Weird Gatwick Airport Button Copy Direction Sign

[Bryn666]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsand ... Ee-7308dqc

The caption is wrong, this is the A23 not the M23.

This appears to be a button copy ADS using the US FHWA typeface and button copy for the fork. I'm guessing this was experimental by Gatwick Airport but... it's weird as. Has anyone got any background on this? I bet J N Winkler knows something.

[crazyknightsfan]

Very cool!

[jervi]

I'd imagine that photo was taken around here https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.16364 ... 384!8i8192
The current A23/(M23) exit sign currently there wouldn't of been there since that would of been built a few years later. The exit the sign is referring to would of been this https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.15897 ... 384!8i8192 . Interestingly with a 13'5" height restriction.

Also that cycle track is on the old map too. Looks like there was a dedicated cycleway GSJ here, but just chucks cyclists out on the A23(T) at either end. The parts of this cycle track down make up the NCN Route 21


A few other A23 locations in this collection.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsand ... otostream/ - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.16797 ... 384!8i8192
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsand ... otostream/ - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.31479 ... 384!8i8192
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsand ... otostream/ - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.31990 ... 312!8i6656 (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.31990 ... 312!8i6656 2008)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsand ... otostream/ Just an intresting sign.

[Truvelo]

In the first link the streetlight lantern behind the van looks a few decades ahead of its time.

[Chris5156]

This appears to be a button copy ADS using the US FHWA typeface and button copy for the fork. I'm guessing this was experimental by Gatwick Airport but... it's weird as. Has anyone got any background on this? I bet J N Winkler knows something.

You posted this on Twitter and I didn't get round to replying - but wow! It's an amazingly weird thing to find.

The fork shape looks correct so I wonder if this was an experimental use of button copy, and to make it the letters came pre-assembled from the US. So the shape of the symbol could be picked out in individual buttons but the letters were in FHWA because that's how they were manufactured whole.

[Bryn666]

This appears to be a button copy ADS using the US FHWA typeface and button copy for the fork. I'm guessing this was experimental by Gatwick Airport but... it's weird as. Has anyone got any background on this? I bet J N Winkler knows something.

You posted this on Twitter and I didn't get round to replying - but wow! It's an amazingly weird thing to find.

The fork shape looks correct so I wonder if this was an experimental use of button copy, and to make it the letters came pre-assembled from the US. So the shape of the symbol could be picked out in individual buttons but the letters were in FHWA because that's how they were manufactured whole.

My best guess is someone flew back from America and wondered why our rather twee signs in comparison weren't quite the same.

It certainly is experimental but by the airport themselves as I'm sure something of this nature would have been shouted about from the rooftops if it was an MOT trial?