God's Own Junkyard is a neon dynasty. Founded in Walthamstow in 1952 by Dick Bracey as Electro Signs, the business passed to his son Chris (the "Neon Man") who spent the 1970s persuading Soho's clubs and revue bars to trade their red bulbs for technicolour glass. At his peak he lit most of the West End's nightlife, and Hollywood followed: his work appears in Blade Runner, Eyes Wide Shut, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and four Batman films.
Chris kept everything. Salvaged signs, film backdrops and one-off pieces filled a warehouse on a Walthamstow industrial estate, and that warehouse became God's Own Junkyard. It's now believed to be the largest collection of illuminated signage anywhere, open to the public and still glowing.
Since Chris's death in 2014, his sons Matthew, Marcus and Max have run it as he intended: still hand-bending glass, still salvaging, still selling.
