Victor Talking Machine Mosaic, Carteret Street

On my way to a teaching conference near St James’s Park today I happened to spot this beautiful mosaic advertisement down a side-street, Carteret Street to be exact.

After a bit of rooting around on the web it seemed the most likely explanation is that it was an advertisement for the Victor Talking Machine Company, a business in the 1920s that produced phonographs. If so, somehow this striking example of mosaic tiling has been preserved for 90 years or so.