I love to find lost signs, hints of what the history of a building used to be. I live in the inner city of Melbourne, Australia in an area which is a mix of building that are about 120 years old and modern stuff. This area used to be more industrial than it is now. And like everywhere it used to have more corner stores and retail dotted through the streets with this in mind I present to you three signs that have been lost over the years.
This is maybe my favourite sign - Maybe international readers don't understand what a Milk Bar is - it's like a 'corner store' but more food focused, a bodega in the US or a 7-Eleven which isn't open all the time and is run by a individual. You don't see them much anymore, But I like the idea of this sign on what is now a house, The outline of the coffee (It would have been really ordinary is my guess) and a cigarette kind of sums it all up.
This is just up the road from the Milk Bar sign suggesting there was maybe a little strip of shops here. I'm guessing this was a newsagent because these three of Melbourne's newspapers back in the Day - The Age still exists, it was the broadsheet and is the fancy person's newspapers. The Herald was started in 1840 and The Sun (which was a morning paper) in 1922 - In 1990 they merged into The Herald-Sun. It is the most popular newspaper in Australia - and is owned by Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp - Rupert is perhaps not Australia's best export.
And the last one - This is maybe the strangest becuase I've lived in North Melbourne for about 12 years and this sign has only existed for the last 3 or so years. That's because it was unearthered when they were renovating this one warehouse (now someone's house) Maison Marney Brandy is well the alcohol drink Brandy, made by Penfold's who are a pretty famopus Australian winemaker. This street is pretty small, so I don't know why this was painted here, although I know there used be be a pub across the road, before it was demolished and turned into apartments.