Bad news for those sentimental about Wanstead heritage: Wansteadium can reveal that the familiar sign on the front of Andrew’s Builders’ Merchant ended up in a skip.
Renovations at the Woodbine Place building are converting it into a fabric shop; its new owners have told the Wanstead Society that they destroyed the old wooden sign.
Last week Wansteadium reported some calls from readers to have the sign preserved. It was certainly a familiar sight, partly because its old style black-and-white paint had remained unchanged for decades and was resistant to any modernisation.
(We will not now be launching an online petition for it to be saved.)
A crying shame
Or they can have their sign done in a similar way, not sure that ‘Andrews Builder’s Merchants’ specifically has to live on more than the style.
Ooh,a fabric shop! That’s a good idea in Wanstead & should do well. If it is an independent one maybe they could be persuaded to have a similar style of sign made?
Yes the new owner is a nice guy and intends to replace the old sign with a tasteful new one in the same place.