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Commuters on a trail trip on the Metropolitan railway in 1863
from Cassell's Old and London New |
This week marked the 150th Anniversary of
London's first Tube journey. The stretch of
line between Paddington and Farringdon, which was then the Metropolitan
Railway, opened on 9 January 1863, with the first passenger journeys on the
following day - making it the world's very first underground railway.
As our Victorian ancestors made plans to
service London's population of approximately 3 million people, I wonder if
they could have imagined that their design, engineering and architecture would
be the heart of the city 150 years later with an average yearly passenger
number of 1,107 million!
The Underground's logo, station signs and maps
have become iconic symbols worldwide, and have often crossed paths with art and
culture. The London Transport Museum's shop has a huge range of vintage art
posters to peruse, and it's designs grace many accessories and interior
furnishings.
We teamed up with
Transport for London at designjunction to print the large murals for their Pop Up
Canteen held during the UK’s most important design event – The London
Design Festival.
The Canteen was designed by Michael
Sodeau to be light and airy - helped by the venues huge wall of windows - and
complemented by our black and white large format wallpaper featuring carefully
selected photographs from the London Transport Museums Curatorial
Department. We collected the original photographs from the Museum, some dating
back over 100 years, and brought them to our studio in Lancashire to be scanned
and turned into digital collages. These were then scaled up to fit the large
temporary wall spaces in New Oxford Street's 1960s Postal Sorting Office. Our
installation team put up the easy fit pre pasted wall coverings on site, ready
for the Canteen fit out with furniture by Modus and lighting by Very Good and
Proper. The walls also featured the original ceramic tile design that adorn
Underground stations, and the seating matched the Tube trains moquette fabric.
We celebrate the history of England's iconic transport system
with a range of wall murals featuring any design or image form Transport
for London’s vast collection. My favourite is the original 1930's Underground
Map by Harry Beck, available to print to fit any size wall - looks perfect
printed onto our Tactile wallpaper - a finish designed for stylish
properties and commercial interiors with an embossed coating that adds a
sophisticated look to the mural with subtle colour rendition.
Another top choice is the modern day Tube map - For the millions of passengers
who use London's Public Transport System every day, this maps is invaluable -
and it's style has become an iconic symbol worldwide. Now you can turn the map
into a statement wall in your office. Most customers have the Underground Map
printed onto our "Pre Pasted" wallpaper due to it's vivid
colour graphic reproduction with high-definition detail, and it's
ease of installation.
As well as
the famous TfL maps, you can also choose from the various collections that are
commissioned each year for the Tube Station posters.
A huge range of events and
activities will be held this year by TfL to explore London Underground's
fascinating history and the vital role it continues to play - both in the lives
of Londoners and to the economic life of London and the UK. Many of the events
focus on Art in the Underground, and we look forward to seeing new designs and
maps that we can feature on our floor and wall products.
Press and visitors to
designjunction were given a tour of TfL's newly built bus. Inspired by the old Routemaster, it is modern, fully
accessible and uses the latest green technology. It's the first bus in
more than 50 years to be designed specifically for the Capital's streets. The bus uses the latest green diesel-electric hybrid technology.
In test conditions the new bus produces less than half the harmful
emissions of conventional diesel buses and is twice as fuel efficient (and it's
curves are very photogenic!)
sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9789903/The-London-Underground-150-Years-In-Culture.html
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/26727.aspx
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/25979.aspx
