Entertainment For Lively Minds
It's not just hairdressers who have witty names these days
Posted by Melville on 3 June 2010 - 7:19pm.
such as Hair Razors. I had a flyer through the door today offering gardening services from Rake's Progress. And I saw a waste disposal lorry go past recently with the slogan "Ring us and we'll talk rubbish," and an ironing shop (yes, they exist) called Pressed for Time.
It all adds a little something to the day. Any other business names or slogans which have mildly amused you (even if they haven't won your custom)?
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What does Laurie Anderson call hubby Lou Reed
when he is gardening?
Hoe Superman.
Gets silk bomber jacket...
Liverpool gardening business
Hoe, Hoe, Hoe. Would only really work if they only operated over Christmas.
I used to do business
with a pig farmer whose trucks bore the legend:
'Service with a Grunt'
My local favourites are
Dog groomers called For The Love Of Dog
and ironing company, Pressing Matters.
There was a brothel (no , seriously)
to the south of Madrid, some years back with the name " Cow Woman".I used to see it on my way to work on the side of the road. I could see what that they were aiming for " Cow Girls" but someone`s translation skills were not up to it.
A catering firm in Spain
called Catering Hepburn.
Always smile when I see the sign for solicitors Shaidy & Co in Queensway.
Chicken wholesalers
:-)
A fantasy book store
Force of Hobbit
A fantasy music and jazz mag retailer...
Seedy Emporium
Just by Bristol Airport
A roadside van selling Fried Food in buns - "Breakfast at Timothy's"
Klaze*
a woman's clothes shop in Falkirk c. 1982
*may lose something in translation
and for the kids' klaze:
Weans' World in Wishaw
Blimey!
I'm back working in Motherhell but there is no way I'm venturing back to Pishaw.
I went there back in't 90s, it was closed.
Ouch!
I'll tell my mum not to expect you for tea anytime soon James.
sorry
but you're in California... mind you, your Mum is probably closer to my age :)
The shop I always wanted to open...
in Munich, where I live, is a shop selling floor coverings called: Carpet München
Meanwhile in Copenhagen...
Athlete's Foot
Athlete's Foot is a global franchise...
Prog gardeners
Close To The Hedge
A van used to go past my office
on the A30 with "John Ryan's Express" on the side.
Tanning salon in Glasgow...
...called Pierce Bronzin'.
A hydroponic gro-light shop in Edinburgh..
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There is (or was) a hairdresser in Shoreditch
called pragmatically if not wittily, 'It'll Grow Back'
I remember that place!
Just near Kingsland Road wasn't it. A few streets away, you had the off-licence just called CHEAP BOOZE
Gents hairdresser where I live
called the Deben Barber. Of course it helps when you know that it is by the River Deben...
In Brisbane Australia ...
... Baldrick's Cunning Plan Cafe
A ceramic tile store near Harrogate.
went by the name of The Bonnie Tiler.
Bargain Booze
Saw a lorry t'other day owned by a firm called Bargain Booze.
The tag line?
"Making Life Richer for the Pourer."
I saw it just as the Today programme on Radio 4 were discussing minimum pricing for alcohol.
There used to be....
...a kebab van in Durham called Jason's Doner Van.
Coming out of Birmingham
on the way to Stratford was a hairdressers called
Butt Hair Designs.
We have a business here in Portsmouth.
A chap who will collect your old furniture, remove the upholstery and then remove all paint and varnish from the wooden frame.
Called Jack The Stripper.
In Ironbridge
I see your cock, Steerpike. And I raise you a Scarlet Knob.
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There's a photo somewhere of me and my mate Andy standing by this sign doing our best Finbarr Saunders stances.
Which is in Ohiopyle, PA. Very near Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. And his other great house Kentuck Knob (Fnar! Snick!) owned by Lord Palumbo.
Touche Lenny
But it is the instruction to 'ask your bootmaker for cock' which gets me every time
I ask my grocer for cock..
Akram's store in Southsea sells this.
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And this. Which does what it says on the tin..
Shito is a Ghanaian fish paste made with a LOT of chilli. It's very similar to Jamaican Solomon Gundy (Walkerswood do one).
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Norwegian Spam
For simple pleasures
Shoe shop in darkest Wales.
Now sadly closed luxuriated in the name Pero Shoes.
Liverpool tanning salons
Walton's 'Tannerife' and Toxteth's 'Look at the colour of you, la'. (Think about the latter one).
Although, honourable mention must go to the Toxteth sandwich shop 'Soupherb Sandwiches' on Park Road and the Wigan hairdressers 'Shearlocks Home'. The latter had an impressive deer stalker/ pipe logo.
Martin Parr has some great photos in a similar vein, but I really need the loo and bed.
There used to be an umbrella shop in Warrington
called simply "It WILL Rain".
Ayr is awful for this
Ayr Cuts being a particularly horrible example!
Do you reckon this WW2 militaria shop owner's name is his own?
...
Pun Street
This has been a theme on Dave Gorman's show on Absolute for a while now - see more on this link
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/djs_shows/shows/dave_gorman/features/pun_...
I've seen a picture
of a fridge shop in North London called "Sell Fridges"
It's in Stoke Newington
not far from our house
I often see
a van on the way to work : 'Blott's Landscaping'.
Clearly a Tom Sharpe fan.
