They’re not on every house, and some of them are the same. I used to live between Hilly Fields and Lewisham and always walked past these.

by 8thTimeLucky

44 comments

  1. Oh my! I’ve wondered this since I was a child! My Nan used to live along that street 🙂

  4. Maybe they are the builder’s mark? You see this kind of stuff all over Victorian and Edwardian housing across the country.

  5. It’s a symbol used by wandering hobos to demarcate friend from foe

  6. id guess it was a way of marking that they were built at different times or by different companies maybe, just like a little signiature to finish

  9. Most old terrace houses were built by small groups of builders maybe building up to a few at time or one after another in a row with different groups working on one street at a time. They would leave there brand or alter the style slightly that’s my guess where I live the houses looks very much the same except for brick work around the windows and the chimneys which have slight changes to them that I have been told was the the builders leaving their mark on the house.

  11. Empty blue plaque spaces in case someone becomes famous.

    “GoatFckr69, influencer, lived here 2025-2029”

  16. This has bothered me before! Luckily I have a friend who specialises in 20th century suburban architecture history and just wrote an [excellent book](https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781836244356) on the topic. This is what he said when I asked, although he emphasised it’s not a fully referenced piece of academic research:

    “They’re pebble-dashers marks. Seems like in large areas of south london there were pebble dash companies operating very successfully through the 60s and 70s (based on my interpretation of their designs) to offer their services as (i’m assuming) a form of modernisation. I suppose turning your brick Victorian house into something aesthetically more Garden City-ish was aspirational at the time.”

  18. I was expecting more ‘dog nappers hun’ comments, I’ll be honest

  24. They are pebble-dasher marks. A form of branding by the pebble-dasher company.

  25. Its the unique brand left behind by the competing companies who did the pebble dashing on the street

  27. Not sure if it’s related but I did a tour once of one of those really old Georgian home squares and they said the symbols that existed on some of those houses were for the fire brigade, you didn’t used to have a standard one that would always get to you but you could sign up for a form of fire protection which meant they would respond straight away to your fire. It was sort of like a mercenary fire force. There was still a free one that would be made up of a bunch of poor lads and older men but you’d probably have no house by the time the wagons got to you. Paying to have the symbol on your house meant you got part share of your own service.

    At least, that’s what the tour guide said, could be wrong, could just be the area I was in.

  37. It’s so satanists know where other satanists live, in case they need to pop in for a quick sacrifice.

  41. Aside from making houses look ugly what does pebble dashing actually do?

    Does it improve insulation or is it as pointless as artexing ceilings and other hideous trends from the 70’s such as avocado bathroom furniture?

  42. I was going to make a sorting chart of those symbols on the first picture and those which aren’t, but am not sure if there is any overlap and don’t know what chart to use

  43. spread your buttcheeks symbol, it was popular in the 60

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