Finn's Hotel, Dublin
At 1 South Leinster Street, the old Finn's Hotel name survives on the west wall of a building now used by the dental hospital. Nora Barnacle worked here when she met James Joyce in 1904. The wall is a saved first-date message that survived every phone upgrade. Kyle would call all of it old stuff. I'd make him stop for the photograph.
Go to the corner with Lincoln Place and look at the side wall. The picture here shows the hospital buildings; the painted name is the thing to find when you arrive.
The sign is visible from the public street for free.
Kilkenny, first wall
Kilkenny gives you an actual two-sign walk. Start at 45 Parliament Street, beside the courthouse, where POWER'S DINING ROOMS still promises lunch from the wall. No menu, no photographs of the food, no chef explaining his childhood. Just lunch. The building is recorded as an early nineteenth-century house with a later shopfront. Neither date tells you when somebody painted those letters.
That is the first trap. An old house can carry much younger words. Read the wall like an overwritten departure board, with the old service still showing.
Power's is visible from the public footpath for free.
Kilkenny, second wall
Carry on along Parliament Street to Rothe House at numbers 15 and 16. In the first courtyard, DINING ROOMS appears again. The house began as a merchant's home around the turn of the seventeenth century. The lettering belongs to a later use. Kilkenny has made you walk past one vanished lunch and pay to inspect another. Like leaving a restaurant review before the kitchen opened, with no lunch on either wall.
Do Power's first, then Rothe House. This is the day's walk. The other towns below are separate outings.
Rothe House is ticketed. Self-guided entry is €8.50 for an adult or €7.50 for a student over 18; in October it opens Tuesday to Sunday.
Glasgow's back door
For a Glasgow trip, go behind Charing Cross Mansions to the end of Renfrew Street at St George's Road. The old Woolworths lettering marks the rear of a former shop. Of course the chain that sold nearly everything has left its name round the back. It is the shop equivalent of somebody leaving a group chat and continuing to read every message.
Glasgow City Heritage Trust says the sign is reportedly maintained by a local resident. The trust has free walking maps for more city signs, if this wall gets you started.
You can see the sign from Renfrew Street for free.
Liverpool keeps time
Liverpool's choice is on St Anne Street at Birkett Street. The old Keizer works has faded company lettering below a stone marked 1876, with a clock tower next door. The firm dealt in looking glasses, clocks and plate glass. A maker of mirrors and clocks has left you two ways to discover you are late, which seems excessive even for Liverpool.
The date is carved in stone, the Keizer name in paint. They tell different parts of the building's life. Do not date the lettering to 1876 just because the two sit close together.
The outside lettering is visible from St Anne Street for free.
Wealdstone gets loud
At 21 High Street in Wealdstone, the wall advertises Hustler Soap. Historic England recorded it on the building's south side. The name sounds like a dating profile that has asked to borrow your car before you have met. It also ruins the idea that old adverts spoke politely. Somebody painted HUSTLER on a wall and expected it to sell soap.
Look at the size of the letters. This was meant to catch a passer-by across the street, not reward somebody standing with a magnifying glass beside the brick.
The sign is visible from the High Street pavement for free.
Frome has the whole argument
Then there is 1 Market Place in Frome, at the Bath Street corner. One wall carries York's Motor Works and Yeovil Tractors. When paint was stripped in 2021, an older red sign for hot and cold water fitters appeared beneath them. The red letters belonged to Jackson and Sons, followed by the motor works in dark blue, then the tractor firm on top. Three businesses, one frontage, and a paint job with the nerve of a landlord keeping every old tenant's name on the doorbell.
Look for red letters at the side, darker motor words and the simpler tractor name above them. The free picture shows the frontage in 2014, before the later paint was stripped.
The signs face Market Place and are free to see from the street.
My cheapest plan
Make Kilkenny the day out: Power's on Parliament Street, then walk to Rothe House and decide if the courtyard earns its ticket. Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool, Wealdstone and Frome are separate trips. Collecting all seven at once would require a group holiday organiser with a map of two countries and no fear of mutiny.
I put £15 from an extra shift into the Micra fund. It is £1,214.95 now, £385.05 short of the agreed £1,600. Clodagh gets the front seat for Saturday's test drive and Kyle has accepted the back, if he chooses the first song. Clodagh has not heard his choice yet.
About the writer
Niamh Gallagher24, from Derry. Cheap days, train rides and catching famous places showing off.
Saving for her first car, a second-hand Micra she's already named. Her sister Clodagh has never been past Letterkenny and thinks this is all a waste of money. Barney corrects her dates. She says she doesn't read his letters. Boyfriend Kyle, a Glasgow sound engineer, comes on trips for the chips. Kyle or Clodagh: whoever gets the passenger seat first wins.
Story 22 of 25 from Niamh.← Niamh's last story: Cape Clear Island: the ferry photo is only the startNiamh's next story: Hook Lighthouse has 115 steps. The better story starts downstairs. →Everything by Niamh Gallagher
Sources behind this story
- Ghost Signs, Historic England
- Finn's Hotel, 1 South Leinster Street, Buildings of Ireland
- 45 Parliament Street, Buildings of Ireland
- Power's Dining Rooms sign, Wikimedia Commons
- Rothe House sign, Wikimedia Commons
- Plan your visit, Rothe House and Garden
- Ghosts and Zombies, Glasgow City Heritage Trust
- Ghost Signs of Glasgow walking maps, Glasgow City Heritage Trust
- Charing Cross Mansions ghost sign, Wikimedia Commons
- Keizer works and clock tower, Geograph
- Keizer ghost sign, Wikimedia Commons
- Ghost signs at 1 Market Place, Historic England
- History of 1 Market Place, Tracing Ghosts
- Hustler Soap sign at 21 High Street, Historic England
- Hustler Soap sign picture, Wikimedia Commons
- Dublin Dental Hospital picture, Wikimedia Commons
- 1 Market Place before paint removal, Wikimedia Commons
.jpg){kind=link}
