JKR

There is a brilliant new book of antique London photographs (Lost London, 1870-1945) which I would highly recommend. The surprise for me in the pin sharp images of the streets was the sheer volume of painted advertising and signage. We flatter ourselves today that we are at information overload, but the commercial areas of the capital portrayed here are eye-popping decorated in claim above claim (in a way that makes many of today’s equivalent spaces appear demure by comparison). Seemingly the only restriction on how gilded the shop and restaurant frontages could become was how tall the sign painter’s ladder reached.

There are still traces of this era as one moves about London. The fine frontage of James Smith’s Umbrella shop remains a treat. And ghostsigns is just one site which catalogues the old beauties before they are gone forever.

One thing to admire in old signage is the craft and ability that went into the typography, most of it the work of humble tradesmen one imagines. Perhaps the quality goes hand in hand with the time and effort it took to get the stuff up there. Coming bang up to date, film maker Don Letts commented in this weekend’s Observer “The downside of affordable technology is mediocrity. Back in the 70′s every three minutes film cost £20. Now you can get a 90-minute digital tape for a fiver. The price used to weed out the people who were fucking about”. Perhaps a similar comparison can be made in the difference between paint and pixels?