Ghost signs on Wilbraham Road, two for one courtesy of Ted Harris

Now you can wait for a ghost sign and two turn up together and today there is the added bonus that they  are beside each other.

And they are both  examples of ghost signs painted over even older ghost signs.

They are on Wilbraham Road between Cromar and Chorlton Bookshop.

The smaller of the two has been on a show for over a year but the bigger advertising J D Gannon,

Newsagents, Tobaconist Stationary, Gifts and Toys only saw the light of day recently during the shops refurbishment.

The pictures were taken by Ted Harris and appear on his site of photos.*

Now I have yet to dig into the street directories but J D Gannon’s are listed at 550b Wilbraham Road in the 1964 telephone directory, by 1968 have moved next door to 504 and are still there in 1975.

And given that this is well within living memory I have high hopes that stories of that shop will come flooding back.

The shop remained a newsagents through the 1980s and continued to do so until the business closed recently.

Some will remember it was the focus for a campaign to prevent it becoming a bar which was successful and perhaps that too is a story for the blog.

As to the earlier ghost signs that will take a bit more research but some of the people who ran the business will pop up.


Pictures; of 504 Wilbraham Road from the collection of Ted Harris, http://tedspics.wordpress.com/2014/07/24/ashley-gannon-ghost-sign/

*Ted’s photos, http://tedspics.wordpress.com/2014/07/24/ashley-gannon-ghost-sign/