I’m doing a project at work right now involving transcribing and working with listings from old Bristol directories. My work involves looking for artisans and artists and creating relationships of place and time for various trades. However, one of the things I’m struck by is the vast variety of different shop signs there must have been.

green man

squirrel

ship

ring of bells

little tower

white hart

fountain

crown

hole in the wall

bear

white horse

black horse

etc, etc. Some streets must have been teeming with animals, ships, kings and miniature architecture of all kinds. It would be an interesting art project to realise a couple of 18th century Bristol streets by their shop signs alone. Especially when we consider what the urban landscape has become because of adverisements.