I've always loved this. It shows just how brilliant some local signing was in the past before the impending national homogeneity took over. It also demonstrates what civic pride was taken in the detail, and Leicester was once rich in such things. This example is now housed safely behind glass (prohibiting both a decent picture and itchy screwdrivers) in the Museum of Technology at the old Abbey Pumping Station.
Halifax, West Yorkshire
2 days ago
16 comments:
It has the look of an old map cover, somehow
Lovely find. Leicester does not do enough to celebrate its history, in my view. They ought to make reproductions and sell them.
Beautiful clear elegant lettering: thanks for sharing it.
It does indeed look like a 1950 'special' Ordnance cover, with a proper crest and chequered border. And yes, it would be good if they did repros of things like this instead of the usual cheapo merchandise that fills the shelves of a lot of museums. The Imperial War Museum and the V&A are great exceptions.
I wonder if people appreciated the simple, elegant design and great typography of the early 20th century. We had an old telephone exchange for an office, and I loved the cream and green tile plaque with Moderne typeface saying TELEPHONE EXCHANGE. It was timeless.
Very lovely. Interesting how it uses the basic 'roundel' device experimented with and then perfected by London Transport. See the bottom of this page:
http://www.ltmcollection.org/roundel/about/detailedhistory.html
for the Metropolitan Railway's own 'diamond' roundel.
Any idea on its age?
I'm not certain how old it is, but judging by the graphics my guess would be the 1920s.
I'd have thought 1920s is quite likely. I'm no expert on this but weren't the 1930s the first great era of standardized signs, when a lot of the ones put up locally, and also by the AA, disappeared?
You're right Phil. There had been a great proliferation of all kinds of signs by the early thirties, most notably enamel advertising. Shell lead the way to tidying up the environment by putting those fabulous posters on the sides of their delivery trucks.
Guest sausage review?
Greetings esteemed blog writer. As the custodian of Rate My Sausage, I would like to invite you to write a guest sausage review, to be published soon. Of course, we will link back to your blog, unless you ask us not to.
All we need is: Minimum 200 words, at least two digital images. That’s it. Write it how you want to, feel free to put the boot into the supermarkets if you want, but have fun!
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Go on, you know you want to!
I will certainly do this. Thankyou for the invite.
For examples of how unsightly enamel advertising signs and roadside posters could look, there are some interesting examples in a book produced by the Leicestershire branch of the CPRE entitled 'Save Leicestershire's Countryside' Suggestions for small house building. It dates from the end of the 1930s. It has photos of good and bad development, many of the points it makes are equally relevent today, looking at the quality and design of new housing in south Leicestershire.
Thank you Peter. Please do use your own inimitable style!
Thankyou Stephen for pointing me towards the CPRE book.
Nice use of orange – I wonder if this has faded much? A very lovely thing indeed.
There's a deeply buried bit of me that wants to get in there and open up the letterspacing. Just a tad. Can't help it.
I know what you mean Mr.Gregory, but it really is only a tad. Perhaps photographing it through armour plated glass hasn't helped.
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