Fury as iconic 1950s Lucozade sign next to the M4 is removed and replaced with giant digital screen

Replaced: the Lucozade sign by the M4
Brentford Heritage
Tom Brooks-Pollock4 January 2016

An advertising company is being investigated over whether it flouted planning rules by replacing an iconic 1950s Lucozade sign with a giant digital screen.

People living near the giant retro sign have reacted with fury after it disappeared from the site overlooking the M4 motorway in West London.

Planning officials at Hounslow Council have launched a probe into whether the sign’s owners have broken planning rules by replacing it with the huge digital advertising hoarding.

The sign, featuring a pouring bottle logo and the ‘replaces lost energy’ slogan, dates back to 1953 and was on the side of five-storey York House in Brentford.

It first appeared 100m away on the Lucozade Annexe where the fizzy energy drink was manufactured by Beecham’s at the time.

Brentford-based advertising firm JC Decaux applied in 2013 to replace the original advertisement, an example of ‘kinetic architecture’ common in the post-war 1950s Festival of Britain era.

The sign was replaced by a Mercedes advert
Brentford Heritage

Hounslow Council rejected the application to alternate a digital reproduction of the original sign with the modern Lucozade logo but the decision was overturned last year by the Planning Inspectorate, which said that the new sign should be allowed.

The Planning Inspector’s ruling said that the replacement sign should be allowed on the basis that it “replace and replicate the existing ‘Lucozade’ sign in a modern format”.

But a picture posted online by campaign group Brentford Heritage showed the sign advertising the Mercedes Citan van.

Councillor Steve Curran, leader of Hounslow Council, said that he would be ordering planning officials to look into whether there had been a breach of the rules.

He said: “It’s a really important local landmark that we wouldn’t want to lose. We need to find out who removed it and why.

“It’s a culturally iconic landmark and I’ll be asking officials to assess whether there has been any breach of planning guidance.”

Local councillor Guy Lambert added: “It’s not just people in the area who are very attached to it, it’s recognised by millions of people as a landmark telling you you’re coming into London. It would be very sad if it was replaced by generic advertising.”

The original sign bore the legend, ‘Lucozade Aids Recovery’, before it was changed to the current ‘Lucozade replaces lost energy’ in the 1980s.

After Hounslow council was told by English Heritage that it could not be listed, the original sign was donated to Gunnersbury Museum in 2004 after owners GlaxoSmithKline decided to sell the old Beecham’s lab.

A public campaign to save the sign led to a replica being placed at York House in 2010.

Among those to express their dismay online at the removal of the sign was BBC presenter Jeremy Vine, who tweeted that its replacement was a “neon nightmare”.

An online petition calling for the old advert to be brought back has also been launched.

JC Decaux declined to comment.

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