form of painted letters or illustrations on the side of old buildings that are disappearing from view or partially hidden.
. Some of them are in the form of beautifully carved stonework or in the form of gloriously glazed tiles.
Where possible I have been able to provide some old b/w photos showing the original buildings with their new signs, in all their glory, thanks to my contacts with the curator of old photographs within the Whitby museum.
The monthly Yorkshire Dalesman magazine published an article of mine covering such signs, in their April 2023 edition.
We’ve several ghost signs in our village. I’ve been renovating a old shop that used to be a sweetshop (now residential) and on the side of the building whilst, removing the old house paint, I’ve uncovered the outline markings in red and green of the rectangle where a sign used to be. In old photos from 1928(ish), it was for Zabo Grate Polish. Over the years it’s been painted over obliterating the sign and it’s the only part on the side of the building where the paint has stuck properly, but I’ve kept the frame visible.
Does anyone have any ideas how to remove the overlayed external paint without damaging what may lay underneath?
Any suggestions gratefully received and thanks for a very interesting read.