Hello sunshine

Rather pleased with myself for spotting this on the wall of one of the shops in Old London Road. This is an example of a fire mark which identified the building to private firefighters as being insured by their company. Founded in 1710 the Sun Fire Office was the first insurer of this type and one of the largest until its firefighting functions were subsumed by the creation of a London Fire Brigade in 1833. It would seem that these marks are quite collectable items although this one has clearly been overlooked by whoever did the painting. The extra shot gives you an idea of how hard it was to spot