Southsea resident unveils full 'ghost' advert revealed by a crumbling wall on her house - and an app could draw a younger crowd to the site

Sarah Brady, a McDonalds shift manager, discovered part of the sign when rendering fell away from her house in Pretoria Road, Southsea in November.

The 49-year-old has now paid £2,000 for builders to work over the last two weeks to uncover the full advert for ECKO.

The defunct electronic brand made radios and then televisions from 1924 to 1960.

Despite its age, the advert is in ‘really good’ condition and will remain uncovered, according to Sarah.

She said: ‘It was expensive work, but if your rendering is going to fall down, it’s nice to get something nice underneath it.’

Novel uses for the historic sign have already been proposed by members of the community – with a nearby resident planning to use it as part of the Pokemon Go app.

Sarah said: ‘Someone on Facebook contacted me saying they want to add it to the game.

‘I don’t mind – I don’t mind if people come to look at it.’

Pokemon Go, a game which sees plays players use their phone to capture augmented reality creatures in public, allows high ranking players to add historic or cultural sites as ‘PokeStops’ for other players to visit.

And there could be dozens of these ‘ghost’ signs around the city, according to Katy Ball, collections registrar at Portsmouth Museum.

She said: ‘These signs were pretty common all across the city and the country in fact at one time. Shops would paint adverts on the sides of the buildings and you can see them around occasionally.

‘The other thing you might see are the letters SWS which are from the Second World War and stands for Standing Water Supply. These were large tanks that stood in the street and were for putting out fires caused by bombing.

‘We have an interest in these because we run the Historic Environment Record for the city which records this sort of thing as well as listed buildings, and archaeological information.’

While Sarah is happy with the colourful addition to her house, it has not left her keen to hunt for any more adverts hidden by her home.

She said: ‘I’m not sure if it will add any value to the house, and I’m not tempted to tear anything else down.’