Gallery dedicated to London Transport posters opens in Covent Garden

London Transport Museum has opened a gallery that showcases the best of the capital’s poster art.

The Global Poster Gallery features art commissioned by London transport bosses dating back more than a century.

The museum, in Covent Garden, holds 1,000 original poster artworks and has more than 30,000 posters housed at its depot in Acton, west London.

London Underground’s first pictorial poster is one of those on display.

Titled “No need to ask a p’liceman”, it was created by John Hassall in 1908.

At the start of the 20th Century, at a time when poster design was largely text-based, Frank Pick, the first chief executive of London Transport, decided to start commissioning pictorial posters.

He went on to work with graphic designers influenced by radical and avant-garde art movements, such as futurism, cubism, and surrealism, conveying the modernity of the Underground.

Matt Brosnan, head curator at London Transport Museum, said: “The Global Poster Gallery’s opening exhibition will bring together some of the finest posters in the museum’s collection of graphic art and design in a celebration of commissioning, creativity, and artistic talent that will inspire our visitors.”

Elizabeth McKay, London Transport Museum’s director, added: “We’re incredibly proud to be opening a brand-new museum gallery in the heart of the capital dedicated to the fascinating history of poster art and design, of which London’s transport is at the fore.”