AVIA Sign

Emma

Emma

Dedicated Member
Can anyone tell me about the AVIA sign that appeared on the ground level, outside Nora and Compo's houses? It is a red and white sign that usually has CLOSED at the bottom. It looks like it could be for a garage or maintenance shop. The doors behind the sign look like garage or mechanic shop doors, but I've never seen them opened.

The first time I spotted the sign, I thought it said AVIS, which is a rental car agency in the US.

Also, are areas in the UK zoned for both commercial and residential space? Where I live it's either one or the other, so we couldn't have houses in the same building as a mechanic's shop.

Thanks
 
The building that has Nora and Compos houses at one end has shops at the other. It's not uncommon in smaller towns for that to be the case, even in the US.
 
In the UK even large towns and cities have a commercial and residential properties next to each other, all willy nilly.

People live in flats above commercial property, there are shops and or garages on most streets corners.
 
Now that you mention it. I do believe I have seen the sign you are talking about and wondered on it too.
 
This sign appeared, I think, way back in the early days of the show, along with other junk, indicating a car repair business or something similar. I think AVIA was a brand of motor oil ? - Later, the old wooden doors were a prop that was added to the building for each filming (Rather like the fake front of Auntie Wainwright's shop). The building's ground floor is actually a large book shop. Those recesses in the wall actually contain large shop windows. I've been in that store a few times and bought the odd book.
 
and7barton said:
This sign appeared, I think, way back in the early days of the show, along with other junk, indicating a car repair business or something similar. I think AVIA was a brand of motor oil ? - Later, the old wooden doors were a prop that was added to the building for each filming (Rather like the fake front of Auntie Wainwright's shop). The building's ground floor is actually a large book shop. Those recesses in the wall actually contain large shop windows. I've been in that store a few times and bought the odd book.
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There's a Fair Trade shop there.
 
Sarkus said:
The building that has Nora and Compos houses at one end has shops at the other. It's not uncommon in smaller towns for that to be the case, even in the US.
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Not many mechanics shops/garages, etc. in same buildings as apartments/condos/attached housing here because of EPA regulations and noise abatement rules. Businesses with asbestos, heavy metals, chemicals etc. are kept to property zoned for commercial use. We do have retail shops, florists, drug and grocery stores etc. in and around residential housing.
 
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captain clutterbuck said:
Where I live there are 3 shops , one selling cake , one selling jelly and jam and another selling Custard and sauces all next door to each other , local people did object to them opening but their thoughts were considered TRIFLING :08::eek:

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(yet again I implore management to please supply us with a face-palm smile, this is just screeeeeaming for one)
 
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In urban (city) areas, you have shops and apartments willy nilly, and in the suburbs, you have vast sprawling sterile housing tracts broken up by shopping malls, town centers, plazas, etc. Who gets to put what where is largely driven by regulations written by city fathers, counties, and on the federal (crown) level. Sometimes developers have the city fathers in their pockets and can drive the development process. To wit, many would like to add an in-law apartment into their house but regulations FORBID two entrances and/or kitchens.
 
and7barton said:
This sign appeared, I think, way back in the early days of the show, along with other junk, indicating a car repair business or something similar. I think AVIA was a brand of motor oil ? - Later, the old wooden doors were a prop that was added to the building for each filming (Rather like the fake front of Auntie Wainwright's shop). The building's ground floor is actually a large book shop. Those recesses in the wall actually contain large shop windows. I've been in that store a few times and bought the odd book.
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You are spot on, it was done to stop anything going on in the bookshop being seen on camera, so they dressed the shop to make it look like a garage style premises with the doors shut, often with the sign outside, along with other props strewn about
 
Emma said:
Not many mechanics shops/garages, etc. in same buildings as apartments/condos/attached housing here because of EPA regulations and noise abatement rules. Businesses with asbestos, heavy metals, chemicals etc. are kept to property zoned for commercial use. We do have retail shops, florists, drug and grocery stores etc. in and around residential housing.
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That could be true in new developments but where you have had such trades adjacent to housing for a long time it is allowed to continue. Certain businesses were registered as "offensive trades" in the 1930s and these included abattoirs, fish and chip shops and all manner of things.
 
Emma said:
Not many mechanics shops/garages, etc. in same buildings as apartments/condos/attached housing here because of EPA regulations and noise abatement rules. Businesses with asbestos, heavy metals, chemicals etc. are kept to property zoned for commercial use. We do have retail shops, florists, drug and grocery stores etc. in and around residential housing.
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There was a case of an old Four Storey House in Newcastle that was converted into joint Business and Residential properties . On the very top floor was a gentleman of the road, a traveller who was fed up of moving place to place and decided to put down roots selling the trinkets he used to sell on the road. On the floor below was a gentleman who handmade suits and did alterations . On the floor below him was someone who was an ex Serviceman who had left the Army and was living there and working as a Security Guard. One the ground floor was a very questionable person who was very secretive about his past when approached it was believed he had been involved is some sort of espionage but again he had been retired as an operative and as pursuing an alternative career.

In essence they jointly decided they would put a sign outside so people knew they were there it read:-

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER,SPY :eek::08:
 
Speaking of the bookshop, I noticed in watching “A Tale of Two Sweaters” that they didnt use the Avia sign or block the bookshop windows to make them look like doors. At least for that episode you can see it’s a retail shop.
 
captain clutterbuck said:
There was a case of an old Four Storey House in Newcastle that was converted into joint Business and Residential properties . On the very top floor was a gentleman of the road, a traveller who was fed up of moving place to place and decided to put down roots selling the trinkets he used to sell on the road. On the floor below was a gentleman who handmade suits and did alterations . On the floor below him was someone who was an ex Serviceman who had left the Army and was living there and working as a Security Guard. One the ground floor was a very questionable person who was very secretive about his past when approached it was believed he had been involved is some sort of espionage but again he had been retired as an operative and as pursuing an alternative career.

In essence they jointly decided they would put a sign outside so people knew they were there it read:-

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER,SPY :eek::08:
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Wow ! - Never saw that one coming !
 
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