Old Belfast Shop Signs
Belfast Shop Signs
Belfast is known world-wide as an industrial city, initially based on the twin pillars of linen-making and ship building. As the site developed from village to town to city it became the commercial centre for the north of Ireland.
Long before the advent of today’s chain stores, where practically every town and city centre look the same, Belfast was home to a myriad of different family-owned shops and businesses. Many of these boasted individual, hand-painted signs to advertise their wares.
The streets and entries of the town must have looked so much more colourful and inviting then, than they do today.
Early Commercial Signs
While these signs were designed to make stores look more attractive and appeal to the public, they were also extremely practical. At a time when most of the populace were illiterate, the pictorial representations alerted customers to the goods or trades on offer.
In depictions from the 17th and 18th centuries we see decorative signposts hanging outside shops on High Street and in Cornmarket, the two commercial centres of the growing town.
Most signboards were suspended from a wrought iron bar attached to a shopfront. Occasionally they were attached to a separate pole at the front of the store or painted directly onto a wall.
Examples of Signs
Over the years the city has been adorned with interesting signage. The business premises of Foster Green on High Street was fronted with a giant golden tea cannister and a coffee grinding steam engine. This was to advertise their tea rooms and the sale of tea leaves and coffee.
The umbrella manufacturer Johnstons, had a golden umbrella held in an outstretched blue-sleeved arm. This was so synonymous with the business that when they moved premises from High Street to Ann Street in 1960, the sign was reattached to the new shop.
Also on High Street a watchmaker advertised his trade with a “Golden figure of time” outside his shop. Similarly Henry McKedy, a seedsman, had the sign of The Orange Tree. Thomas Lyle had the sign of The Saw hanging over his hardware shop which also sold silverware, steel malt-mills and “50 muskets, with bayonets, fit for Volunteers”.
“Some of the signboards were rather grotesque. In Ann Street we had ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’; in Corn Market there were ‘The fruit girl’ …… and ‘The Turk’s head.’ In Donegall Street ‘The saddle-horse and groom’……in High Street we had ‘The black bear’ and ‘The spinning wheel’.
Thomas Gaffikin Belfast Fifty Years Ago 1875
A lot of the signage was extremely intricate and decorative, sometimes depicting foreign scenes or exotic animals, rarely seen in real life by the majority of Belfast folk. In 1840 at the premises of Henry Munro in High Street was a sign featuring a Chinese mandarin.
A Golden Elephant hung outside the commercial business of Thomas and William Gilmore, Tea & Wine Merchants and Family Grocers.
Not only shops used interesting signage as a means of advertising, trades also employed this practice. On Waring Street a saddler was famous for his sign of a white horse.
“In the year 1786 the beginning of Waring Street – the site of the old commercial buildings – there were four thatched houses. In the first of these, at the corner of Bridge Street resided a saddler who hung out for a sign above his door a great White Horse, suspended by an iron belly-band”.
Cathal O’Byrne, As I Roved Out, 1946
In 1773, Andrew MacClenaghan carried on his tailoring business near the Market House under the sign The Buck and the Breeches. Richard Wright, a hatter, had the sign of The Golden Hat and the Rabbit.
In the 1850’s in John Street (now Union Street) a coffin-maker hung out a coffin-shaped sign with the inscription ‘Coffins made and mended here’
Maritime Signs
As can be expected, different districts displayed signs relating to local occupations. Waring Street and the area around the harbour, had signage depicting ships and maritime scenes. ‘The Steamer’ by R Graham featured on Merchants Quay and ‘The Out-Bound Mariner’ (S Clotsworthy) and ‘The Shipwrecked Mariner’ (J Algeo) on Hanover Quay.
A dockside hotel known as The Eagle run by a Mr J Magennis had its sign described in a local tri-weekly newspaper the Ulster Times
“This noble painting is much to our taste. It occupies a commanding position in Waring Street. The eagle is flying at a sublime elevation over an arm of the sea, with its head under its wing, holding a mountain in one claw and a steamboat in full speed in the other”
The Ulster Times
Corn Market had cattle and livestock and the lanes and entries between High Street and Ann Street advertised local eateries with images of loaves of bread, punch bowls and soup tureens.
