Between 1986 and 1994 the borough of Tower Hamlets was divided into seven neighbourhoods, each administered separately and each of which had its own branding. These neighbourhoods were introduced by the Liberal/SDP Alliance with the aim of enhancing local accountability, but proved a little too parochial and were ditched as soon as Labour returned to power.
Signs produced during this eight year period were designed in the colour and style of the local neighbourhood. Over the subsequent three decades most traces have been wiped away, especially as street signs around the borough have been replaced and updated to new templates. But look carefully and the neighbourhoods linger on, particularly on hard-to-reach walls and the occasional fingerpost. I have indeed been looking carefully over several months and these are some of the best examples I've come across.
Bethnal Green is green because whoever allocated colours to neighbourhoods was being literal. The logo is a mulberry leaf with berries, presumably as a nod to the silk industry once prevalent in these parts. I did wonder if it specifically referenced the mulberry tree in the grounds of the former London Chest Hospital but that would have been in Globe Town neighbourhood so probably not. Bethnal Green logos aren't commonplace, but keep walking and they're not too hard to find.
Globe Town is black and white, or maybe black and silver. The logo is a globe because it couldn't have been anything else, and references the pub on Mile End Road which gave its name to the area.
Globe Town is unusual in having two very different types of street sign. Most are this heavily moulded style with raised black lettering on a white background. A walk along the western end of Roman Road should reveal plenty of these. The normal-looking logo I showed you first is something I've only found on Cephas Street.
Bow has the best colour which is Oxford blue. Its logo is St Mary's church, the 14th century place of worship which lies on the southern edge of the neighbourhood. Blue signs remain plentiful across Bow, not least because they're really smart and add a bit of class, even in a conservation area like Tredegar Square. They're also the least likely of the seven to have faded over the last three decades, so a proper pigmented success story.
Wapping is red, or rather was red because almost every example has faded away. Its logo is a reef knot as a nod to the maritime tradition which dominated the Thames riverside for centuries. Wapping branding is hard to find, and generally quite bleached even if you do strike lucky. The example above is from Salter Street near Limehouse Police Station.
Stepney is a royal purple. Its logo is a bell, which could be because the Whitechapel Bell Foundry was in the neighbourhood but more likely references St Dunstan's, one of the bells featured in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons. In my experience, which has involved lot of street-plodding over lockdown, Stepney signs are some of the hardest to track down.
Poplar is also green but a lighter shade than Bethnal Green. Its logo is a poplar tree, which would have been a slamdunk choice in the 1980s council branding department. Heritagewise it ought to be a black poplar, a species once commonly found in the area but now nationally rare (and perhaps locally extinct). Poplar branding is quite easy to find and in quite good nick, indeed some of it looks to be less than 28 years old.
The Isle of Dogs is orange. You can't easily tell it's orange here because the sign has faded really badly, but a mucky example at Robin Hood Gardens confirms the original shade. The logo is a dockside crane, as would still have been commonplace in 1986, and (uniquely) appears in its correct geographical location inside the big Thames meander. Isle of Dogs branding is very hard to find, as befits a neighbourhood that's been substantially redeveloped, and hard to distinguish even where it survives.
For further background information on the Tower Hamlets neighbourhoods, check out this 2017 post on the LCCmunicipal website. They had more luck finding signs in better condition than I did, but that's the damage five subsequent years can do.
