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Hidden London: The Exhibition

The front door of Hidden London: the Exhibition

11 October 2019 - 2 July 2023

Hidden London: the Exhibition took visitors on an immersive journey into some of London’s most secret spaces in the oldest subterranean railway in the world. These ‘forgotten’ parts of the Tube network have incredible stories to tell about Britain’s wartime past - such as the Plessey aircraft underground factory which had 2,000 members of staff, mostly women, working in the two 2.5 mile-long tunnels on the eastern section of the Central line during the Second World War.

The exhibition featured the largest number of rare archive photos, objects, vintage posters, secret diagrams and decorative tiles from disused stations ever brought together in one location. Visitors could also explore other iconic locations recreated in our Global Gallery, including the historic abandoned ticket hall at Aldwych station with an original 1930s ticket booth, and its famous Leslie Green tiles.

The exhibition took place in the Global Gallery which is sponsored by Global, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment groups. The official media partner of the exhibition was Discover Britain magazine.

Untangling the Tracks

24 May 2019 - 2 January 2022

How do you untangle the tracks approaching one of the busiest stations in the UK?

How can you keep millions of passengers moving while undertaking a huge project to transform an ageing railway and its stations - and make sure they’re kept up to date?

Our exhibition Untangling the Tracks revealed how the Thameslink Programme tackled the challenges of communicating major infrastructure projects to large audiences in creative ways.

The exhibition included historic London Transport posters and their modern Thameslink equivalents; a signalling puzzle to divert trains into the right platforms, a challenge inspired by the engineering behind the new Bermondsey dive-under; miniature models of new central London stations; a class 700 train model for visitors to experiment with; and a range of family activities including STEM-inspired workshops and story time sessions about the amazing landmarks on the Thameslink route.

The Untangling the Tracks exhibition was delivered in partnership with Thameslink, the Department for Transport, Network Rail, Southeastern, Govia and Siemens.

Two young girls playing with an interactive exhibit

The Poster Prize for Illustration 2019: London Stories

8 February 2019 - 14 July 2019

Across the ages, London has produced and inspired countless stories. Fictitious or real characters and events in this amazing city have always held a fascination, from the anecdotal urban myth to grand tales of historic legend – from the everyday to the curious, and from the past to the present. The Poster Prize for Illustration competition 2019 was made up of art that is colourful, inspiring and celebrates the vibrant, multi-layered city that is London.

Artists were invited to respond to the theme of London Stories and create an illustration that visually captures a well-known or obscure London narrative; stories that are contemporary or historical, real or imagined. Over 1,500 illustrations were submitted by professional artists and students worldwide. Eliza Southwood won the Gold prize with her poster London is the Place for Me; Anna Steinberg was second with her poster The Cokeney; and Mobb came in third place with his poster The faceless woman. The winner of the public vote was Chloe Isteed’s Mind the Gap No. 78.

See some of the posters from the collection on our Google Arts and Culture story.

London Stories was organised by the Museum in partnership with the Association of Illustrators (AOI)

Association of Illustrators

Secret Life of a Megaproject

A Crossrail tunnelling machine

23 March 2018 - 22 April 2019

The Crossrail project is one of the largest civil engineering projects in Europe. Our Secret Life of a Megaproject gallery uncovered some lesser-known stories about the project and allowed visitors to discover more about how the tunnels and stations are being constructed, with never-before-seen video footage, interactive maps, and stories from the new generation of engineers building the Elizabeth line. 

Poster Girls: A Century of Art and Design

13 October 2017 to 13 January 2019

Our powerful exhibition shined a spotlight on 20th and 21st century female graphic designers and revealed the contribution they made to poster design over the last 100 years.

With over 150 posters and original artworks on display, this exhibition recognised some forgotten design heroines and revealed the hidden stories behind their work. Poster Girls: A Century of Art and Design featured some of the leading female artists who have worked for London Transport and Transport for London including well-known designers, such as Mabel Lucie Attwell, Laura Knight, Enid Marx and Zandra Rhodes, alongside lesser known women who nonetheless changed the way Londoners viewed their city.

The works on display showcased a dazzling spectrum of artistic styles and mediums; modernist, figurative, flat colour, boldly patterned, abstract, collage and oil. Starting in the early 1900s, the exhibition moved through the decades to contemporary times, unearthing how each era influenced the artists’ stylistic approach and highlighting the role played by London Transport in commissioning female talent.

Sounds of the City

19 May to 3 September 2017

Lyrics and languages, hubbub and stillness, heritage and science inspired 100 illustrators to produce a collection of striking artwork that reflected their relationship with sound in our diverse and multi-layered cities.

Themes included wildlife, nightlife, music, markets, transport and sport, with illustrations visually interpreting the sounds we hear about us day and night – from the common to the curious, to a recognisable street and cityscape through to visual soundscapes of buzzing colour.

The 100 works were chosen from over 2,000 competition entries for the prestigious Prize for Illustration. The Prize for Illustration is organised in partnership with The Association of Illustrators.

Night Shift - London after Dark

11 September 2015 to 10 April 2016

When the sun sets and the moon rises over London, the city gradually takes on a character and the night shift begins. The introduction of gas and electric street lights at the end of the 19th century brought significant change to the night time streets of London and with it new opportunities for pleasure seekers and greater demands from night workers travelling to and from the city.

The Night Shift exhibition delved into the dark side of transport in London and explored the power of publicity and the world of the night shift over the last century. Eye-catching transport posters highlighted the rise of the West End and the growth of the leisure economy, whilst archive photographs and films documented the development of transport to meet the needs of Fleet Street and other night workers. Wartime Tube sheltering, the burgeoning nightclubbing scene and hard hitting safety campaigns brought the story up to date and cast new light on the contemporary 24 hour city.

