Poster; Underground the way of business, by Frank William Brangwyn, 1913

A poster with title 'Underground The Way of Business' showing dock workers busy mooring ships in London's docks.
Early Underground advertising was not targeted at specific social groups, it was designed to appeal to the broader public. The Underground group published this poster in 1913. Brangwyn's London Docks scene depicts only the labouring classes, although it is not necessarily suggesting that they have travelled to work by Underground. The docks are presented simply as one of the City's spectacles.
The text below is from 'Nature Near London' by Richard Jeffries (1848-87):
'Fleet upon fleet; argosy upon argosy. Masts to the right, masts to the left, masts in front, masts yonder above the warehouses; masts in among the streets as steeples appear amid roofs; masts across the river hung with drooping half-furled sails, masts afar down thin and attenuated, mere dark straight lines in the distance. They await in stillness the rising of the tide'.