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The end is nigh for sandwich board and placard carriers
THEY are paid a pittance and stand for hours, come rain or shine, wielding heavy advertising boards promoting anything from golf to language schools.
Now the sandwich board men of central London could be a thing of the past under new rules aiming to “declutter” the West End.
Planning chiefs have mapped out six no-go zones – including the West End, Marylebone and Baker Street stations, Queensway and Praed Street in Paddington – where hand-held advertisments will be banned.
The plan has drawn a mixed response from workers in Oxford Street, who face a maximum £2,500 penalty.
Town Hall chiefs have been campaigning to get the placards removed since 2002, when they took out an injunction against Andrew Wells, the owner of a discount golf store in Maddox Street. The judge threw out the bid because the law referred to “advertising sites”, which did not include pavements of Oxford Street.
But following new public safety laws passed last year under the London Local Authorities Act 2007, Westminster has won new powers.
The new laws make the ban enforceable, as long as the council can prove the sandwich boards and placard carriers are a danger to public safety or to preserve a conservation area.
Sandwich boards have advertised on London’s streets since the early 19th century when people would carry signs offering goods and services such as linen, haberdasher, silks, cambric, port wine and washing for “threepence a shirt”.
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