I've passed this building, albeit from a distance, countless times out of the window as the train slows on the approach to Paddington and it's been somewhere I've been curious about for a while. A quick look at the map revealed it was, just about, within the distance I could cover in a lunchtime walk and return back by tube.
A bit of history though before I start. The Pall Mall Deposit was built in 1901 as a safe deposit for furniture, but is now home to several multi-media and service-based businesses.
The building itself is very impressive, but what's always struck me is the signage which is visible even from the passing trains. I'm not sure whether these count as ghost signs on the grounds that they are so visible, and presumably well preserved, but they are signs depicting the previous use of the building.
Pall Mall Deposit building, London W10
Pall Mall Deposit building, London W10
Pall Mall Deposit building, London W10
No doubt about this next photo however, which is a genuine ghost sign spotted on my return journey. The only words I can make out though are "sanitary" and "engineer", and given that they appear to overlap a little then I'm assuming they are actually on overlaid ghost signs.
Ghost sign on St. Charles Square, London W10
Ghost signs is a new term for me. An interesting building that you see while riding the train. Here in the rather young country of USA I see lots of ghost signs on the old brick buildings in the gold rush towns of California.
ReplyDeleteThanks. There are whole facebook groups, flickr groups, and even real books dedicated to ghost signs. Here's a link to one of the ghost signs pages I follow on facebook - lots of great pictures there https://www.facebook.com/GhostSignsUk?fref=ts
DeleteThis is so interesting, in fact, since we stayed not too far from the Paddington Station, when we were last in London, although I don't recall this building. The name is one that would stand out, I kind of remember that being a name of a cigarette brand my parent's smoked at one time. Nice ghost photo too!
ReplyDeleteIt's about a 40 minute walk west of Paddington, out past Ladbroke Grove.
DeleteI too was fascinated by this building during my trips into Paddington from Reading in the late 1970s. The other landmark on the way was the hand written sign on a wall 'far away is close at hand in images of elsewhere'. Underneath the West way there was a far more crude sign saying 'I am a passionate angry soul crying out for relief in this torturous mediocrity'. Happy days!
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