Not sure if it's witty but
There's a Derbyshire Landscaping Company called "Uphill Gardeners"
There is a driving school called
'Start key and Clutch'.
There's a fish and shop by Waterloo Station in London called Fishchoteque
And let's not forget Jim'll Mix It
I see
Jim'll Mix It trundling round North London loads - always raises a smile.
Also, Junk and Disorderly - house clearance place in Crouch End.
Austin Flowers - Florist, York Way.
Years ago in Sheffield there was a chippy on Abbeydale Road called 'A Salt and Battered' - don't know if it's still there today...aah the innate comedy of domestic violence!
Fishcotheque
As seen on the front cover of the mighty Jazz Butcher album of the same name?
http://www.jazzbutcher.com/htdb/albums/fishcotheque.html
Good chippy,
The Fishcotheque. When in London, I'd often nip there for a steak and kidney pie and chips.
The Rock and Sole Plaice
in London fabulous Covent Garden is worth a visit
London courier firm
This has been mentioned elsewhere I'm sure but I often see courier vans in this locale belonging to 'Quicksilver Messenger Service'
Captain Courier
in Belfast uses the slogan "To Finaghy* and beyond!"
*A Belfast suburb
Another Hairdresser in Islington
Chris "the" Barber
Just this very morning...
...a joiner/ carpenter's van drove past me - the business was called 'Chisel Me Timbers'.
I mentioned this to my workmates who all had one to offer, the best of which was an electrician friend who had a business called 'Circuit and See'
There's an RSPCA shop on Archway Road
The shopfront declares in gigantic letters NEUTERING STOPS AIDS IN CATS
Famous Belfast chippy
Builder's van seen in Leicester
... in the Indian part of Leicester (Belgrave Road?). Can't recall the firm's name, just the slogan on the van:
"You've tried the Cowboys... Now try the Indians!"
A Liverpool fruit & veg shop ...
... in Anfield, now sadly no more, was called Melon Cauli: the dilapidated shop front was Ozymandian, in its way.
Now try the Indians!
I believe you're referring to Singh Brothers Builders.
Makes me chuckle everytime I see their van.
Also, Coalville's finest......
A guy with a excavator and a dump truck (and potentially Boogie Nights in his DVD collection) calls his business "Dirt Digger".
I know there is more than one of these
German humour
(Or Chinese humour.)
This place is about 1km from my flat in Munich:
If I ever opened a bicycle shop
I'd call it Bike Curious.
There's a bike shop...
... in Oxford called Cyclo Analysts.
Driving
I had my first driving lessons with The Impact School of Motoring. Fortunately, it was not a crash course.
For those of you who are peckish in Kilburn:
http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/1153/22733.php
Our American cousins are streets ahead in the daft name stakes..
http://people.delphiforums.com/flatbushskp/funnybusiness.html
Recently opened nearby
A dining emporium that specialises solely in the pudding course.
JUST DESSERTS.
I kid you not.
I worked for an...
...accountant in outer north London, who had a client, a shoe repairer, went by "Terry De Havilland Cobblers To The World".
And I was always partial to the south Birmingham indian restaurant "The Shirley Temple". Nearly fell of the back of my mate's motorbike when I saw that the first time.
There's an estate agents in Kidderminster...
called Doolittle and Dalley
Wild and Lye
Estate Agents in Bath. These seem to be the real surnames of the partners, but given their profession's reputation for, er, making slightly exaggerated statements about the condition of property, they might have reconsidered using them as their company's name.
Meanwhile in Hastings.....
There's a business called William the Concreter.
http://www.williamtheconcreter.co.uk/index.php?page=gallery#
I know this isn't big or clever
And it's not actually on the sign....
But my local curry hut in Newport Pagnell, which is very good by the way, is called The Mysore. It is always referred to by the townsfolk as 'Mysore Arse'.
You probably all know this
But Hotblack Desiato (he of the band Disaster Area in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) was named after an estate agent in Islington. (Not the other way around.)
The first time I saw one of their signs outside a house..
I got terribly excited. This was in about 1998. My metropolitan friends all thought of me as terribly provincial.
On a similar note, I was a huge fan of Darts as a young lad. One of their singers was called Griff Fender. You have no idea how excited I got when I saw a (real) one of these driving down the road..
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I did not
know that, being one of those provincial types. But I do now, thanks.
I did not know that, either.
I have never knowingly been to Islington.
I seem to recall walking past a pub in Glasgow years ago called
... Moan Inn
Perhaps it needs a Glasgow accent to fully appreciate...
Captain Courier in Belfast has a great tag line....
See attached
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vip223/3576006516/
Shakespearean
It's probably apocryphal, but I heard of a camping and outdoor shop that had a sign in its window one January that read 'Now is the winter of our discount tents'
Liverpool
Landscapers: Avant Gardens.
Caribbean restaurant:
Reminds me of one of my favourite jokes
..,.I took the wife on one of thise Caribbean holidays
.... Jamaica?
.....No, she wanted to go
Not a pun, but....
There's a barbers on Stanley Road in Kirkdale in Liverpool whose tag line is 'It'll look OK when it's washed.'
today has thrown up
DMM Glazing, "what I hear you cry" they had the tagline (doesn't every business have one these days) We're only a stone's throw away" Dah-dah!
and
Achille's Heel - problems of the lower limbs and foot massage