London Signs & English Inn Signs

In London’s crowded and narrow streets in the 18th century, when much of the working population was still illiterate, business premises were recognised by shop signs hanging at right angles to the building facades. The latest additions to the Historystore website are a collection of invoices from this period which feature woodcuts and engravings of these signs.  The best reference books on the subject are ‘London Signs’ by Bryant Lillywhite’ published in 1972 and ‘English Inn Signs’ by Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotten published in1951.