Culture Magazine

Brymay Safety Matches – Hints of Another Ghostsign Spotted

By Janeslondon
A few weeks ago I spotted part of an old hand-painted advertisement for Brymay Matches seeping through the paint on the North-facing corner of Archway Road.

Brymay Safety Matches – hints of another ghostsign spotted

SAFETY MATCHES

The name Brymay is a conjunction of the names of the founders William Bryant and Frances May who opened their first factory in Bow and sold a phenomenal eight million boxes of matches every year!!
There are now only a few hand-painted Brymay ads visible in London, most of having been covered over by subsequent ads (as in the Haringey example below), whitewashed completely, or obliterated by modern advertising systems or graffiti.
Here are some of them:

Brymay Safety Matches – hints of another ghostsign spotted

Haringey (over/under-painted with a John Bull ad) and Fulham

Brymay Safety Matches – hints of another ghostsign spotted

Shepherd's Bush Green and Goldhawk Road

Brymay Safety Matches – hints of another ghostsign spotted

The simple yet distinctive black Brymay logotype within a bright yellow ellipse on a plain blue background peeking out from behind modern signs in Holloway and Lambeth

Criterion Matches, however, implemented a different kind of labour-intensive pictoral advertising; a style also sometimes used by other companies such as Gillette:

Brymay Safety Matches – hints of another ghostsign spotted

Kilburn and Stoke Newington

Here's my last post about Brymay signs.
If you know of any others like these, please do let me know.

Back to Featured Articles on Logo Paperblog