God's Own Junkyard

The lowdown

On an unremarkable industrial estate in Walthamstow is one of the most photogenic free rooms in London. God's Own Junkyard is the working store and showroom of a family of neon makers, and it is packed wall to wall and floor to ceiling with hundreds of glowing salvaged signs.

Old cinema marquees, film props, hand-bent slogans, religious icons and rude one-liners all blaze away together in a warm electric fog of colour. Much of it has been made for or rescued from films, shops and Soho, and it is all crammed into one barn of a space that you can walk into for free.

There is a little cafe and bar in the middle of it all, the Tinsel Town, so you can sit among the neon with a coffee or a beer. It only opens Friday to Sunday, so it takes a tiny bit of planning, but it is unlike anywhere else in the city.