On the eve of the First World War, a new type of illustrated poster map appeared on the stations of London Underground. Unlike previous map posters, which were primarily about how to arrive at your destination using the company’s network, this one was full of interesting and sometimes comic detail about the places you might see and visit on your journey. Entitled The Wonderground Map of London Town (1914) it was an instant hit with the travelling public and helped launch the career of its creator, Leslie MacDonald Gill (1884-1947).

Wonderground, Macdonald Gill, London Underground, 1914

It was so successful, in fact, that Gill was immediately recommissioned to create several more, such as Theatreland (1915), and he went on to become Britain's preeminent pictorial poster map specialist with memorable designs for the Empire Marketing Board (1920s) and the General Post Office (1920s-30s). He was also hugely influential with fellow commercial artists and publicity men in showing how highly decorated poster maps could be used to engage with the public and, ultimately, sell more products.

Theatreland, Macdonald Gill, London Underground, 1915

Superficially at least, Gill’s approach flew in the face of received wisdom about what made a ‘good poster’. According to the widely accepted view, a ‘good poster’ was one that combined a striking (often stripped-down image) with a persuasive slogan leading directly to some sort of action on the part of the viewer (eg buying a certain brand of washing powder). It was also believed that the message of a successful poster should be understandable at a distance and quickly absorbed. To use the publicity jargon of the time, “he who runs, can read”. But Gill’s maps were intended to be studied closely, typically while waiting for a train to arrive. From contemporary newspaper accounts this seems to be exactly what happened, creating a much more lasting engagement with the subject matter than achieved by a fleeting glance of a poster across a busy station.

An early semi-pictorial poster map from the London & South Western Railway, 1910s

This approach, though, needed specialist designers who could combine the constraints of (fairly) accurate cartography with dynamic advertising. Early practioners included Percy Gossop (London Underground), Herry Perry (London Underground and the Great Western Railway), and the renowned poster artist Frank Mason (North Eastern Railway). Together, they helped define a style which was visibly distinct from geographical and diagrammatic poster maps yet still conveyed useful map-based travel information. Writing in 1927, however, Gossop advised would-be poster map artists from relying too much on ‘realistic representation’ which, he argued, could get in the way of the ‘decorative completeness of the whole map’. This search for ‘decorative completeness’ would eventually lead to some rather questionable depictions of geographic reality! 

A Map of the Lake District, Arthur Watts, LMS, 1934

Not surprisingly, the earliest railway pictorial poster maps were aimed at holiday makers planning their summer breaks. The Scottish Highlands, North Wales, the Lake District and the West Country were all popular subjects for decorative maps from the late 1910s to the 1930s. A typical, although admittedly very high quality, example is Arthur Watt’s 1934 design for the London Midland and Scottish Railway, A map of the Lake District. Geographically, the poster depicts the whole of the Lake District with details of Lake Windermere, Lake Coniston, Scafell Pike, Morecambe Bay and other major landmarks. But it is much more than a literal depiction of topography and places to visit. Every centimetre is crammed with illustrations, historical information and unexpected humour, such as a family being guided towards their destination by a winged Angel while mythical sea creatures frolic in the Irish Sea.

Explore the Home Counties, Montague Black, LNER, 1934

For practical reason, most of these detailed poster maps were printed in Quad Royal (50 x 40 inches) format. And most needed up-close scrutiny to admire the breadth of the artist’s skill. A good example of this is the ‘Explore’ series designed by Montague Black for the London & North Eastern Railway in the 1930s. His county maps showing a bird’s eye view of the route traversed by the LNER from London to Scotland often look unprepossessing when reproduced in books about posters, yet ‘in the flesh’ they are full of the most wonderful detail only discernible at full size.

Cheshire Lines For Business or Pleasure, George Falkner, c.1932

My favourite pre-war poster map is Cheshire Lines For Business or Pleasure, designed and printed by George Falkner and Sons, Manchester. I grew up alongside the now defunct Winsford & Over Branch, so have a special interest in this amazing map. Unusually for a railway poster, it appears to have been reissued several times from about 1932 to the late 1940s – possibly a reflection of the Cheshire Lines’ parlous finances. What I especially like about this design is the combination of business and leisure, rather than a more straightforward celebration of things to do and see. Hence, the ‘inter-city’ commuter routes are prominently marked, together with the region’s various heavy industries, but so too are the rural charms of Cheshire, the ‘old world town’ of Knutsford, the sporting delights of Old Trafford, Aintree and Belle Vue and the escapism of Southport (‘Garden City of Attractions’). Echoing Percy Gossop’s comments about geographic accuracy (above), decorative balance has been achieved by depicting the ICI plant at Winnington near Northwich (served by the Cheshire Lines) roughly where the substantial town of Frodsham (not served by the Cheshire Lines) should be!

