Olympics Poster Parade at London Transport Museum

There's a new poster display at the London Transport Museum, in celebration of the Olympics. Unusually for London Transport, who normally had a rich heritage in commissioning poster artwork for events in London, only one poster was actually commissioned by London Transport during London’s 1948 Olympics. Maybe as the UK was in the grip of postwar austerity at the time and there were strong arguments against spending funds on the event.


However posters have been used since the early 1900s to encourage travel to sporting events and activities. The display at the museum includes posters promoting football, The Boat Race, swimming, tennis and ‘bicyclism’ (perhaps that influenced the term Olympism used in 2012's Opening Ceremony last night). Works by Tom Eckersley, Herry Perry and Austin Cooper will be on display.

The poster display runs until 13th September at London Transport Museum.  Make sure you take in their excellent Mind The Map exhibtion when you are there.  Entry is free for children and tickets  for adults are £13.50 (£10.00 concessions) and tickets allow free entry for a whole year.  More details here

You might also like
Wembley Park Tube in the 1948 Olympics
Tracey Emin designs Tube Map Cover for Olympic Games period 
Photos from Mind the Map Exhibition at London Transport Museum