A ghost sign ….. a bit of Didsbury’s history …… and a question about what we should preserve

I am a great fan of ghost signs.

Burton Road, 2014

These were the adverts for products, companies and businesses which have long since vanished, but their hand painted signs linger on, usually on gable ends or hidden under modern signage.

Most are now a fading and peeling reminder of things we bought and shops we visited a long time ago, and some from the time of our grandparents.

School Lane, Wilmslow Road, 2020

There will be those who dismiss them, arguing that as they slowly disappear in front of our eyes, they constitute an eyesore, and given that what they advertise no longer exist, these ghost signs should be obliterated.

In their place might come a bright fresh mural, perhaps giving a local artist a chance to share their work or a commission for a new business which would be in keeping with the spirit of the original sign.

But I rather think that ghost signs are worth preserving, because they are part of our history, more so when in the case of a business we can track the firm or the individual back into the story of Didsbury.

One of my favourites is the one on the corner of Wilmslow Road and School Lane which advertised the cabinet making business of Thomas Spann who operated from numbers 35 and 37 Wilmslow Road, which are now a coffee shop and bookmakers.

Originally the sign read TEL, 234 DIDSBURY, SPANNS, BLINDS, REMOVING, CARPET LINOLEUM & BEDDING WAREHOUSE.

Warburton Street, 2018

But there are others, including the one on Warburton Street and two on Burton Road.

Of course, admiring them is one thing, but how do you preserve what is already fading, and does the very act of restoring or at least “fixing” to arrest further deterioration, change what we see?

Added to which who should pay for any such restoration?

I don’t have the answer to any of the questions, but I do think they should be carefully considered, lest we lose for ever something which we later regret.

The M&S sign ..... memories of the Co-op, 2020

And while we ponder on that, it might be fun to record all the Didsbury ghost signs.

Leaving me just to appeal for details which can be left as a comment on the blog or as a picture posted on the Didsbury social media sites, which I can use.

All of which will add to the collection and go a little way to preserve them if well meaning artists, or time do their bit to eradicate our past.

And that is it....... Record it or lose it.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; the ghost signs of Didsbury, 2014-2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson