Every morning on my walk into the office on the South Bank I pass by an old brick building that has “Take Courage” painted in huge block letters on the end wall. It has become routine for me to look up and think to myself, thank you sign, I feel a little bit more confident about going into work. It is especially comforting on rainy days when the sky looks far more bleak than on this cloudless day.
When I had a little downtime today I thought I would look into the history of the sign and why it is there. Contrary to my belief that the sign was put there for my personal encouragement, it is actually a remnant advert from a brewery called Courage & Co Ltd that was founded in 1787. I couldn’t find when the sign might have been put there, but I like to think it has been there cheering people on for hundreds of years.
