Monthly Archives: May 2017

Exhibitions

Prize for Illustration 2017: the winners!

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This week, London Transport Museum hosted the ceremony for the Prize for Illustration 2017 awards. The competition was open worldwide, was run in partnership with the Association of Illustrators and the ceremony was attended by a number of the shortlisted artists. I was lucky enough to attend as well.

The artists were invited to respond to the theme of Sounds of the City and capture sounds heard in our UK cities in a single illustration – from loud and frenetic urban noise to the more quiet and relaxing sounds of nature.

100 of the illustrations, which were shortlisted from over 2,000 entries by an independent panel of judges, are now on display at London Transport Museum until 3 September 2017. Each of the illustrations is accompanied by a short description about the inspiration behind their work. I do hope you get to come and see them! Exhibition details.

The winning illustrations will also be displayed on London Underground poster sites during the summer and each winner will be getting a cash prize. The three winners:

• Bronze Prize was awarded to: Paul Garland, for Sound of the Underground
 Find out more about Sounds of the Underground here
• Silver Prize was awarded to: Julia Allum, for Surprise City Sounds  Find out more about Julia’s work.
• Gold Prize was awarded to: Chiara Ghigliazza, for Solo Find out more about the Gold Winner here.

The announcement on 24th May 2017 was relayed live on my Periscope & Twitter account – watch it again.

Paul Garland, Sound of the Underground
Paul Garland, Sound of the Underground
Julia Allum's Surprise City Sounds
Julia Allum’s Surprise City Sounds
Chiara Ghigliazza - Solo
Chiara Ghigliazza – Solo (Gold winner)
Collections

The 1951 Festival of Britain showcase of new London Transport R49 stock

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I have just realised that today, 3rd May, is the anniversary of the opening of the 1951 Festival of Britain. The Festival was a showcase of the best of British design and technology, including fascinating transport exhibits representing a new future.

By the end of the Second World War, like the people it served, London’s transport system had been exhausted. Steel was not readily available, so the designers used aluminium for the new District Line trains instead. Keen to show off their new trains, London Transport exhibited a prototype (car 23231) at the Festival of Britain site on the South Bank, and it is shown here being shipped in and only partially painted – just two days before the site opened to the public. In their final production versions, the train exteriors were left as bare unpainted metal, a feature of several post-war Underground stock types.

In the background, the Dome of Discovery (one of the main Festival of Britain exhibition spaces) and the Skylon structure can be seen. More than 8.5 million people visited the South Bank site for the Festival, and many of them will have seen this new London Transport design proudly on display.

Here’s another image of the car transported by Pickfords Road Services roadtrailer from Metro-Cammell at Birmingham, set to be offloaded at the Festival of Britain site on 1st May 1951.

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These trains, known as R49 stock, finally went into formal public service in 1953, were stalwarts for 30 years and were eventually replaced by the D-stock and C-stock. All had left service by 1983.