Pun shops

This superb effort spotted by Tom Steinberg persuaded me to suspend my ban on hairdressers.
In Brussels, from Alistair Turnbull.
In Brussels, from Alistair Turnbull.
Spotted by Alistair Turnbull in Leeds.
Greek pun shop.
Thanks to Alistair Turnbull for this gallery that seems to have a rather small stock.
The French do love complicated puns. (Thanks to Alistair Turnbull.)
Alistair Turnbull came up with these (partly) baked goods.
One from James McKenzie, in Station Road, March.
From a friend of a friend, Sarah Sharpe.
Found by Stephen Alder in Fécamp.
From James McKenzie, in Brighton.
From James McKenzie, in Brighton.

Not just a classic French pun-shop, but with the designer of the typeface used in its name (Pablo Impallari, left) and of the Cyrillic version (Alexei Vanyashin, right).
Possibly the least bizzarre find of the day, but the only pun shop.
A parasitic pun shop found by James McKenzie in Hay-on-Wye.
Not a shop, nor a pun, but why is this house at the end of my road named after two letters?


A shop punning on the name of its street this close to the respective sign seems almost overdoing it.
Weak. One suspects the owner just wanted to open their damn shop already.
Bookshops in France are almost as likely to be punshops as hairdressers in England.
Not a shop, but the first use I have ever found in English where a Greek letter which doesn’t resemble its Roman equivalent is used with its correct phonetic value. (cf. “Kil” cars, and endless capital Sigmas being used as Es.)
Eleven years on, the shop that inspired me to collect pun shops in the first place, in the 5th in Paris.
I didn't expect to find such ardent fans of liturgical English word-play on the beach in Barcelona. “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar.”
From Mark Longair.
From Mark Longair.
Kilburn hair, found while looking for food during a recording session break.
Courtesy of James McKenzie, Pungary (seen on Andrássy út in Pest).
Another left-bank pun shop.
Un pun-shop du midi in Montréjeau: disused, sadly (two bystanders asked me if I was interested in the property, and I had to explain that my interest was purely verbal).
Pun shops have spread even to the town of my birth, Hitchin, Herts.
Found in the shopping centre at the Old Street roundabout.
A statue to Willem Elsschot, Antwerp’s literary son and author of “Cheese”.
Found during a therapeutic walk from the Gare St-Lazare to the Gare du Nord while travelling from Rouen to London.
Found by Rosemary Galton in East Finchley.
Antony Galton took this in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 2005, and says: “The bird pictured is a Common Loon (i.e., what we British call a Great Northern Diver).”
Another by Antony Galton, from Looe.
Another from Antony Galton, found in Exeter, Devon.
Found by Antony Galton in Borough, London.
Found by Antony Galton in Orono, ME.
In cheeky Harrogate.
Found by Tom Steinberg in Stoke-on-Trent.
Another utterly baffling hairdresser, in Sherbourne.
Another gem from Anna PS, found in Headington.
Not a shop, but this shocking example of public sector advertising (even if it is in motorists’ best interests) had to be exposed.
Not in Cley, so pronounced “cleye”.
“Made In Cley” is in Cley, so pronounced “clay”.