Ghost-sign for Mazawattee Tea, Sydenham station

Image: © Christopher Hilton Taken: 8 May 2016

Very faintly, one can make out the word "Mazawattee" running diagonally from bottom left to top right; above it to the left is "Delicious", and bottom right one can just make out a few strokes that would have read "Tea". Credit goes to my wife for most of the deciphering. Mazawattee Tea was a very popular brand at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and images of their advertising, with the distinctive typeface seen here on the M and W, and the slogan "Deliciouis Mazawattee Tea", can be found on the internet in various locations. A Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazawattee_Tea_Company ) gives more history. Not least, it points out how this line through Sydenham would have been very familiar to the company's owners in its pomp: the Densham family, founders of the firm, settled in Croydon and Purley (see Image for information on their house at Foxley), whilst the firm's factory was near New Cross Gate (the towered building seen in Image was part of it). Members of the Densham family would presumably have passed this way very often and been able to check if their advertising signs were being maintained properly. The sign can be seen in a little more context at Image

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