A new book has brought together some of the more interesting London Underground posters, with some examples serialised in the Telegraph.
Many of us will forget that the London Underground (Tube) isn’t a new invention of the last 40 years, but has been going in essence since 1863 although only became electrified in 1890. So this new book tries to take us back using some of the publicity posters and archive photographs, which give quite an insight into how both use of the underground and attitudes have changed.
Some of the posters are serialised in the Telegraph.
Poster 1 – One poster that shows how attitudes have changed is this one from 1915 when having a railway next to your new housing estate of Wembley was seen as quite a reason to buy. Of course now it would be seen in the same light as a wind turbine or nuclear power station.
Poster 2 – Of course some things never change as this next poster demonstrates. It tries to encourage people to walk down the train and use all the doors…ah well, good to see things don’t change in around 90 years.
Poster 3 – One of the big advantages of the Underground (and overground) railway system was to get people out of the inner city and introduce the commuter to the world. Nowadays this is seen as an awful but necessary part of city life, although if the carriages were really that empty the train would no doubt be cancelled.
Poster 4 – One of the most fascinating pictures shows how right up until 1961, some lines had underground carriages straight out of the golden age of steam. If only the underground worked like this today, things would be so much nicer.
The London Underground
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One Comment
Some really interesting stuff, old fashioned transport interests me for some reason and the memorabilia side of things is even better. It would be good to see what people in 50 years time think of the state of our public transport!