Jarrolds department store

Jarrolds is a major Norwich landmark, standing at the corner of the Market Square. The building is covered with decoration and a lot of lettering. There are many iterations of the Jarrolds logo (in recent years using Bembo caps) in a range of media. The name above the corner entrance is in a Victorian serif, with hesitant, not to say submissive, legs on the Rs.


This version, using a version of Bembo with attenuated legs on the Rs (an alternative form of the R that is sometimes used in text to improve letterspacing) could date from the 1950s.


Above is the current version of the logo, which is used throughout the store as their identity. Using the full, elegant R with the very long, space-problem-causing leg, it looks okay but the letterspacing could do with a tweak (especially the OL; the JA could do with a rethink as well).



Two further iterations of the current logo, both in raised cutout metal letters. The one on the right still needs a space adjustment, but the one on the left has been improved by a signfitter with a good eye for spacing.


Here we have an outline version: less elegant, I think. The added outline makes this classic Garalde (old face) font appear to be a robust slab serif at first glance. I've only just noticed that they used to be Jarrolds, but now they are Jarrold. It doesn't stop us all still calling it Jarrolds, though. Recognition points for these letters in Bembo: long leg on the R; flat top on the apex of the A, with a hint of a serif; long, narrow J with a significant descender depth.


Another showing for the original lettering, this one is on the Exchange Street facade. (19.01.07)

Below is a series of names that decorate the upper walls of the storefront. I have tried to find out who they represent, but beyond discovering that Jokai was a famous Hungarian author in the late 19th century; Spilling wrote semi-religious novels in the same period and Farnell wrote tracts on ancient Greek religion I have drawn a blank. I guess all the others were authors too, but their fame is now dimmed by the passage of time. You will need to crane your neck to look at these.