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Introduction

Frank Pick, Chief Executive of London Transport, was a towering figure who had an unrivalled flair for design management. During his 30-year career, Pick changed the face of London Transport.

He believed in ‘fitness for purpose’ and the power of good design to enrich life. This ethos aimed to enhance the quality of the passenger environment through innovative architecture and design, and attention to detail.

Pick successfully cultivated a large network of artists and designers.

His vision brought London’s transport system international acclaim for its architecture, graphic art and design.

Climbing the ladder

Frank Pick was born in Lincolnshire on 23 November 1878, but grew up in York, where he attended St Peter’s School before being articled to a solicitor. On graduating with a first-class degree in law from the University of London in 1902, he returned to York to join the North Eastern Railway as a trainee manager.  

After two years in the Traffic Statistics Office, Pick became Personal Assistant to the General Manager, Sir George Gibb. In 1906, Gibb took over as Managing Director of the struggling Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), often known as the Underground Group. He invited his young assistant Pick to join him.

The Underground Group had recently taken over the debt-ridden District Railway and were in the process of opening three deep tube railways at this time. By 1907 the new Tubes were in serious financial trouble and a new General Manager, Albert Stanley (later Lord Ashfield), was brought in as a last-ditch attempt to save the company.

Stanley gave his staff six months to turn the business around, and in doing so gave Pick the freedom to follow his instincts in publicity. Despite a lack of experience, Pick found a natural affinity with this role, establishing a series of pictorial posters to encourage travel, before addressing the appearance of stations, signage and branding, with Stanley’s support. By 1909 Pick oversaw a new Traffic Development and Advertising Department for the Group, which led to his later role as Commercial Manager in 1912.

‘There is room in posters for all styles… they are the most eclectic form of art’

Pick revolutionised transport poster design, injecting new life into a conservative, largely text-based medium. He was aware that almost every attraction in London was within reach of the Underground, or at least could be marketed as such. Eye-catching posters enticed prospective travellers indirectly, by focusing on the destination rather than the mode of travel.

Imagery never seen before on the Tube let commuters know that a trip to the countryside, the theatre or the zoo was within their reach. Posters promoting off-peak travel were designed by some of the foremost artists of the time in a variety of styles.

In the 1920s, Pick started commissioning more adventurous posters from graphic designers with links to radical and avant-garde art movements to convey the modernity of the Underground and sell the idea of the network.

The continuous rotating stream of new and established artists commissioned by Pick kept London Transport fresh-faced and moving. It became prestigious work to design a poster for the Underground and later London Transport, which was soon recognised as a leading patron of the arts.

Rambling for routes

Pick was interested in all aspects of transport. He played a major role in the planning and joint promotion of bus and Underground services after the Underground Group took over the Capital’s biggest bus operator, the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC), in 1912. Seeking to optimise bus routes and Underground connections, the ever thorough and hard-working Pick walked miles researching and discerning patterns for potential demand.

He provided new routes, services and interchanges between bus and Underground that stretched further than they had before. These were advertised on posters and proved popular among commuters who were now venturing out during their leisure time, demanding an increased service.

A type to last

In 1912, Pick started to experiment with a new typeface to replace all the various ones used by the previously separate companies. In 1913, the calligrapher Edward Johnston was commissioned to design an official typeface known as Underground Railway Block, better known simply as Johnston. He continued to tweak the lettering until 1929 and, even today, an updated version called Johnston100 is used exclusively by Transport for London (TfL).

Brand loyalty

With an intuitive grasp of branding and corporate identity, Pick hit upon the idea of presenting the disparate underground companies as a coordinated network in 1908, to increase ticket sales. Deals were made to allow the cross-selling of tickets between companies and the first colour-coded maps of the whole system were printed under the heading UndergrounD. The same branding was added to station exteriors.

Around the same time, Stanley had developed the original solid red disc ‘bullseye’ symbol to add impact to the name signs on station platforms. Pick was unsatisfied with the solid disc, thinking that it did not ‘hold the eye’ sufficiently. He sketched a ring in place of the circle and turned to Edward Johnston to work it into a final design, who brought all the elements together by incorporating the UndergrounD branding in his new typeface.

Finally, Pick had a unique visual symbol that the organisation could be associated with. The ‘bullseye’ was applied to all the Underground Group services – to be seen and recognised everywhere. Known as the ‘roundel’ since 1972, the emblem has changed little over the years and is one of the most recognised organisational symbols in the world.

