The Ghost of Capstan

White letters, cracked and peeling, still shout across Newcastle Road
:
WILLS

CAPSTAN

CIGARETTES.

Green paint, faded red, the old brick showing through. It is one of Sunderland’s surviving ghost signs, an advert that outlived the product, the shop, and the age that painted it.

Ghost signs are hand-painted advertisements that were never meant to last this long. Signwriters worked high on ladders, laying colour onto brick.

Capstan was launched in 1894 by W.D. & H.O. Wills of Bristol, one of the big British tobacco houses, later part of Imperial Tobacco. The name came from the capstan on a sailing ship: a vertical winch used to haul the anchor. “Navy Cut” tobacco was already associated with sailors; Wills sold the idea of a strong, no-nonsense smoke.
Slogans people remembered for decades:

“Time for a Capstan”
“Have a Capstan”

It was an unfiltered cigarette. In 1973, when the government published tar and nicotine tables, Capstan Full Strength sat near the top of both lists. That reputation, and growing awareness of the health effects of smoking, finished the brand’s mass popularity. Few shops sell it now.

The painted wall is one of the last public reminders that it once was everywhere.

Cigarette advertising on buildings was ordinary in Sunderland for half a century. Shipyard men, factory workers, office clerks, a packet in the pocket was part of the day. During the Second World War the habit was even more tightly woven into working life. Then the law and the culture changed. You will not see a new advert like this go up.

If you grew up around Newcastle Road, Fulwell, Roker or Monkwearmouth, you may remember this when the paint was brighter, or when the shop below still had a counter.

Did you ever buy Capstan here? Do you know which shop occupied the building, or roughly when the sign was painted?

Sunderland View would like to hear it.

sunderlandview@libertyluxradio.com

Liberty Lux News