The Contemporary Night Owl

The Lipton's Tea sign that adorned Stockholm's Stureplan square for decades. This pic was taken when it was built in 1960. (Ruben Morne/Wikimedia Commons)

As those of you who have read this blog and my others are no doubt aware, one of my favorite subjects to blog about is neon signs. In fact, no blog about the nighttime world would be complete without at least a few posts about the neon signs that light up the sky of many a city at night!

Also as many of you already know, many of these neon signs have stood in their location for decades and have become famous historical landmarks in their own right. One famous neon sign I never heard of until this morning is the famous Lipton (or as it was called in the sign, 'Lipton's') Tea sign that once illuminated the night sky in Stockholm, Sweden.

From 1960 until sometime in the late 1980s, the Lipton's Tea sign stood in Stockholm's Stureplan square, which is its equivalent of New York City's Times Square. Passers-by who went past Kungsgatan and, later on after a relocation of the sign, Norrslandgatan, could see this brilliant sign beckoning them to have a cup of Lipton Tea. The clock was an actual moving clock that told the time and the slogan "alltid tid för Lipton's té", which translates to "Always Time For Lipton's Tea" in English, said it all!

This sign was designed and constructed by Graham Neon, which was a subsidiary of the Graham Bros. elevator firm.

Sadly enough, most of the neon signs that adorned Stureplan were torn down during the late 1980s when the square underwent renovation. The Lipton's Tea sign was one of them. And thus the giant multi-colored tea kettle that became a city icon was no more.....

Just like its cousins the Bond Clothing Co. sign that once hung over Times Square and the Glico Man that still hangs in Osaka, Japan, the Lipton's Tea neon sign was a Stockholm icon and was literally a sign of its time. Even though it hangs in Stureplan no more, it gave a lot of people some very warm memories and still keeps on pouring cups of tea in the hearts of those lucky people.


References:
-http://www.avblixten.info/e/esnas31sap751uzx.html (Swedish language article about the signs of Stockholm.)
-http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipton%27s_t%C3%A9 (Swedish Wikipedia entry about the Lipton Tea sign.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 18, 2014 and is filed under neon,neon signs,stockholm,sweden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.