Aspirational Advertising, 1911
This is advertisement was produced for London Underground by an unknown artist.
It reminded those living in central London, which suffered regularly from bad smogs (fog/haze intensified by smoke and other atmospheric pollutants), that the idyllic English countryside was but a simple Tube ride away.
Smogs in London were killers. The Great Smog of 1952 is now estimated to have caused 12,000 deaths although the government of the day made significant efforts to under-report both deaths and the overall impact of four days of heavy smog, which had been partly caused by that same government allowing the sale of cheap, but heavily-sulphurous, sub-standard coal that winter. However, that smog did eventually lead to the Clean Air Act of 1956...
Sadly, the-then suburb of Golders Green has been swallowed by the city and you need to travel much farther afield today to reach the sunny idylls suggested by the poster - although you can still do so by Tube!
The poster can be seen today in London Transport's Museum in Covent Garden, London.
Aspirational Advertising, 1911
This is advertisement was produced for London Underground by an unknown artist.
It reminded those living in central London, which suffered regularly from bad smogs (fog/haze intensified by smoke and other atmospheric pollutants), that the idyllic English countryside was but a simple Tube ride away.
Smogs in London were killers. The Great Smog of 1952 is now estimated to have caused 12,000 deaths although the government of the day made significant efforts to under-report both deaths and the overall impact of four days of heavy smog, which had been partly caused by that same government allowing the sale of cheap, but heavily-sulphurous, sub-standard coal that winter. However, that smog did eventually lead to the Clean Air Act of 1956...
Sadly, the-then suburb of Golders Green has been swallowed by the city and you need to travel much farther afield today to reach the sunny idylls suggested by the poster - although you can still do so by Tube!
The poster can be seen today in London Transport's Museum in Covent Garden, London.