The sign has been painted on Westbury Road in Penge, at the junction with Royston Road.
Local observer Kim Cooper-Grindley was amused to see the warning spelled backwards and asked “why would you need to go slow looking in your rear view mirror, you’ve already passed?”
She added: “It happened on Monday, January 15 at approximately 11.30am. But they have not returned.
“Our concern is that there will be hoards of people visiting to see the famous WOLS, it will become a Penge tourist attraction like Barnard castle.”
An online neighbourhood Facebook group were scratching their heads as they discussed whether it was a mistake or not.
Comments suggested whether it was “for testing your eyesight?” or “testing if you can read back to front”.
While one commented: “Owls down – it may all wrok uot fine in the edn.”
It follows an incident in September 2022 when Brighton road marking painters went straight to bottom of the class – after spelling the word school wrong.
Contractors had daubed ‘SHCOOL’ outside Brighton’s Portslade Aldridge Community Academy.
Bromley Council has been contacted for comment.