Neon art and signs in North London at God’s Own Junkyard

Keep going past the leafy lanes and brick cottages of Walthamstow ‘village’ and you’ll find an industrial estate with a unit full of fairground colour and sparkle.

Set up by Walthamstown boy, Chris Bracey, it acts as part studio, part warehouse for commissioned work and rescued neon…

Chris took over the family business, Electro Signs, which his Welsh miner father had set up to create signs for arcades and fairgrounds.

There are still many vintage fairground signs here, as well as the signs I most associate with neon, the hot pinks and reds blinking on and off in Soho; those signs for strip clubs and ‘girlie’ shows.

When the BBC interviewed Chris, he told them “I did 99 percent of every sex establishment in Soho for 20 years.”

He went on to create neon signs for films and musicians, and from 1997 used neon to create artworks as well.

Chris died in 2014 from prostate cancer, but you can still donate via JustGiving to support the Prostate Cancer UK charity in his name.

Imagine if you reduce your size, and went in through my ear, and go into my brain, this is what it’s like, in my brain

Film clip from interview with Chris.

Interview with Chris Bracey

More info
God’s Own Junkyard is open at the weekend; Friday & Saturday – 11am to 9pm Saturday, Sunday – 11am to 6pm.
The Rolling Scones Cafe (inside) is open for food and drinks all weekend.

Gods Own Junkyard
Unit 12
Ravenswood Industrial Estate
Shernhall Street
London
E17 9HQ

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