Don’t you just love old signs and shop fronts? They seem to be having a ‘moment’ right now. Sometimes I wish I could time travel down my local high street to the golden age of shop signage. Obviously I was excited to discover this album of old photos of adorable Brighton shopfronts! They were taken in the 1980s, but I think most of the shopfronts date back much further than this.

With all these dreamy fonts and colours to stare at though, it’s so easy to miss the quirky little details in the windows themselves. Take Gilmours ‘distinctive corsetry’ purveyors above for example, filled with the most bizarre display of girdles, suspenders and gussets! I’ll point out others that catch my eye as I go along. Enjoy!

Could fish shop windows be any more adorable? Look at that amazing sash window, all those little bottles on the window sill and the words ‘shell fish’ set into the wall.

You’ve gotta love this display in A Cooper Hair Stylist. Look at the strip lights, and the mannequin heads!

The intricate floor tiles, dark green and gold signage are so beautiful they almost totally distract us from the meat carcasses hanging in the window – which you rarely see these days.

‘Special train takeaway service’? Yes please! I would seriously give anything to be able to buy my breakfast or lunch from from Duvalls – just to find out what this involved…

How to make a cheap and cheerful eye-catching window display #101: just grab a selection of tinned food and stack it up. Ta da!

Measor’s window looks like it was plucked from a Greek island, all those baskets of fruit and macrame plant hangers.

Now Frances Leather Goods like just like my kind of shop – look at all those amazing old suitcases and trunks! How cool? I mean, where can you go nowadays on your local high street to browse suitcases and handbags in a small regular-priced shop that isn’t a department store? No where! Not in Brighton anyway. Although to be honest, Frances could be mistaken for one of the many vintage shop you see in the North Laine today…