Managed to catch the final day of the poster exhibition at the London Transport Museum last week. Pretty good exhibition, but it felt a bit on the small side, given the extent of what they claim to have in their archives. I would have liked to have seen some of the actual posters alongside the original artwork for a proper comparison, too, as often the colours were printed completely differently to the original colours, and if the lithographer was not the original artist, sometimes even the linework would change (you can see one example here). There were small reproductions on some of the captions but they were too small to really pick out the detail properly. Having said that, it's always fantastic to have an opportunity to see any original artwork and designs. I was very excited to be getting my peepers on the original gouache painting for a favourite E. McKnight Kauffer poster, and some painted mock-ups from Abram Games, amongst others.
I enjoyed the rest of the museum, too. I hadn't been since the new refurbishment, so it was quite interesting to see what they'd done. The entrance struck me as a bit odd, featuring subway maps from Paris and Tokyo rather than our own London Underground. This is after all, the London Transport Museum, and documents the history of travel in London, not other cities, so I'm not sure what the point of that was — to show how much influence Beck's map had in international circles, perhaps, but if so, then I think it was the wrong place to demonstrate that as it has no context. There's a nice little detail at the start of the museum, though. The displays are in chronological order which starts at the top of the building, so you have to take a lift. Instead of the numbers above the doors showing the floors as you pass by them, it shows dates, going back in time to 1800. You can't beat a bit of time travel, although I did wonder why it didn't go back further still, since public transport existed before then, too, even if it was privately funded.
One thing I wasn't prepared for was how noisy the museum is. There's a lot of information to read through, but also loads of recordings all playing at once, which can be a bit distracting until you get used to it. They're cleverly done, and go a long way to getting a better context of what travelling was really like. There are also lots of mannequins who help the illusion because, rather than using dull plastic mannequins, they've got wonderfully sculpted expressions which really provoke stories about what they did. Even the miniatures have been sculpted with the same care. I was well impressed.
I was also impressed with the amount of ephemera to look at. London Transport does have a massive wealth of brilliant design to choose from, especially during the famous Frank Pick era. Many of these designs are available as posters from the museum shop, but how could you choose just one? They are all so beautiful. Today's designs mostly look plain, ugly and unfinished next to any of the ones from the Pick era. And can you imagine anyone nowadays printing a list of the best places to pick blackberries, with the best buses to get there? Back in the 1920s, they promoted it as A Good Thing, but imagine the Health & Safety uproar if they did that these days. More pics on Flickr, as usual.
I leave you with some seasonal imagery from the 1930s. Come to think of it, I don't have any plans for Easter yet. Maybe a trip to the countryside found at the furthest reaches of the Underground will be just the thing, if I can find any countryside left.
