Countryman Clothing building Brunswick Road

When I arrived home late one afternoon, Vince said: “Do you know that the back of the Countryman’s building has disappeared?”  I had to rush down and see. I knew that the building had recently been up for sale but I did not know whether it had sold. My dream of a museum of manufacture on this site had obviously not occurred to anyone else. What a pity.

So I went down and snapped a few photos. Then my day just got better:
a tall, tanned, handsome man in a high viz vest shorts and hard hat came up and asked me “what’s with the photos?” So I launched into an explanation of my interest in ghost signs. He then told me that the signs would be kept and the façade retained. He said the complex might be called something like “The Tailor”.

Whilst I am glad that the beautiful facade of the building will stay and a nod to the clothing manufacturing heritage will be made, I am sad that the story of the neighbourhood is being gradually lost.  Here are a few photos of what the building used to look like. Alas I have only a few of the red brick back, and unfortunately I never got to see inside except a quick glance up the Philip Marlowe-like stairs and dingy little office at the front.