MORE HOXTON SIGNS

Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, abolished 1965

Yesterday I walked from the Geffrye Museum to Old Street via Falkirk Street, further north than previously, where the smart restaurants and designers have hardly reached, an area of public housing and local shops. City landmarks including The Shard can be seen between the flats. Most of the area was built after the war, either following bombing or slum clearance. (By the 1970s conservationists were complaining that the GLC destroyed more housing than the Luftwaffe).

Signage is everywhere so I had to make a rule about what to include and what to ignore. The No Parking sign by the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch gave me a cut off of 1965 when the borough was abolished and Hackney was created. Otherwise the lettering had to be visually appealing or historically significant.

Haberdasher's Place was destroyed by enemy action and rebuilt in 1952, the lettered plaque laid by the Master of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers.

The connection with the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers dates from Robert Aske (1619-1689), the prosperous merchant who owned land in Hoxton and bequeathed his estate to the Company. The first Haberdashers Aske's school was here.

Many London County Council blocks of the 'thirties to the 'fifties are identified in these elegant Roman capitals.

The products offered identify this sign as recent, but I had to include it.

This lettering, popular on pubs around 1900, was adapted for print by the Stephenson Blake type foundry as their Windsor typeface in 1905.