Seeing it through: 10 London Transport posters of the Second World War
Posters
At the time of the Second World War, London Transport (LT) had a reputation as a commissioner of high-quality posters. Normally these focused on promoting the network. With the outbreak of war in 1939, fewer posters were produced and their purpose was switched to supporting the war effort.
With conscription imposed as soon as the war began, there was no need for LT posters to encourage recruitment. Instead they promoted wartime messaging, attempted to raise morale and conveyed practical advice, both for passengers and staff. As with LT’s pre-war posters, a range of talented designers were employed.
Here are ten London Transport posters from the Second World War.
1. The threat of air raids led to the introduction of a nightly blackout from the beginning of the war. Street lights were unlit and vehicle headlights dimmed to prevent enemy bombers from using light to navigate. People were encouraged to wear or carry something white or to carefully use a torch to show their presence. This James Fitton poster is a typical example, showing how LT posters combined common sense messaging with high quality graphic design.
2. This design by Hans Schleger features the anti-blast netting on Underground trains, reminding passengers to use the small window provided to check the station. Schleger, who signed his work as ‘Zero’, was an influential graphic designer who produced over 40 posters for LT. Originally from Germany, he came to Britain in 1932 and became a naturalised citizen in 1939.
3. Billy Brown of London Town, created by David Langdon, became a familiar cartoon character of wartime LT posters. He was the perfect passenger used to remind the public of good transport etiquette. The rhyming slogan, highlighting the importance of anti-blast netting in Tube trains, was written by London bus conductor Joan Chapman. Its officious tone was sometimes responded to with the graffiti: ‘Thank you for your information, but I can’t see my b****y station’.
4. Among the best-known illustrators in Second World War Britain was Cyril Kenneth Bird, who used the pen name Fougasse, the term for a type of landmine. This LT poster is typical of his style, depicting a thoughtlessly unhurried passenger causing a queue of civilians and military personnel to build up behind her. Bird also designed posters in similar style for the Ministry of Information, including a series under the title ‘Careless Talk Costs Lives’.
5. This Tom Eckersley poster was one of many aimed at LT staff, displayed in bus depots across the capital. With shortages of many key materials experienced in wartime, there was a huge emphasis on being careful with resources from food to rubber tyres. Eckersley was a major graphic artist who produced posters for LT from the 1930s to the 1980s. This example shows even internal staff posters were of a high quality.
6. This is one of a series of posters by designer Fred Taylor, which despite the title features many unsung LT roles undertaken by women during the Second World War. Around 20,000 women worked for the company during the war, readily taking on a variety of roles. Taylor was one of the most prolific British poster designers of the first half of the twentieth century, being among the first to be commissioned by the Underground in 1908.
7. Eric Kennington was an official war artist in both world wars known for his striking portraits, illustrations and sculpture. This was one of a series of six posters he completed for LT to depict staff who had performed acts of everyday heroism in their wartime roles. This one featured Mrs M J Morgan, a bus conductor based at Athol Street garage in Poplar, who saved four children in an air raid by shielding and pushing them under the seats of her bus.
8. One of the most famous images of wartime London is that of St Paul’s Cathedral, miraculously standing amid the bomb damage. Artist Walter Spradbery utilised the power of this image in this poster, one of six he designed under the title ‘The proud city’, celebrating London’s survival and spirit. The posters were also distributed to Allied countries in other languages, including Portuguese, Arabic and Farsi, conveying the message to a global audience.
9. In early 1944, LT’s publicity office began to commission posters anticipating the end of the war. Anna Zinkeisen, who had designed posters for LT in the 1930s and completed paintings on a variety of wartime subjects, was selected for the main commission. In her design a family, bordered by objects symbolising the dark presence of war, look out towards a brighter future on the horizon. The poster also incorporates an optimistic 1940 quote by Winston Churchill, soon to be realised with the war’s end in 1945.
10. While the end of the Second World War was a time of celebration, it did not instantly mean an end to wartime hardships. LT commissioned a series of four posters under the title ‘Rehabilitation’ by Fred Taylor, attempting to highlight that rebuilding the transport network would take many years. Everything from the messaging, imagery and muted colour palette emphasises austerity, hard work and patience.
Several of these posters can be seen in our London’s transport at war gallery.
