Urban Wandering: an early morning drift around Southwark, London SE1

Having seen that the forecast for the morning was crisp and clear, and given that my modest hotel room afforded a magnificent view over the Shard, I set my alarm for 6:40am to catch the sunrise. The photos I took from the hotel window are all a bit grainy through the combination of iPhone, dirty hotel room window and my unsteady hand, but I was still quite pleased with them.

Early morning view of the Shard, London, SE1

Early morning view of the Shard, London, SE1

I have wandered through some parts of Southwark before, but by no means all of it, so I headed off in a random direction and was soon rewarded with a raft of photo opportunities. This first sign made me chuckle, which is no mean feat at just after 7am. 

COMMIT NO NUISANCE

So I hurried on in case my camera shutter was too noisy for the neighbourhood.

Old sign in Southwark, London SE1

This next sign looks quite new but there was no evidence of a tin-box maker anywhere in the vicinity so I assume this is just a well maintained, or maybe preserved sign.

G.WALLIN & Co. Ltd.

TIN-BOX MAKERS

GLOBE St. WORKS 

Old sign in Globe Street, Southwark, London SE1

No ghost signs or old signs in this next picture, but a beautiful old building nevertheless, with its old windows and old lift arm still intact.

Old building, Cole Street, Southwark, London SE1

The final picture on this short by pleasant urban wander took me to Tabard Street where I came across this old building with no less than four distinct, but connected and related old signs.

HARDING & SONS

HARDWARE MERCHANTS

TIN PLATE WORKERS

JAPANNERS

Being new to the term Japanners a quick bit of internet research shows it to be the European imitation of Asian laquerwork.

Old sign in Tabard Street, Southwark, London SE1

Urban Wandering - decay, abandonment and rennovation in South London

Hot on the heels of yesterday's post is another brief urban wander around London, this time from our hotel in the morning in search of a traditional English breakfast to offset some of the damage of the partying the night before. These first two pictures are of ghost signs on a building in Union Street, Southwark. The main sign reads:

JAMES ASHBY & SONS Ltd.

EMBASSY TEA & COFFEE

with some fainter signage having something to do with

VENTILATORS

there are other words but I can't decipher these.

Ghost sign in Union Road, Southwark, London

Ghost sign in Union Road, Southwark, London

This next photo was taken in Flat Iron Square. I'd never been here before and the only flat iron I'd heard of previously was in New York. This square was however fairly unremarkable, and a lot of it was in varying states of decay and abandonment, but almost certainly being renovated. I can't find any information to suggest what Devonshire House might have been.

Old sign, Devonshire House, in Flat Iron Square, London, SE1

Of the four photos I've posted here, this is my favourite. Again this is in the middle of a fairly significant redevelopment, this time around London Bridge station. It's hard to imagine that this could ever have been a busy little bar and restaurant, and looking at how skeletal it is now, I'm not sure that it will be again. There are however plenty of reviews on the internet to suggest that La Spezia was once a good quality, and thriving bar and restaurant. I couldn't seem to find any photographs of what this side of the restaurant used to look like.

Old sign for La Spezia Italian restaurant and bar, London Bridge station, London

Well, that's it for this installment. The great thing about London is that there are endless places to visit, and even places I've visited before always spring new surprises on me.

    

Urban Wandering: Tower Hill through Southwark to Lambeth

I easily have enough photos from the weekend for another post about my urban wandering around Shoreditch, but having posted twice already this week, I think I'll save the third instalment for later. Instead I'm going to share some pictures from the latter stages of the weekend's urban wander, which took us south from Shoreditch, through Tower Hill, across the Thames to Tate Modern, and then through Southwark and Lambeth.

This first picture is of the hydraulic accumulator tower from the Midland Railway's City Goods Depot on the London and Blackwall Line. Of all the ghost signs I've seen to date, this is one of my favourites. The lettering beneath the windows reads, "CITY GOODS STATION AND BONDED STORES". There is also lettering above the windows. I've read in a couple of places that this says "LONDON MIDLAND & SCOTTISH RAILWAY" but I'm pretty sure this is not the case as I can definitely make out the word "STORE" above the two windows on the right. I think there's probably a lot more to explore along this line as it heads east, but that's for another day.

Ghost sign near Tower Gateway DLR station

So, now we come to south of the river, and the next two pictures are of quite well preserved ghost sign, obscured by a tree. I managed to make out the words "INSU ...", presumably "INSURANCE", followed by "GLASS", "ACCIDENT", "MOTOR" and "ETC". However, after a bit of internet research, it would seem that someone managed to get a photo of this ghost sign when the tree was not quite so big. The full sign actually reads:

SUN
Founded 1710
Insurance
Office Ltd
Fire
Plate Glass
Accident
Motor
Accident
Etc

Ghost sign in Chancel Street, London SE1

Ghost sign in Chancel Street, London SE1

I originally only intended to take this next photo to make sure I had a street name against which to post the last two pictures, but as I brought the camera (or rather phone) to my eye, I found that quite an interesting view came into focus. The locked grey metal gates, the light blue woodwork of the windows, with the filled railway arches and bridge in the background.

Chancel Street, London, SE1

This next picture was taken a bit further down Chancel Street and shows the doorway to what used to be the Baths and Wash House. The lettering cut into the stone is covered in years of grime but is still just about legible.

Entrance to the old Baths and Wash House, Chancel Street, London SE1

No ghost signs on this next picture, I simply thought the glasses between the 2nd and 3rd floors of this building in Lower Marsh, were quite unusual interesting.

Lower Marsh, London SE1

And for my final picture of this urban wander, we return to ghost signs. Given the proximity of the newer building to the left, this was really hard to get an even half-decent picture. A bit of research later suggests what the lettering says, and also indicates that the sign is much more visible from the passing trains.

DOVER CASTLE

Proprietors

The Pioneer Catering

Co Ltd

Luncheons &

 xxx Dinners

xxx  Prices

xxx Stout

I wonder if the words before "Stout" could have been something like "Fine Ales & Stout". The building that this ghost sign adorns was heavily boarded up, with broken windows and graffiti. I'm not sure what the future holds for it, it was some sort of college, but I hope this wonderful ghost sign survives.

Ghost sign on the side of a building in Lower Marsh, London SE1

    

So after quite a hectic week and weekend, where I think I have posted almost every day, I'm in need of a bit of a rest now. I'm working up in London for a few days again soon, so as well as posting the final batch of my Shoreditch visit, I hope to have some new wanderings to share.