Typically, or at least in my career, façade consultants and engineers do not get excited about street signage. In fact, we caveat this out of scope. It’s best placed with the manufacturers but also not covered well in façade guidance literature. Normal course is to comment on waterproofing and discuss reaction loads back into the façade logically. Unless the signage is of note, rule of thumb, façade folk tend to steer clear.

Therefore, I’m not looking for signage finesse when out and about, other than to provide direction to or confirm arrival at a location. However, some signs are interesting in that they have spanned time and still exist in a different era. The more obvious ones are advertisements of brands, or trades that no longer exist, which are generally in the unforgiving permanent medium of paint. They’re painted onto either older brickwork, or render. These have their own genre and are documented as “ghost signs” within preservation groups here.

The following signs are more poignant in that they confirm a nation’s most preeminent fears at the time. The interest is not only the difference in perceived threat, but how façade signage has evolved from the semi-permanent directly painted (lead-based) to the interchangeability of metal. The original drivers for this were a combination of speed and economics. The financial struggle that Britain was in during the 1940s meant that production was focused on armaments. Whereas in the 1960s, America’s economy and range of manufacturing capabilities was by comparison relatively effortless to quickly produce single purpose metal signage.

When something was painted it was by default expected to last, or the issue of removal or change fell under the “not my problem banner.” The advancement in signage and its ability to be kinetic and accommodate different digital form is of course more sustainable now, but I still don’t get excited about this part of facades… Although I like the less wasteful component, naturally. That said, we’re working on re-introducing a heritage sign from the past, which is interesting, a separate post.

The first sign is from c.1940, located in London. This photo was taken opposite Claridge’s on Brook Street, facing North, this makes the sign c.85 years old, a testament to lead-based paint. The “S” stood for Shelter, which is also written but traverses the mortar line and not so easily read. There were designated shelters across London which ranged in size and scale but all with the same purpose, cover from bombing raids. I don’t know whether this was a Deep Level Shelter but images can be found here. However, the entrance leads below an arched Portland stone street bridge, which by all accounts appears to offer the most cover in the area.