Since their inception, London Transport posters have always been a combination of both. The origins of this collection date back to the early 1900’s when Frank Pick became Traffic Manager of the “Underground Group,” with the goal of increasing ridership. From the beginning, Pick hired not only well known poster designers, but also new artists and fine-art artists (including women!) to design the posters in an avant-garde, modernist style. By 1917 they proved so popular that exhibitions were mounted and duplicate copies produced and sold.

Today, there are over 5,500 designs in the archives, with a limited number on display at any time at the London Transport Museum. The posters rotate, with new posters and a new theme every 3 months. They also occasionally run tours of the collection at the storage facility in Acton (details on their website).

In addition to the posters, the museum is filled with tram, bus, and underground cars of every vintage (including several you can sit inside)

as well as all sorts of information and fun memorabilia, such as this collection of strap handles- love the Cadbury egg! Keep your eye out for the displays that allow you to open drawers filled with collections of postcards, tickets, brochures, etc..

The building itself is a great piece of Victoriana, built in 1871 to house part of Covent Garden’s fruit and vegetable market.

The museum is extremely popular with kids and their caregivers, so expect that it will be noisy and filled with young visitors rushing around.