Lick of paint Century-old chocolate advert on house could be restored
AFADED ‘ghost’ advert on the side of a house near Victoria Park could be restored to its former glory, after the house owner set up a fundraiser to save it.
The advert, which would have been painted brightly to be seen by passengers on trains leaving Temple Meads station, is on Jo Purslow’s house at the end of Fraser Street in Windmill Hill.
The advert could be as much as 100 years old. The house was built around 1890 and there are two or three other ads that are fading through it. Bristol’s historic Know Your Place project listed it as a ‘fastfading ghost sign advertising a local product ... well known in Bristol in the Victorian era and later.’
“It appears to read ‘Fry’s Pure & Concentrated Cocoa.’
“The chocolate factories of JS Fry & Sons turned out a variety of products, including cocoa. Perhaps the advert was placed here to encourage walkers in the park on cold winter days to hurry home for a warming brew,” the Know Your Place listing added.
Fry’s was the biggest chocolate firm in Bristol – and one of the biggest in the world – and invented the first mass-produced chocolate bar in 1847 and the first Easter Egg in 1873.
The firm merged with Cadbury’s in 1919 and began the move from the city centre chocolate factories to a new site at Keynsham in the mid-1920s. Cadbury’s remained at Keynsham until 2011, when Cadbury’s was bought by American firm Kraft. They promised to keep the Somerdale site open, but went back on that promise and closed it within just a few weeks of completing the takeover.
Ms Purslow, who has lived in the house for 23 years, said: “Every year I’ve promised myself I would get it reinstated, but it would have to be done properly and that would cost money to get someone expert who knows what they are doing.
“My office window faces out on to the entrance to the park, and during lockdown the park got much, much busier and I was noticing people all the time, every day, stopping to try to read it, work out what it used to say.
“Sometimes I would even rush out to tell them it was an ad for Fry’s cocoa, and lots of people said it was a shame it was fading from sight.
“We have a strong street art culture in Bristol and so I think it’s fitting to get something historical that has been part of our local community restored to its former glory.”
Ms Purslow’s plan is to hire an expert signwriter and restorer, who works with the BBC as a signwriter and set designer on period productions, to restore the sign.
She has set up a fundraiser and estimates the project will cost a little over £7,000.
The picture she posted as part of the fundraising page included a picture of the sign from ten years ago – and it’s faded a lot since then.
“There was a bit of a debate about whether refreshing the paint would destroy the old – but the fact is, it’s too far gone to restore only the original really. It’s faded a lot in the last few years, trees have grown up in front of it, and it needs restoring now,” she said.
“The plan is to come and restore it how it looked before, but it won’t look like new. It’ll need scaffolding up all round that side of the house, and some of the brickwork needs replacing too.
“There’s so many people locally who love this sign, and it’s for the community really, to make sure it doesn’t just disappear,” she added.
To find out more about the fundraiser, visit www.gofundme.com/f/historical-frys-advert-restoration