Laura Reynolds

Noooo! A Historic East End Shopfront Has Just Been Painted Over

The shopfront in 2013. Photo: shadow_in_the_water via the Londonist Flickr pool

A much-loved Victorian Spitalfields shopfront has been covered over in garish yellow, to the dismay of local residents.

The A. Gold shopfront at 42 Brushfield Street was a tribute to the millinery business which resided at the premises in the late 1800s. The shop shut in 1892, but its frontage was maintained.

Local blog Spitalfields Life pointed out the iffy paint job:

Annie Gold & her husband Jacob ran a millinery business from 1889 to 1892 at 42 Brushfield Street, Spitalfields pic.twitter.com/tp12EvPBli — Spitalfields Life (@thegentleauthor) February 18, 2019

Twitter commenters described the yellow overcoat as "out of place" and "revolting".

The new resident business, bakery Butter Believe It, opened in November 2018 but retained the old shopfront until recently. Now, the sign, exterior walls, window frames — even overhanging lamps — have all been transformed to yellow to match the business's aesthetic:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Butter Believe It (@butterbelieveit) on Feb 4, 2019 at 11:32am PST

While the window frames, walls and lamp covers have been painted, the original A. Gold sign still exists under Butter Believe It's new sign, which was carefully installed to protect the original.

The building is Grade II listed, and Butter Believe It's husband and wife team Haya and Yazan got the 'necessary approvals' before covering up the sign.

In recent years, the premises was inhabited by Cundall & Garcia, a vintage-style deli and sandwich shop, but that's now ceased trading. Paulo Garcia of Cundall & Garcia now runs The English Restaurant at 50-52 Brushfield Street, which has a similarly traditional —although less dated — frontage.

This news recalls an incident in Deptford last year, when an original second world war shelter sign, was hamfistedly slathered in fresh paint. Unlike that occurrence, at least there's hope that we will see the A Gold sign in all its glory again one day.