Military Signs
North Queen Street, home of the new Artillery barracks, opened in 1798 displaying signs and paintings with a military flavour.
These included a work by R Singer titled ‘The Highlander’ and another at the property of Mr Bingham was named ‘The Fortunes of War’. Also on North Queen Street, which was then known as Carrickfergus Street, was a portrait of the Duke of Wellington. This hung outside the hotel of Thomas Gibbs at No 29.
“Nothing can be more animating to the spirits of our troops than issuing from their quarters to see daily before their eyes the effigies and features of those great men of former times, whose actions they emulate, and whose fame they aspire to rival”
Isaac W Ward, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Series 2 Vol 11 No 4 1905
Public House Signs
Probably the signage that has lasted the longest is that advertising taverns and public houses. Some can still be seen today, though mainly in rural areas. One of Belfast’s earliest and most popular drinking venues was the White Cross. It was established around 1770 at the corner of Castle Place and Legg’s Lane (now Lombard Street). Its well-known landlord, Patrick Linn, managed the hostelry for over 50 years.
Mrs Hervey was the pub landlady at the ‘The Phoenix’ near the Belfast Market House with the distinctive sign below.
Other signs included ‘The Cat and the Fiddle’ and ‘The Eagle and the Child’.
In 1806, on the east side of Smithfield was the Robin Hood pub –
“The archers good were depicted, in Lincoln green, with bows and arrows, chasing the wild deer in sylvan scenery, and the little John who invited the cattle drovers and idlers of Smithfield to come in and partake of hospitality…”
Ye gentlemen and Archers good,
George Benn A History of the Town of Belfast Vol 2 1880
Come in, and drink with Robin Hood:
If Robin Hood be dead and gone,
Come in, and drink with Little John”
Another welcoming public house was The Golden Thread of Ulster on the coach road to Ligoneil. Meanwhile, the signboard of the ‘Monkey Shaving the Goat’ in Long Lane must have been an amusing sight for visitors!
Some of these unusual names have been celebrated in the brewing of artisan beers at the Deer’s Head Pub on North Street (see link to North Street post below)
The Mill for Grinding Old People Young
One of the strangest signs to feature over a public house must have been that of the ‘Mill for Grinding Old People Young’.
This hung over Peggy Barclay’s later establishment on the corner of the Shore Road and Buttermilk Loney (now Skegoneill Avenue). It showed elderly people leaping into a mill and coming out the other side rejuvenated! (see post).
Political Signage
Of course, some signs in Belfast, not only were a means of advertising, but also of expressing a political message. Arguably the most famous of these was Thomas McCabe’s sign on the front of his watchmaking business on North Street – An Irish Slave. He placed this here after his premises had been attacked by the government-backed yeomanry (see Thomas McCabe post).
The Thatched Tavern public house near the Commercial Buildings bore the sign of an inverted crown on the end of a gibbet. This was said to be in honour of the French Revolution. This inn was frequented by the United Irishmen when their meeting place at Peggy Barclay’s Dr Franklin’s tavern in Sugarhouse Lane was revealed to the authorities.
(The word ‘gibbet‘ is taken from the French gibet (“gallows”). Over time ‘Gibbeting’ became more associated with the particularly disturbing use of a gallows-type structure from which the bodies of those executed were hung in chains or cages and left to rot on public display to deter other potential criminals).
Another sign indicating political leanings was that of ‘The death of General Wolfe in 1759’. This hung over the premises of John Busby in James Street. General Wolfe was an English soldier killed in battle with French troops near Quebec in Canada.
Robert Kelly who had a hotel in Waring Street had a large painting of the Scottish hero William Wallace outside his establishment, presumably as an advocate for Scottish nationalism. This was also recorded in the Ulster Times
“This is a superb sign, representing the hero of Scotland in mixed costume, half Celtic and half Roman, with a shield and helmet, a kilt and philbeg” (Derived from ‘filleadh beag’, a philibeg was a short/ small kilt)
The Ulster Times
However, for some whose business acumen weighed more heavily than their political opinion, times must change to reflect public taste. For example, one Belfast hostelry boasted a painting of the English King George. The monarch’s red coat was subsequently painted blue, and his sceptre exchanged for a sword and he became General Washington!
