Tuesday 7 September 2010

While we're remembering the Blitz...

It seemed very timely to come across an air-raid shelter sign on the 70th anniversary of the Blitz.


This is a Home and Colonial faded sign with a darker Shelter sign below it, on Dartmouth Road, just a few yards up the hill from Forest Hill train station.

Above the H & C, ...NIAL is all that's still clearly visible.  Below the H & C are the words ''VALUE, ECONOMY, and QUALITY.  As usual, I was on my bike, I was pleased to find a bicycle reference on the Home and Colonial Wikipedia entry.  John Betjeman's poem Myfanwy contains these lines

Smooth down the Avenue glitters the bicycle,
Black-stockinged legs under navy blue serge,
Home and Colonial, StarInternational,
Balancing bicycle leant on the verge.


I missed the black stockings though.

There are a few more faded signs around that part of Dartmouth Road.



The middle one is pretty well faded, but by tweaking the image in Paint.NET (I love free software!) I came up with something a bit more legible.





2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, Sorry, I couldn't find an email for you. Hope you don't mind my leaving a comment here. Just wanted to invite you to our free Local London online event - http://lno-unconference2010.eventbrite.com/.

We have 80 people booked already including folks like SE1, Brockley Central. Londonist & The Guardian.

Marmoset said...

Hi Hugh, You're right, there was no email for me on the blog - I thought I'd set it up but apparently not. Anyhow, it's now rectified.

And I'm already booked for the ''unconference'' via Crossfields.blogspot.com