A philosophy of architecture

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Underground expanded massively. Pick chose the architect Charles Holden for much of this work. The pair had first met through the Design and Industries Association (DIA) in 1915 and were kindred spirits, sharing a similar principled approach to architecture. Buildings should be easy to use, with clean simple lines, in keeping with the DIA’s slogan ‘fitness for purpose’.

Starting with a new entrance to Westminster station in 1922, the two collaborated until Pick left London Transport in 1940. Examples include stations on the Morden extension on the Northern line (1926), the Underground headquarters at 55 Broadway (1929) and the stations of the Piccadilly line extensions (1931-1933). The latter are often considered Holden’s finest work.

Pick worked closely with Holden, to the extent that the resulting buildings are almost considered their joint achievement. When Piccadilly Circus station was rebuilt, it was Pick’s idea to incorporate the circular booking hall, which Holden then designed.

The pair travelled around Europe together in search of a ‘new architectural idiom’ in 1930. Sudbury Town station, opened in 1931 on the Piccadilly line, was chosen to demonstrate the new ‘house style’ and described by one critic as ‘a landmark not only in the history of Pick’s work but also in that of modern English architecture’. To Holden, Pick was a ‘tower of strength where his sympathies lay’ and a ‘friendly and genial’ travelling companion, with an understated sense of humour.

Attention to detail

Pick oversaw a coordinated design policy for London Transport, but retained his focus on details, partly because he was reluctant to delegate responsibility. He remained interested in every aspect of LT, its vehicles and services. He commissioned designs for train interior details like arm rests and lampshades, station furniture and even signal cabins and substations behind the scenes.

Pick was the first to commission unique designs for the seating upholstery known as moquette on trains, buses and trams. As with his approach to posters, the best of both established and up-and-coming textile designers were commissioned. Moquette continues to be a prominent feature of TfL’s vehicles today.

A lasting legacy

Pick was appointed Managing Director of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) in 1928. In 1933, he became Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of the newly formed London Passenger Transport Board, better known as London Transport (LT). He set and expected high standards, which he usually achieved. His publicity campaigns and commissioning initiatives cast a long shadow and are still much admired. His portrait hung at 55 Broadway, London Transport’s headquarters, for many years.

Pick’s sharp administrative skills were utilised in both world wars. In 1917 he oversaw coal rationing for the Board of Trade, then chaired by his Underground boss Lord Ashfield. As the Second World War approached, Pick helped coordinate London Transport’s involvement in the mass evacuation of civilians.

Pick left London Transport in 1940, after a technical disagreement with Lord Ashfield over government interference in LT finances. For a short but unhappy time he was Director General of the Ministry of Information. However, Pick clashed with Prime Minister Winston Churchill on another point of principle when he refused to distribute false propaganda in Germany. He moved to the Ministry of Transport, studying the usage of Britain’s canals and rivers.

Pick had a wide range of interests, from boxing to opera and philosophy to town planning, but it is in art and design that his legacy can be seen. Pick was a founder of the Design and Industries Association in 1915, and its President in 1932. He was appointed Chairman of the Council for Art and Industry and became an honorary associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

A complex man, Pick appeared shy to some, but overbearing and arrogant to others. His work was his life, though he refused offers of a knighthood and a peerage. Pick died suddenly at home in Hampstead shortly after his retirement in 1941. His personal papers including scrapbooks, notes, diaries and photos are held by London Transport Museum and TfL Corporate Archives.

A man a toddler walking past the Frank Pick memorial at Piccadilly Underground station. The text says Beauty < Immortality, Utility < Perfection, Goodness < Righteousness, Truth < Wisdom. A roundel with Frank Pick written in the central bar is seen on the right.
Frank Pick memorial at Piccadilly Underground station. The text says Beauty < Immortality, Utility < Perfection, Goodness < Righteousness, Truth < Wisdom. A roundel with Frank Pick written in the central bar is seen on the right.

In the Architectural Review in 1942, architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner wrote that Pick had been ‘driven by a desire for honesty, harmony and order. His new buildings, his rolling stock and his innumerable pieces of excellent industrial design helped to make streets better and ultimately towns better.’ Twenty of the Holden-designed stations are Listed by Historic England, and his home is marked by a blue plaque. A memorial to him by the artists Langlands and Bell was unveiled at Piccadilly Circus as part of TfL’s Year of Design in 2016. You can still see much of Pick’s design vision in today’s London. In modern times, very few individuals have exerted such an influence on the look and feel of the Capital.

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