Winter Wonderland Poster Parade.
London Transport Museum, 1st floor.
Entry: 21 pounds for an adult yearly entry. 20 pound student yearly entry.
05.12.2022
You can see all the posters here via a search of terms for your own virtual exhibition (Full Searchable Exhibition Catalogue given at the end of this short outline of my impressions as a viewer):
https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/the-collection?f%5B0%5D=collection_type%3APosters
If I cast about in my mind for my most immediately accessible winter memories, there are images of Christmas and snowballs (with flashes of pain in some cases), hot chocolate in an ice skating park, women in smart, expensive coats on the London streets, lavish adverts on television, frenzied shopping during New Year’s sales, and an annoying range of mediocre songs that are played, unaccountably, every single year.
Many, if not all, of these topics are to be found in the Winter Wonderland Poster Parade on the first floor of the London Transport Museum. Certainly, shopping plays a major role in the collection, including a depiction of the Winter sales. For both critics of capitalism and its supporters, there is something for everyone – anonymous subjects wandering around in a state of anomie in between the stores, a cornucopia of street signs arranged artistically to show a virtual map of the sales in London, depictions of women consumers done in a futuristic style (make of that what you will).
The introduction to the poster parade proclaims that there is a focus on ice skating, country walks, shopping and the exploration of historic landmarks during the winter months. The parade emphasises the practical purpose of the posters which encouraged passengers to take off-peak journeys or appealed to our comfort-loving nature by persuading us that it was warmer to travel by public transport in London.
I have fond memories of ice skating, including watching my female companion surreptitiously distancing herself from me and laughing maniacally as I desperately clutched and groped at an innocent female bystander so I didn’t fall down on my first try. So I particularly enjoyed looking at the portrayals of ice skating. The poster that stood out most to me was ‘Ice Skating’ by Charles Pears, printed in 1928. It shows a beautiful woman engaged in a graceful movement across the ice, her face obscured in shadow, her scarf elegantly billowing against the pure snow behind her. She is entranced in the flow of the figure, lost in her skill to the world and its impurities… Such is the beauty of this season and of ice skating itself, one of the most beautiful of pastimes.
The other poster that I quite liked was ‘Winter’s Discontent Made Glorious’. Against an ominous, sublime, inhumane cloudscape, we see a train in which the windows are filled with scenes from dining, shopping and the theatre, spaces crowded with fashionable people. On one level, the poster reminds us that some of our liveliest and happiest scenes have been in winter. On the other hand, the fact that the train and its illuminated scenes are to plunge into the dark abyss of a tunnel which would extinguish all light seems to refer to the depression that can come upon us in sun-starved winter. It is a conceptually balanced design.
My overall impression of the poster parade is that it contains striking works of art and a good range of different artistic styles. I was interested in how optimistic the collection is about winter. We all know that winter can bring on sadness, and the posters all try to counter this impulse with a positive, upbeat message of hope and happiness. The posters have also inspired me to take a few winter walks, when traditionally, I have avoided long walks out in the cold in the countryside. The posters are intriguing as they show us the emotional appeal of Christmas and winter shopping in the recent past, how they act as a psychological booster during what can be very trying months and also because of the beauty and complexity of the designs and messages that they convey. As such, the poster parade really is what it says it is: a winter wonderland to which all of our senses and feelings are invited.
Exhibition Catalogue
- Winter’s Discontent Made Glorious – Anonymous, 1909
- Brightest London is Best Reached by Underground – Horace Taylor, 1924
- Winter Cavalcade – Margaret Barnard, 1938
- Empress Hall – Earls Court – Walter Goetz, 1937
- Winter in the Country – Harry Stevens, 1965
- Winter Sales – Quickly Reached – Compton Bennett, 1926
- Winter Fun – Skating – Anna Hymas, 2016
- Winter Sales – Edward McKnight Kauffer, 1924
- It is Warmer Below – Frederick Charles Herrick, 1927
- Winter Country Walks – Hans Unger, 1958
- Hampton Court – Hanna Well, 1963
- Ice Skating – Charles Pears, 1928
- Winter Walks – Laura Knight, 1957
- Keep Warm – travel Underground – Kathleen Stenning, 1925
- Out and about in Winter – Molly Moss, 1950
- Shop in Town – Leith, 1928
- Winter Sales – Artist Unknown, 1920
- Winter in London – John Burningham, 1965
- Winter – Paul Catherall, 2006
- Winter Visitors – Clifford Ellis and Rosemary Ellis, 1937
- Brighter London for Winter Sales – Harold Sandys Williamson, 1924
diary of a lone man 