Poster; Southend by District Railway, by Charles Pears, 1915

This poster was commissioned by the Underground Electric Railway Company in 1915. It advertised a through service, available from the District Railway, to the popular seaside resort of Southend. Special trains ran from Ealing Broadway, hauled by electric locomotives on the Underground as far as Barking, then London, Tilbury & Southend Railway steam locomotives took over for the run to the coast. The Underground continued to promote leisure travel during the early part of the war. Posters like this, promoting pleasure trips, created some mixed messages when displayed alongside sombre army recruitment posters. As the war dragged on, romantic images of London's countryside were reserved for posters sent out to troops overseas as 'reminders of home'.