Ghostsigns archive: Documenting painted advertising signs in the UK

A new online archive records painted advertising across the country. Find out where your local signs are
• Get the data

The History of Advertising Trust launches its Ghostsigns Archive today, documenting and archiving painted advertising on buildings across the UK.

Painted signs were once common but have been replaced by printed billboards, and those that survive are fading fast, or being demolished during building work.

Project manager Sam Roberts has documented over 650 painted \'ghostsigns\' around the country, with the help of interested photographers through the Ghostsigns Flickr group .

The spreadsheet here records the location of each advert (with partial postcode where available), enabling you to find your local signs. The History of Advertising Trust has also provided image links for some of the ghostsigns, and further URLs will be added as they become available.

Are there painted adverts in your area that haven\'t been documented yet? If so contact the Ghostsigns archive , and help the History of Advertising Trust to preserve this important piece of our advertising past for future generations.

Check out the list of images below, or download the spreadsheet for the full dataset of archived adverts, and see what you can do.