"Empire Sign" and Mitre Bar sign, Tontine Lane
Introduction
The photograph on this page of "Empire Sign" and Mitre Bar sign, Tontine Lane by Barbara Carr as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Image: © Barbara Carr Taken: 17 Apr 2013
Artwork by Douglas Gordon, 1997. Information from the booklet entitled 'The Merchant City Public Art Trail': "The sign is a mirror image of one briefly seen in Hitchcock's film 'Vertigo', so here we have something returned to the real world from the fictional. Says Gordon: 'I liked the fact that I could make an artwork that would not look like an artwork, I could make an object which was a copy of something that doesn't actually exist except in fiction, and the only way you can read it properly is to look in a mirror which is a place that does not really exist either'. The word Empire is a loaded one here, the source of so much of the wealth that the Merchant City was built on, but also a common name for cinemas and theatres. This work was originally sited in Brunswick Lane, opposite The Mitre Bar, a favourite with artists. When the Empire sign had to be moved because of development in that area, the sign from the defunct Mitre Bar came with it, to keep a sense of the original juxtaposition." The signs are illuminated every evening.