iLondon Transport MuseumCovent Garden
Art deco: the golden age of poster design
Over 100 original London Transport posters mark the centenary of art deco, with work by design greats like McKnight Kauffer and Jean Dupas, plus Charles Holden's Tube architecture.
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Today a Tube carriage sells you whisky, electric toothbrushes and LED facemasks. In the 1920s and 30s the platform posters sold Kew Gardens, the Richmond riverside, the Boat Race and a day on the beach at Southend, in bold primary colours and sharp geometry. More than 100 of them are here, some never shown in public before.
The Global Poster Gallery on the first floor groups them by the part of London they were selling. Edward McKnight Kauffer and Dora Batty hang near posters from France and Japan, a cigarette case, a compact mirror, a tea set and photographs of Charles Holden's stations. In 1924 the Underground hired Kauffer to talk Londoners into the winter sales; nobody has needed persuading since.
Time Out gave it three stars: seamlessly curated, though the style starts to feel samey until you board a real train full of today's ads. There's no separate ticket. Entry comes with museum admission, an annual pass of up to £25.
Look for
The days out
Look for the posters selling Kew Gardens, Richmond riverside, the Boat Race, Southend beach and the dog races, each a Londoner's weekend in bold primary colours.
Herrick's 'Buy British Goods'
One Frederick Charles Herrick poster drops the day-trip pitch and simply tells passengers to 'Buy British Goods'.
The cigarette case, compact and tea set
Period objects sit among the posters, the kit of the women in cloche hats, cropped hair and flapper dresses on the walls around them.
The French and Japanese posters
Work by Jean Dupas and Munetsugu Satomi shows railways abroad selling travel in the same style as the Underground.
Paul Catherall's TfL posters
Recent posters by Catherall and other current TfL artists show the deco look still running on today's network.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You'd come only for the posters: the only way in is a full museum ticket, up to £25.
Also at London Transport Museum
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Image credits
8
- Art deco: the golden age of poster designCourtesy of London Transport Museum
- Salman Toor: Someone Like You© Salman Toor; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Genevieve Hanson
- Winifred Gill: A Bloomsbury Pioneer© Bodleian, Oxford
- London Transport MuseumColin Park / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Courtauld GalleryAnthony O'Neil / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- National Portrait GalleryIstvánka / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National GalleryCarlos Delgado / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Sir John Soane's MuseumSarah Smith / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0