East End street signs

[Jason]

Did the street signs in 1888 have the small addition of E1 etc on the end as they do today ?

[Monty]

Jason,

Short answer is no.

Postcodes werent introduced, I believe, till the mid 1950s.

Monty

[Jason]

thanks for that, i think i actually knew that but didnt apply my knowledge ! thanks for making me realise i am a dimwit !

[Monty]

Dont be so harsh on yourself Jason.

Its a reasonable question.

Monty

[John Savage]

Hi Jason,

London postal codes go back as far as 1857 when the greater London area was split into geographical areas, at that time Whitechapel would have been London E.

In 1917 these were split into smaller areas by the addition of numbers and Whitchapel would have become London E1.

Further numbers and letters were added in the 1970's when automated sorting was introduced.

Rgds
John

[The Grave Maurice]

That certainly makes sense, since "London E" is quite evident in the postmark on the Openshaw letter. http://www.casebook.org/ripper_letters/

[Monty]

However, on street signs?

Monty

[Jason]

when you look at some today, even though they appear very old and possibly even dating back to 1888, they do have the E1 etc on them . Is this just that the signs themselves have aged rapidly thereby giving an impression of being older than they actually are ? to be fair they are metallic and London has its fair share of wet weather !!

[Jason]

Hi Jason,

London postal codes go back as far as 1857 when the greater London area was split into geographical areas, at that time Whitechapel would have been London E.

In 1917 these were split into smaller areas by the addition of numbers and Whitchapel would have become London E1.

Further numbers and letters were added in the 1970's when automated sorting was introduced.

Rgds
John

forgot to say thanks for that info ! pretty thorough !

[joelhall]

when you look at some today, even though they appear very old and possibly even dating back to 1888, they do have the E1 etc on them . Is this just that the signs themselves have aged rapidly thereby giving an impression of being older than they actually are ? to be fair they are metallic and London has its fair share of wet weather !!

They've been weathered quickly. A great number, especially in the EE date from the end of and post-WW2, when signs were removed and destroyed (along with whole streets and estates) during the blitz. Victorian postal areas were solely for the use of the sorting office at the time, and covered such a large area (such as London, N, E, S, W) that I believe they were not put onto road signs at the time, as no postie would be confused as to what part of London he was in. Later when the areas were divided up would they be added, as the code represented smaller areas with each part of London, such as E3, W7, etc, although this would be a gradual thing - often not happening until the houses were rebuilt. As now, mostly this would happen when new streets were built, and deteriorating signs replaced as and when (after all - there's a LOT of street in London).

Remember too that there was a great deal of regeneration beginning after WW2, so many of the streets we see popped up since. The signs of course are as old as they are, and of course even now signs are replaced as they become worn.

[Jason]

thanks Joel

[Stephen Thomas]

Here's the current street sign on what used to be Castle Alley, scene of the McKenzie murder. Retro chic devised by someone on Tower Hamlets Council I suppose.

[Edward]

Contemporary photos

Hello All -
From the thread East End Photographs and Drawings
Rob Clack's uber-thread reborn, a couple of old photos showing street signs:

Berner St corner of Commercial Road 1890-ish

http://forum.casebook.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=464&d=1204249208

St. James Place 1890

http://forum.casebook.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=1537&d=1209674944

There may be other photos of street signs on that wonderful thread, but these are two that I found.

Edward