Some businessmen preferred to use signposts that were of more personal significance. Maxwell Halliday who had a property in Corn Market had a sign showing ‘The mail coach passing through Dromore Square’. Dromore was his birthplace.
In Castle Lane hung a sign ‘Roy’s Race on the Maze between sharper and swindler’. The eponymous Roy was a retired jockey and he considered this his greatest triumph.
Common Signs Today
In time some signage became standardised, such as the three brass balls of the pawnbrokers and the red and white barbers’ pole. The red signified that the barber also provided blood-letting services.
“I recollect a barber’s poll that stood out at the house next to St George’s Church, and was a great obstruction to tall people”
Thomas Gaffikin, Belfast Fifty Years Ago, 1875
Display of Products/ Artifacts
Not every shopkeeper or tradesman used signage, some employed relevant artefacts. The Stag’s Head at the junction of North Street and Rosemary Street was, in 1839, adorned with antlers.
Others hung their wares outside their shop fronts to entice customers.
“Some dealers had no sign-boards, but hung out specimens of the goods they had for sale. Tinware, earthenware, and cast-metal goods were exposed upon the sidepath in Ann Street”
Thomas Gaffikin, Belfast Fifty Years Ago, 1875
One shop in Cornmarket “suspended a piece of coal, a turf, a scrubber, and some herring strung on a skewer“, indicating a general store of small wares” (Isaac W Ward).
Addition of Clocks
AgendaNI, June 2011, carried on story on the addition of clocks to the exterior of shops and public buildings. Local horologist Fergus Fitzsimons reported that these were vital as the general public could not afford time-pieces/ watches and therefore turned to public clocks to find the time.
“Virtually every town had a clock and a lot of manor houses would also have had clocks to let their workers know when they had to come to work. A lot of them struck bells so they could be heard for two or three miles so locals would know it was time to come to work”
Fergus Fitzsimons, AgendaNI June 2011
Belfast’s first public clock on High Street’s Old Corporation Church (the site of St Georges Church today) was added in 1706.
The Market House, on the site of Dunnes Department in High Street today, soon added a clock of its own…
“Belfast’s premier clock in the 18th century was, however, the Market House Clock, which projected like on a cantilever beam at the corner of Cornmarket and High Street… The News Letter reported in 1739 that the dial fell to the pavement and fractured a man’s thigh”
Colin Johnston Robb, Belfast Newsletter March 1956
Clocks were soon added to many private business, bringing prestige to the premises and repeat visitors as many returned frequently to check the time. .
Sculptures
Advertising signage of course, was not restricted to painting.
“Towards High Street and the centre of the town, where trade and its busy pursuits are the leading matters of attention, the decoration of the shops assumes a different aspect. Painting has yielded the palm to Sculpture; and models of golden woolpacks, sheep suspended by the loins, tea chests, elephants, mandarins and Chinese lanterns, give evidence of the prevalence of refinement, and the vicinity of a race addicted to all the luxuries of broad cloth and Bohea”
Isaac W Ward, Ulster Historical Journal of Archaeology, Series 2 Vol 11 No 4, 1905
Foster Greens on Royal Avenue (across the road from Belfast Central Library) displayed a large golden eagle on the shopfront (now sadly removed).
I am sure many of us remember the carved elephant which stood over the doorway of the Elephant House Bar on the corner of North Street and Winetavern Street.
Commercial Signs Today
All in all, Belfast city centre must have been a colourful place in the 18th and 19th centuries. Nowadays sign painting has become almost a lost art in our towns, practised by a few skilled artisans.
Belfast City Centre shop signage is now largely restricted to bland commercial brand names and logos while traditional signs have been lost…
We would love to hear of any more recollections of unusual or interesting signboards and, of course, if anyone knows the location of the missing elephant of North Street!
Related posts
Thomas McCabe – Champion of the Poor & the enslaved
North Street, Belfast – From the Ashes?
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