Sign painting past and present

Tanner Street 2

Open your eyes, look up and discover ‘ghostsigns’, the fading remains of hand-painted advertising on walls.

Sam ‘ghostsigns’ Roberts leads tours of these faded signs in Stoke Newington in North East London, just down the road from the Type Tasting studio. For the London Design Festival this year he is leading a new walk through the streets of Southwark in South London hunting for the fading remains of painted signs from years gone by. The tour will reveal some of London’s most iconic signs, exploring the local, advertising and design history that they convey.

Bankside Ghostsigns Walk for the London Design Festival
Monday 21 September, 2.00-4.00pm, meeting at Shipwrights Arms, 88 Tooley Street, SE1 2TF
Find out more

If you prefer your sign painting fresh off the brush you can try your hand at painting letters in the iconic surrounds of Borough Market with sign legend Mike Meyer “paint, brushes, lettering and laughs guaranteed”. To tie in with this there is a double-bill screening of the Sign Painters movie and 21st Century Victorian, a short film about UK signwriter and fairground artist Joby Carter who says that as a fairground signwriter he considers himself to be a showman. Find out more.

joby
 johncarter

contractors

Take courage James Ashby & sons

1 thought on “Sign painting past and present”

  1. Jorge McMillan

    I thin it is so cool to see how far this old trade has come over the years. I personally like the old look of the “ghostsigns” and the old timey feel they have to them. The new signs are still good though and it has a good mix of the old school and the new.

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