If you know where to look, there are plenty of hints of past Londons.
None more obvious — simply because of their visual strikingness — than ghost signs. These are forgotten adverts, hidden in plain sight all over the city. There were no electronic billboards in the early 20th century, with up-to-the-minute sports results and social media feeds scrolling across them. It was all a little more straightforward back in the day — paint on brick.
And while today's electronic adverts disappear as soon as the new one takes its place, adverts applied to brick and mortar buildings can last for decades. And many have. Writer Helen Cox collated and catalogued some of the ghost signs still visible in London today, in the updated edition of her book Fading London.
Here are some of our favourite ghost signs from the book.
Discover more glorious ghost signs in Fading London.