this article is not my own and is published for demonstration purposes only.
They once covered walls across the country with brightly
coloured advertising and promotions. Their demise, which continues to this day,
has been profound but an army of photographers have been working to create a lasting record of these signs of old, commonly known as ‘ghostsigns’.
The last survivors
The once popular medium of hand painted advertising on walls
hasn’t been used in any significant way for some time. Advances in technology
and the economics of production have left the signs and those who once produced
them largely redundant. However, many of these pieces of advertising that were
once crafted by hand in all weathers have survived well beyond their ‘sell by’
date. Advertising is typically ephemeral in nature but these signs have
endured, and through them we are offered a window into the past, a glimpse into
a different time when smoking benefited your throat and people took their pens
to be repaired.