London's underground and the old style advertising

Being a pigeon I don't get to use the tube very much at all..but through my searchings for unusual and interesting London things I do come across some lovely vintage and antique underground related items and have noticed how very stylish and well designed they were.

The London underground was the first underground train system in the world...wow...and opened on January 10th 1863 .We have some underground 'railways' maps from as long ago as 1898, right through the 1900's, 20's 30's 40's, you get the picture...and they are all wonderful.We also have a small number of publicity items on the site which are slightly harder to come across.Here is just a few I thought I'd share with you.

This wonderful display card was produced in 1907 and advertised the Hampstead tube. These are very scarce nowadays so I'm very pleased we have this one.

I love the style of the cover of the booklet, which was produced in 1947 and describes how London transport 'carried on' during the war and the blitz. It's a fascinating booklet showing images of the destruction caused by the war and what Londoners did to cope.

This is a classic, produced in May 1968 and lets you know what you can do and how to get there using the buses or underground, with a bit of spare time, if you have it whilst you're in London.Simple really is often best.

And finally, this super flyer advertising the Victoria Line, 'London's new tube' as they called it, in 1969.This little leaflet lets you know how to use the automatic gates, how much the fares are and how quick the journey is.
Oxford Circus to Walthamstow cost 2/6!

So there you are, lovely old fashioned advertising...pity they don't revive them!

cheerio all,

Pepys