One of the best wall adverts yet?

Staring me straight in the face in my own stomping ground of Hampstead - there was one of the best wall mural adverts surviving.

It's on Heath Street, just the junction of Church Row, and is a superb example of the type.

There's not really much else to say, but to admire and appreciate.

Estblished 1746
Chas B
king
Estate
Agent
Decorator
Gas
Hot Water
and
Sanitary
Engineer

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-advertising-walls-by-popular.html

The things you see and take for granted

I found time to pause and look up along the Kilburn High Road the other day and have now sorted out and picked out what I think are this illuminating set of pics - nothing much, but just little insights into the vibrancy and history of the area.

Picture 1:
GW & AE Thomson Ltd
CASH LENT
JEWELLERY DIAMONDS
It's a great old metal sign from an age now slipping out of view - magnificently the shop beneath is still a jewellers - I do think that this needs either the building owner to leave the sign up or to take it down now and put it in the Museum of Kilburn (whenever that comes about! - perhaps Kilburn Library or one of the archive offices should take the sign now with the owners agreement?)

Picture 2:
The Tricyle Cinema and Theatre has a landmark status now for the area leading on Irish and Black traditions, drama and culture. The Theatre opened in 1980 in the old Forresters Hall (the Forresters shop front still survives in full operational status) before being burnt down in 1987 and rebuilt opening in 1998. The sign on the KHR is just great and I love the tricycle mechanism just inside this open hallway also (well worth a look if passing) - and has a great little coffee bar inside.

Picture 3:
The Black Lion Pub is just an architectural masterpiece of it's type - great street presence, well maintained, and inside - well, it just takes our breath away. It has the best of pub architecture and probably my best and favourite pub for aesthetics. I have other critieria such as atmosphere, beer quality, fond memories etc. that put other pubs high up my list. But the long and short is if you haven't been in this pub you are really missing something.

Pic 4:
Vacancy board on the High Road. This dates back to a time when the High Road was identified as the heart land of temporary and indeed very packed bed and breakfast boarding. I suspect that it was areas such as this that generated the definition of 'garret' in old parlance. I'm told that this sign is the last one of what used to be one on every building advertising vancies - the Old Bell used to have boards showing vacancies and that this little sign is one of the last vestiges of the need for hundreds of rooms for rent from the days of the thousands of Irish workers who moved into the area and were very mobile and transient when they first got here...

Picture 5:
The old sign advertising the newspaper of record: THE KILBURN TIMES. Founded in 1867 the Kilburn Times has outlived all of the other newspapers of Kilburn and area. papers it has seen off have included Kilburn & Queen's Park Post, Kilburn Free Press, and Kilburn News and the Kilburn Post. I'm told that this sign dates from the 1970's and has been updated at various times.

Picture 6:
My favourite: the old cigarette wall painting advert - previously covered in the blog and reproduced here because it is my favourite picture.

The ongoing saga of the wall advert murals in North West London

I was quite happily out and about when I was caught by a reader of this website/blog who wanted to show me another wall mural they were aware of.

They were quite pleased cos when the tree is in full leaf then the mural is barely visible - as you can see from this picture it's pretty faded. After much squinting I think the first line is A S ***TINY. I suspect that it's something that will be more legible in different weathers - this was a pretty grey and overcast day last week.

There is one other factor that I have an obligation to draw attention to officionadoes of this blog and that is that it is on College Road, Queen's Park. Strictly speaking this falls outside of my purview. the nature of ward and constituency boundaries means that this falls into Kensal Rise ward but nonetheless I think it qualifies.

Oh, and to the reader who has pointed out that I have missed the wall advert mural in West Hampstead Mews - you're right and you are the second person to point it out to me - there is indeed another wall mural on the other side of the road and I missed it first time round with the camera - so watch this space...

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/save-old-visible-painted-wall-adverts.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/12/promotional-adverts-for-smoking.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-advertising-walls-by-popular.html

More advertising walls - by popular demand...

Who would of thought that this would trigger so much traffic on the issue of old local wall advertising - not the bill board type, but the old painted wall adverts.

It was kicked off with this one in West Hampstead

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/save-old-visible-painted-wall-adverts.html

followed up with this one in Kilburn, on the High Road

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/12/promotional-adverts-for-smoking.html

I've now been contacted by a local residents in Dyne Road pointing out that there is in fact another hiding on Kilburn High Road, literally next to the Black Lion... (pic left - not the Leftovers advert!)


Part of me likes the neatness of the grey concrete skim, more of me is hoping that the cold weather will lead to more of the skim cracking, falling off to reveal the old advert - smoking or matches I assume :-)

This is perhaps the most intriguing so far and is the one that of course raises the question about whether these old adverts merit 'saving' - my instinct is that they should not be consciously saved, but that a dialogue with land-owners about not deliverately removing them and obliterating them as they contribute to the ambiance of an area is a dialogue that would be worth having...

But more intriguingly, but much less colourful, and I'm grateful to the resident on Harrow Road who contacted me on this one, is this washed out ghost of an advert (pic right).

At first glance I thought it was in fact just the shadow from where a board had once hung, but as the resident points out "I reckon it must have been a painting, first is the shading on the white wash which you can just see, and second is the bevel indent corners which show that it was a design feature of the advert."

The resident goes on to tell me that they have looked for old postcards of this bit of Harrow Road (Queen's Park) but have not so far come up with anything. Any leads appreciated...

Tomorrow sees me exploring another tip off I have had from a reader - an advert that has apparently been staring me in the face and I have missed! More to follow.

Promotional adverts for smoking, cigarettes and matches...

After my previous post I have been contacted by several people pointing out old wall adverts that can be seen on and around local streets in Camden.

This advert for matches and cigarettes is on the end of terrace wall on Messina Avenue as it joins the Kilburn High Road, NW6. Of course the location is the key to this being picked back when and to it's surviving now.

The location is highly visible, it's passed every day by thousands, but now of course is there just largely un-noticed. In it's day key advertising location and pre-billboard...

The other element is of course the unfashionable nature today of advertising. It's worth noting that this one has changed and you can see the older advert underneath the current one. Of course, such advertsing for smoking now is just so frowned-upon and indeed limited and restricted.

I'm not an obsessive 'save everything' person and there's not much you would do to preserve this any more than has already survivied but as a small insight of history it is attractive in the most unlikely way...

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/save-old-visible-painted-wall-adverts.html

Save the old visible painted wall adverts!

There's quite a few old visible painted wall adverts round here in North West London and I'm taking pictures as I go - and it seemed worth sharing them.

On the side of walls, usually in commercial shopping areas, there are quite a few old painted wall adverts that are still visible. Clearly fading, but not yet obscured, they are left to brave the elements.

I noticed that one in West Hampstead had been cleaned away recently and also on the Finchley Road, but this nice old from from West Hampstead Mews has hung on... There's another really good one on the Kilburn High Road which I'll try and capture in the next few days when I pass it next.

I just think it adds some real character to the area. A mate of mine commented that they have the same definition of old medieval paintings that are sometimes uncovered in churches - I'm not sure I'd go that far, but you get the idea...