 

Somerset, JP Sawyer, GWR, c.1935

Any analysis of railway posters is, unfortunately, limited by what has survived or what was photographed at the time. Even the National Railway Museum’s breathtaking collection is a far from complete record. From what we know, all of the Big Four companies of the 1920s and 30s occasionally produced decorative poster maps, although as a class these never came close to eclipsing the publicity importance of posters depicting seaside resorts or the British countryside. As we’ve seen, most poster maps that have survived from this period tend to focus on holiday traffic, although I’m sure that new discoveries are waiting to be made that will challenge that view. I have a wreck of a 1930s Southern Railway poster map, for example, that shows private schools served by the company’s network. Similarly, London Transport produced decorative poster maps extolling the suburban charms of Edgeware and Morden as places to live rather than visit. 

 

 London Town, Kerry Lee, 1953

Much more is known about the pictorial poster maps produced by British Railways after the war, with the 1950s standing as a golden age of this art form. Perhaps the most important poster map designer to emerge in this period was the Hampstead based artist Kerry Lee (1903-1988). 

His first known railway map had actually appeared before the war, London Town (1938), which was commissioned by the Southern Railway with additional paid advertising from London Transport. An amended version of this map was reissued for the 1953 Coronation by British Railways, and both were available for the public to buy at the time. Lee went on to design several poster maps for BR, including a series of illustrated ‘town plans’ featuring cities such as London, Carlisle, Chester, Bedford and Nottingham. His best poster maps, in my opinion, were those for London and Cambridge (both Quad Royal) and Wales (Double Royal, 40 x 25 inches). In each case, the complex design includes an illustration of the artist at work, accompanied by his dog Jim.

Lancashire Coast, artist currently not known, 1957

As in the pre-war period, popular holiday destinations continued to dominate the choice of region or county featured in the 1950s maps. Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall were especially well represented. North Wales and the Highlands also remained popular, with occasional campaigns featuring Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and (at the other end of the country) Lancashire. Its perhaps more revealing to look at those areas which didn’t receive the poster map treatment. As far as I know, Staffordshire, Leicestershire, Shropshire, Wiltshire and Bedfordshire were all ignored, as were the regions of Lowland Scotland and South Wales. Although, as always, I await to be proved wrong!

 

Pictorial Map of Yorkshire, EH Spencer, 1959

Sometimes counties were combined, as in the superb A Map of Northumberland and Durham, by Lance Cattermole, 1949. This is a poster map that really repays detailed study, featuring as it does the regional crests of towns, counties, regiments and railway companies, together with places of interest, modern industrial achievements and depictions of famous events from the region’s history.

A Map of Northumberland and Durham, by Lance Cattermole, 1949

Poster map artists of this era to look out for include DW Burley, Donald Blake, JP Sayer (who had previously worked for GWR), F.H. Reitz and Daphne Padden. Several well-known poster artists also turned-out poster maps during the 1950s, including Fred Taylor, Kenneth Steel and Reginald Lander.

Oxford, Fred Taylor, c. 1950

The latter was probably the last great poster artist to work for British Railways, producing new designs well into the 1970s. Although not known primarily for poster maps, Lander produced some outstanding designs during the 1950s and early 60s. One that particularly stands out is his extraordinary representation of the Isle of Wight, published in 1962. Like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, the Isle of Wight was occasionally featured in poster maps but never in quite the lively way shown by Lander. In his image the island appears to be literally surrounded by topless mermaids (some of whom are attempting to lure husbands from wives), while cars fall off ferries and policeman hide, unconvincingly, behind a bush to arrest smugglers at Blackgang Chine. It is, in short, an almost perfect example of what the railway poster map had become by the beginning of the Sixties – bawdy and comic, with a very British seaside postcard sensibility.

Isle of Wight, Reginald Lander, 1962

By the mid-60s the vogue for illustrated poster maps appears to have ended, as poster art developed in new directions (not always very happily in the case of British Railways). Until recently, surviving examples have tended to perform less well at auction than other types of travel posters, but this is changing. Buoyed by a resurgence of interest in poster maps generally, and especially the designs of MacDonald Gill, the market is stronger than ever with an appeal beyond traditional railway memorabilia collectors. Certainly, poster maps that I once regarded as relatively ‘common’ are now hard to source and harder still to find at a reasonable price.

Norfolk, published by British Railways (Eastern Region) in about 1950

As always, I would welcome feedback on any of the points raised and would be especially pleased to see previously unrecorded examples of this distinctive form of poster art.

North Wales, artist currently not known, 1957

Examples of poster maps and other maps currently for sale at Twentieth Century Posters can be viewed here.