Poster of the Week #10
London 2026 AD; this is all in the air, by Montague B Black, 1926
This week’s poster is an artistic vision from 1926 of what London would look like 100 years later in 2026. The skies are full of futuristic skyscrapers and flying things. The enormous airship on the right is branded ‘OVERLAND LINE, LONDON – SYDNEY’. There is a London Bridge Air Depot and an AIRTAXI Ltd building. Beneath the Bovril advert is a sign for ‘Underground to Scotland. Glasgow 2hrs 45mins’. The Underground roundel is a strong feature on the side of the building.
Now that we’re just 15 years away from 2026, what do you think of Black’s vision? What do you reckon transport in London might be like in 2111?
Detail from London 2026 AD; this is all in the air, by Montague B Black, 1926
Montague Black was exploring the way the new technologies of 1926 might change the face of transport in the city. This Monday we’re hosting The City as a Canvas, a panel discussion which explores how new technologies are transforming the city today. The panel includes Usman Haque who recently organised Flight Path Toronto, a mass-participation spectacle where hundreds of members of the public took to the skies to rediscover the possibilities and wonder of urban flight. Find out more about the discussion event and how to get your tickets here.
This is brilliant, love the idea of the overland train to sydney. I think by 2111 they will have worked out a way to emulate the transport via chimneys as in Harry Potter…
I like the chimney idea…
[...] airship panics would suggest that even then negative airmindedness held sway.) Above is an example, a 1926 London Underground poster. LONDON 2026 A.D. — THIS IS ALL UP IN THE AIR TO-DAY — THE SOLID COMFORT OF THE [...]
Montague B Black was my mother’s uncle (Uncle Monty). He was also a dioramist. I remember being taken to a museum, which may have been either the Science Museum or the V&A, as a child to see a diorama of his featuring a Welsh slate quarry, possibly Dinorwic.