Luton Ghost Signs no. 7 - Overy's Grocers, 56 Ashton Road

Two beautifully preserved signs from the turn of the century from a simple corner grocers on Ashton Road. The narrow strip between roofs on the sloping Ashton Road gives  space to state “Overy Grocer and Provision Dealer." There are traces of a previous sign as well. The rear has the cheerful slogan “Drink and Enjoy,” which would not have won the approval of the temperance movement of the time. It’s a shame someone has constructed a window right in the middle of the slogan. 

Having sold ”eggs, butter and groceries” in Hockliffe of 1890, the 1911 census shows that William Overy worked in the Luton shop with his son Walter.  

Walter went on to be wounded during the Great War.  

Luton Ghost Signs no. 6 - Universal Tea, 8 Wellington Street

Wellington Street was Luton’s foremost shopping area in the 19^th century.

It was here that the Universal Tea Company traded and its presence on the street is recorded in Kelly’s Directory for 1898. In the above photograph you can see more of the sign revealed. The building to the right - number 6 - has obviously been rebuilt since then to a greater height and obscuring the second line. 

Looking carefully at the sign you can see that a second sign has been painted on top in the past. This last photo shows that the shop has a sign with "Maypole" on the front and the green writing is indeed this word.

No record with details of the "Maypole" shop has yet to be revealed.

Luton Ghost Signs no. 5 - Powdrill's Furniture Repository, Hitchin Road.

Perhaps the most unusual business in High Town was that undertaken by Powdrill’s. The founder, George Powdrill, was born in Derbyshire and while still a boy travelled selling crockery in markets but later became an independent carter, as shown by this early photo of one of his carts down a primitive Old Bedford Road. 

By 1871 he had come to live off the upper part of High Town Road, being described as a coal merchant. As was not unusual at that time, the dealing in builders merchandise was added to the coal trade with the making of bricks in a small brickfield owned by the form in the neighbourhood. His firm was the last to make the excellent Luton Grey bricks continuing to do so until just before WW2. 

Contracting was also undertaken, requiring a fleet of pantechicons and traction engines. 

Despite this, George Powdrill’s first love appears to be farming and at the time of his death in 1918 at the age of 66, he owned over 2,000 acres of land around the town. One of his houses on Crawley Green Road (later the Royal Navy Club) is shown above. For some years the headquarters of his firm were on the corner here on the corner of Hitchin and Midland Roads on land which he had at an earlier time farmed. 

A depot – not finally dismantled until about 1978 when the firm ceased business, has been described as a “chimney pot museum” so great was the assortment of these, together with drainage pipes and tiles needed for the building trade.

 It is not surprising that Powdrill was an interesting person but apparently having no desire to undertake public service. He had independent views, respecting those of others. At election times when feelings could be strong he decorated one of his carriages with conservative colours and another with the Liberal, inviting his workers to choose in which they wished to go to the polling station. It was typical of George that many years before it became more usual he asked for there to be no wreaths at his funeral, considering there to be so many better uses to which money could be put for their purchase.

Source : The Story of High Town, John G Dony, 1984

Luton Ghost Sign no. 4 - Henry Durler, 40 Guildford Street

This building at 40 Guildford Street was Luton’s largest hat factory, being five bays wide with each bay featuring triple-light windows. It is over five storeys high over a deep semi-basement with an attic over the centre bay. The building uses a pale version of the distinctive Luton Grey bricks for the side and rear walls but the street frontage has been rendered and painted. To the north of the building a large extension was added in the late 1950s and in more recent times the building was part of the Eastex clothing factory.  

The factory was built in 1905 for the highly-successful Swiss-born hat industry magnate Henry Durler, whose name was painted along the side wall. Durler’s company were straw plait merchants as well as bleachers and they had been one of the first to use hydrogen peroxide as part of the bleaching process. Their example had undoubtedly assisted the wider adoption of the chemical.

Durler’s innovation coincided with arrival of Laporte’s chemical works to Luton as an ancillary to the hat industry. They produced peroxide used by Durler but the factory was in the open countryside because of the strong smell of bleach it gave off. Its location - Kingsway - is now well within the built-up area, however.   

Henry Durler lived in a large, luxurious house – “Whitehills” – off London Road. Built  in 1869 and designed by Thomas Sorby, architect of Wardown House. It was bought by Durler in 1894, and on his death in 1924 it was passed to his son Robert. Robert’s widow Nora lived there until she sold the property for a reputed £100,000 in 1977. The nearby Durler Gardens is named after the family.

 The above census return for 1911 hints at the life of luxury becoming to a wealthy industrialist.

Robert dies in 1965 leaving over £100,000 in his will as shown above. A considerable fortune at the time.

Luton Ghost Signs no. 3 - Reginald Street Work Units

Reginald Street on the boundary of High Town and New Bedford Road was at the heart of the “cottage industry” hat trade as opposed to the factories near the centre of town. Kingham Way (between 67 & 69 Reginald Street) perpetuates the name of G. Kingham, a building firm. 

The premises at the rear are now used by a variety of businesses, mostly unconnected with the hat trade, though the old sign ‘Luton Boxes Ltd’ at the entrance indicates a past connection (second from top on the sign).  Box manufacturers produced the large cardboard boxes which were used to transport the hats by train across the country, but this aspect of the trade gradually became absorbed by the larger factories following the introduction of wool-felt hats – it was a way to make use of wool scraps by incorporating threads into the boxes, thus maximising profits.

Please also note the presence of milliners “H &M Levinson” as further evidence of the presence of the hat trade in the last century. 

Footnote : sign writers often personalise their creations by signing them and the last vestige of "H. H. Brown" can just be seen in the bottom right.