Felixstowe
Here we are in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe, Suffolk,
travelling towards
the
seafront and just past the old railway station. The enlargement above
gives
a hint of the lettered walls ahead with the slanting word 'GARAGE'. (Scarborough has similar very oblique Garage
sign.) The
star of the show is barely visible behind the lampost ...
... but before that we look back at the obverse wall to
the 'Garage'
lettering
above: 'HASTE & SONS. GARAGE', where the name curves and fits
nicely
over the company's role. Facing it is one of the finest painted
lettering
advertisements in Suffolk ...
-
'E.F. ANDREWS,' (compare the use of the comma to the
full stop after
'Haste
& Sons' above) curves over in a beautiful arc to fill the
shouldered
wall. Below it in descending order of size, importance - yet increasing
complexity - we see 'DECORATOR, PLUMBER & SANITARY ENGINEER.' And
after
'BUILDING & GENERAL REPAIRS.' we have, topped and tailed by
chequerboard
rules created by painting alternate bricks, the rather fine large and
small
caps: 'RATHBONE FURNISHING STORES.'
So, copious punctuation for a busy company, but how did they do it? The
flat roofs of the shops next door must have helped with erection of
scaffolding,
but presumably a foolscap paper layout was transferred to the large
vertical
wall by drawing it out on the brick surface. Imagine trying to draw the
circle at the top, let alone evenly space out the characters which sit
on
it. One can only admire the craftsmanship. All the above firms have
long
since ceased trading, but their lettering remains. In terms of
preservation and quality, this wall compares favourably with the
'W.B. Kerridge - Tailor' sign in Ipswich.
The large 'BANK' lettering at 33 Hamilton
Road.
Meanwhile, down on the seafront, some remedial work to
97 Undercliff
Road
West in Spring 2001 revealed the former use of this building.
'H.T.ABLETT' flanked by the words 'Wine' and 'Stores'
show this small
shop
to have been an off-licence in years gone by. An interesting site for
such
retail premises; one wonders how much trade was garnered from the
passing
holidaymakers ...
Coming soon: The Fludyers Arms 'BUILT (date)'
lettering further up Felixstowe undercliff. Here, to whet your whistle,
is an extract from their website (listed on our Links
page):
"The Fludyer name comes from Sir Samuel Fludyer - grandson of the
presumably more famous Sir Samuel Fludyer (1705-1768) - who was
Lord Mayor of London in 1760. The grandson died in 1833 and is buried
with his wife locally.
The original Fludyer (or Fludyers ?) Arms is a wooden building dating
from at least 1884. The current brick building was built in 1903 and
both brick and timber buildings obviously co-existed alongside each
other for a time.
A stable block, which is now part of the hotel as a
garage / storage area was built behind the wooden structure. We really
would be delighted to learn more."
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Lettering sites: Borin Van Loon
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