TIME TRAVEL David Bownes, director of Twentieth Century Posters and former head curator at London Transport Museum, gives an introduction to British railway posters

‘Railway posters were designed to promote rail travel at off-peak times by offering a doorway into a glamorous modern world of healthy outdoor pursuits and fashionable living. Railways in Britain were slow to appreciate the potential of the poster, but by the 1920s this had all changed. The first consistent examples of place selling, they helped create the UK seaside holiday and gave identity to coastal resorts and inland destinations. Towns like Blackpool, Skegness and Brighton owed much of their growth to railway advertising. Not all marketing, however, was the same: working-class resorts, such as Skegness, were sold as cheap, cheerful and fun, while more upmarket getaways like Harrogate were presented as refined and stylish. There was regional variation too, as Cornwall, parts of west Wales and Ireland were often given a romantic “Celtic” air-brushing. Brighton was always a bit racy, while York a bit staid. Postcards from the past, posters tell us how Britain saw itself, or wanted to see itself, but are also fine examples of 20th-century graphic design and print work.’