The Prize for Illustration 2015: London Places & Spaces

15 May to 6 September 2015

The Prize for Illustration 2015: London Places & Spaces exhibition displayed 100 illustrations that captured a variety of aspects of London’s unique character and qualities. Together they showed a multi-layered metropolis and reflected the city’s distinct personality and communities; from grand scale architecture and famous landmarks to London’s secret spaces and places – used for commerce and work, leisure and living.

The works in the exhibition ranged from the contemplative to the crowded and loud, imaginary or real, and from the past to the present – all places that form part of this amazing city. Each of the illustrations was accompanied by a short description written by the artist revealing the inspiration behind their creation.

All the artworks were entries for the prestigious Prize for Illustration. The annual competition is open to illustrators and students of illustration throughout the world. The shortlist of 100 entries was selected from over 1,000 submissions by an expert panel of judges from the world of art and design.

London Places & Spaces was organised by the Museum in partnership with the Association of Illustrators (AOI). We were also proud media partner with Londonist.  

Goodbye Piccadilly: From Home Front to Western Front

16 May 2014 to 19 April 2015

This major exhibition revealed the untold story of London’s Home Front during the First World War; how drivers took their buses to the Front to support the war effort, how women advanced into the transport workforce for the first time and how Londoners came under deadly attack from the air as total war came to the Capital.

Goodbye Piccadilly commemorated and explored the contribution of London’s motor buses and their drivers to the First World War and the upheaval for Londoners on what became for the first time the ‘Home Front’.

Goodbye Piccadilly presented London Transport Museum’s unique perspective on the First World War, exploring how the conflict accelerated social change, how it impacted on the lives of Londoners and the essential role undertaken by bus service staff and buses in the war effort, both at home and abroad. It looked at the impact of aerial bombardment on life at home, as well as sheltering on the Tube and rationing – both of which were introduced for the first time. A key theme of the exhibition was to examine the lives of women who were employed on a large scale to do the jobs previously occupied by men, including working as bus conductors and mechanics on London buses and as porters and guards on the Underground.

The exhibition brought together objects from several collections for the first time, at the heart of which was ‘Ole’ Bill’, a 1911 B-type bus No. B43 on loan from the Imperial War Museum. It was one of over 1,000 B-type buses to be requisitioned by the War Department in 1914 for use on the Western Front. After the war it was refurbished as a permanent memorial to the role played by London buses in the First World War. Named after ‘Ole Bill’, Bruce Bairnsfather’s popular wartime cartoon character, it became a symbol of the military and civilian struggle endured by men and women of the London General Omnibus Company and it appeared regularly in the Armistice Day parades until the 1960s.

Other highlights included First World War recruitment posters, rarely seen propaganda posters specially designed to be displayed in army billets overseas as a reminder of home, and a 1914 female bus conductor’s uniform, six animations by University of the Arts Central Saint Martins students plus new poetry from SLAMbassadors UK offered creative interpretations about the impact of the war. A highlight of the display was a newly acquired piece of ‘trench art’ – a decorated Daimler bus steering wheel from the war - which gives visitors the chance to reflect on what it might have felt like to be a bus driver on the Western Front.

Poster Art 150: London Underground’s Greatest Designs

Supported by Siemens, this blockbuster exhibition showcased 150 of the greatest Underground posters ever produced, featuring works by many famous artists including Edward McKnight Kauffer and Paul Nash, and designs from every decade over the last 100 years.

The posters were selected from the Museum’s archive of over 3,300 Underground posters by a panel of experts; the 150 that appeared in the exhibition showcased the depth and diversity of the Museum’s collection. 

Since its first graphic poster commission in 1908, London Underground has developed a worldwide reputation for commissioning outstanding poster designs, becoming a pioneering patron of poster art - a legacy that continues today.

Poster Art 150 was a fitting exhibition to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the world’s first underground railway, as the last major Underground poster retrospective was held in 1963 to celebrate the centenary of the Underground. Well-known posters, including the surrealist photographer Man Ray’s ‘Keeps London Going’ pair, featured alongside lesser-known gems.

The exhibition focussed on six themes:

  • Finding your way included Underground maps and etiquette posters. It also included posters carrying messages to reassure passengers by showing them what the Underground is like.
  • Brightest London celebrated nights out and sporting events, showing the brightest side of London.
  • Capital culture was about cultural encounters, be these at the zoo or galleries and museums.
  • Away from it all looked at the way London Underground used posters to encourage people to escape, to the country, the suburbs and enjoy other leisure pursuits.
  • Keeps London going featured posters about how the Underground has kept London on the move through its reliability, speed and improvements in technology.
  • Love your city showed the best of London’s landmarks as featured in Underground posters over the years.

The Siemens Poster Vote

Visitors had the opportunity to vote for their favourite poster in the gallery and also online in The Siemens Poster Vote. The winner was Brightest London is best reached by Underground which was designed by Horace Taylor in 1924.

What to see at the Museum now

Open now, Legacies: London Transport’s Caribbean Workforce exhibition celebrates the huge contribution people of Caribbean heritage have made to transport history and British culture.

Montage of Caribbean maps, flags and people

The Poster Parade celebrates London Transport's most iconic poster designs and designers, from our collection of over 5,000 posters spanning 100+ years.

A row of Underground posters

Discover our galleries and exhibitions, including Legacies: London Transport's Caribbean Workforce and Hidden London, and some of the Museum's must-see objects!

Two people looking out across the Museum