Depot Open Days: The Art of the Poster

Family activities

Join us high up on the mezzanine in our Family Zone, with an exciting view over the Depot’s trains.

Have a go at creating your own colourful transport poster, snuggle up in our transport inspired book corner, and learn lots about our collection at the Museum’s Depot.

Don’t forget to vote for your favourite transport ‘animal’ poster!

23 and 24 April, 11:00 to 16:30. Suitable for ages 5-12.

Family trail

Explore the treasure trove at the Depot and see if you can spot all the colourful vehicles on our special self-guided explorer trail!

Best for under 5s.

Creative poster workshop

For over 100 years artists and designers have created posters adorning London’s transport network, forming part of a brand identity recognised the world over. How would you design a poster for London Transport?

Join artist Emma Hockley for a creative workshop exploring the enduring power of transport posters to evoke identity. Using different artistic techniques of collage and lino cutting, you will be invited to transcribe your choice of poster to create a finished piece that resonates with your own perception and experience of London’s transport.

21 and 22 April, 11:00 to 16:45. Designed for an adult audience. 

Volunteer tours

Take a highlights tour behind the scenes of our Poster Store with our knowledgeable guides, and discover some of the many gems in our collection.

Tours last for 30 minutes and start at 11:30, 12:00, 12:30, 13:00, 13:30, 14:00, 14:30, 15:00, 15:30 and 16:00.

Take a ride on the miniature railway

Enjoy a weekend ride on our very own miniature railway, run by our volunteers and based on real London Underground locomotives, carriages, signals and signs. 

Tickets sold separately. £5 per carriage (1 adult and 4 children, 2 adults and 3 children OR 3 adults) or £1 per single ticket. £9 for 10 rides with purchase of LTMR Miniature Oyster Card.

23 and 24 April

Lectures

Enjoy lectures from expert speakers on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday

11:30 For Business or Pleasure – London Transport Poster Art

Join London Transport Museum’s Head Curator Matt Brosnan for a journey into the Museum’s extensive poster collection. He will explore the beginnings of pictorial posters on the Underground in 1908, highlight the golden age of London Transport posters in the 1930s and give an overview of some of the changes in design since. This will also highlight some of designers, from the famous to the lesser known, and some of the techniques they used in their designs.

12:30 Max Gill and his Pioneering Map Posters

When Max Gill’s first pictorial poster map was unveiled on London Underground platforms in 1914, passengers ‘watched so long they missed their trains’! Such popularity led Gill to become one of Frank Pick’s favourite poster artists. Come and discover the delights of Gill’s whimsical posters with his great-niece Caroline Walker.

13:30 Poster Journeys: Abram Games and London Transport

Abram Games was just 23 years old when he received his first poster commission for London Transport, marking the dawn of his six-decade career. Join Naomi Games as she offers insight into Games’s working methods, showing progressive sketches from his archive and illustrating the creative journeys his London Transport posters took from conception to completion.

15:00 Re-imagining Holden’s Sudbury Town: Lucy McKenzie & Fiona Orsini in conversation

In 2020, artist Lucy McKenzie’s most ambitious permanent public commission to date transformed the iconic Modernist station Sudbury Town. McKenzie’s work drew on historic advertisements of the inter-war period, held in the London Transport Museum archive. Lucy will be joined by Fiona Orsini, Curator of RIBA Drawings & Archives Collections, in this talk to discuss how her Art on the Underground commission interacts with the history and architecture of the station, designed by Charles Holden in 1931.

Sunday

11:30 John Hassall: The Life and Art of the Poster King

During the early twentieth century, John Hassall was one of Britain’s best-known and most high-profile artists. His natural affinity for poster art, and the popularity of his creations, was to earn him the title, ‘The Poster King’. Join Lucinda Gosling as she draws on previously unpublished artwork and sketches along with letters, diaries and photographs, to explore Hassall’s work and celebrate the life of this extraordinary artist a century on from his heyday. 

12:30 Educating the Poster Girls: the link between Central Saint Martins and LT’s female poster designers 

Why were so many female artists commissioned by London Transport educated at either the Central School and Saint Martins? What accounts for this bias towards these art schools? Ruth Sykes, Associate Lecturer in Graphic Communication Design at Central Saint Martins takes us back to the golden age of poster design, with a focus on two of the most prolific poster girls of all, Herry Perry and Dora Batty.  

13:30 Transport and Design in 1920s Post-War West London 

Author and historian Oliver Green takes us back to 1920s London, where the Capital’s recovery after the First World War was echoed by similar progress at London Transport. With a focus on the area around Acton Depot in West London, discover how these changes ranged from a surge in colourful poster publicity, to the creation of huge infrastructure projects at Chiswick and Acton and the development of the West London suburbs. 

See the vehicles

Explore the historic vehicles at our Depot, including the last surviving 1930s District Line Q stock train cars which we’re currently restoring, and a special vehicle display of the 1936 Leyland Cub C94 and the 1953 Guy Special at the back of the Depot.

Specialist collections

Watch our restored signalling frames run, see how the trains on the world’s first automatic railway work and try your hand at being a Train Operator in our driving cab or learn about life on the buses with a Gibson ticket machine in the Bus Shed.

Specialist collections available on different days.

Shopping

Our Depot Shop will be open for all your shopping needs! We’ve got books, socks, cushions, kids toys and much much more. Our art stall will also be selling limited edition and framed prints as well as reproduction posters at great prices.

Plus our pop-up shop outside will be selling original Underground signs, moquette pieces, car line diagrams and many more authentic collectibles.

Eating & drinking

Take a break at the back of the depot with a visit to Mini Bean Coffee, serving up delicious coffee, tea, cakes and light snacks. Seating is also available if you want to bring your own picnic.