I would guesstimate that 10% of these signs have one or more of the letters within them flipped back to front.
Here are four prime examples:
As you can see, the confusion usually lies with the letters A, M, U, V, W and Y.
In my mind's eye I can see the person who was making this sitting there with a puzzled expression, holding up the letter, looking at it one way and then the other, rotating it, it flipping it, shrugging their shoulders and then... oops!
Most of these signs appear to use a similar serif font which means all the craftsman (if that's not too specific a word here) needs to do is consult that alphabet, or a similar cut, to double check before he/she starts welding.
Ah... but check out the image top right for Mayward House, Pentonville Rd – one maker just wasn't sure which way round to put the A on Mayward so gave us both options. Hey, I suppose it balances the flipped M and the flipped U in HOUSE (not shown). Note also the spectacular letter-spacing across MAYWARD – all-in-all this is a truly sublime example of this kind.
I also have some evidence of school gates with flipped letters. Yes, schools. I will dig those out and post them anothe rday.
In addition to flipped letters I have also spotted an error in a huge sign that runs across City and Islington College at the top end of Goswell Road near the Angel Islington road junction. As you can see the S is upsidedown – it's been rotated. Go check you Gill aphabet people the bowl at the top should be smaller than the bowl at the bottom. Stands to reason really. Otherwise, like here it becomes top heavy.
