London Transport Museum opens the Global Poster Gallery, its first permanent gallery dedicated to the history of commercial poster art and design.  

When: From October 20

Where: London Transport Museum

Ticket price: Included in admission

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Discover the power of the poster in a new permanent gallery, the Global Poster Gallery at the London Transport Museum.

For the first time, artworks from the museum’s collection of advertising posters will be displayed in a dedicated gallery. This will be alongside loans from other significant collections.

London Transport Museum cares for one of the world’s largest collections of twentieth century graphic art and design. Together, these reflect the Underground and London Transport’s unrivalled reputation for commissioning great works of commercial art and design.  

Exhibitions hosted in the Global Poster Gallery will feature artistic works from the Museum’s collection together with loans. Its displays will reveal the power of the poster and its influence on mass communication.  

When Frank Pick, the first Chief Executive of London Transport, first took charge of the Underground’s publicity in 1908, he revolutionised poster design. Pick injected new life into a previously conservative, text-based medium by commissioning pictorial posters.  

Eye-catching designs soon enticed prospective travellers 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 theatre, zoo or countryside was all within their reach. Seeing this success, other commercial organisations soon followed suit. 

Pick believed that ‘there is room in posters for all styles’ and in the 1920s, he began to commission more adventurous posters. He went on to work with graphic designers influenced by radical and avant-garde art movements, such as futurism, cubism, and surrealism, conveying the modernity of the Underground. Many of the posters in this period had a strong art deco flavour. 

Over three decades, Pick cultivated an extensive network of talented artists and designers. This legacy established London Transport as a leading patron of the arts and brought the capital’s transport system critical and international acclaim for its graphic art and design.

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