LONDON’S latest travel art exhibition is set to be a real transport of delight – collecting together more than 100 classic Underground posters for the first time in a permanent new gallery.

The Global Poster Gallery, opening at London Transport Museum on October 20, will include iconic designs dreamed up by big names such as Edward McKnight Kauffer, Man Ray and Hans Unger.

British artists will include Abram Games, Tom Eckersley, Paul Catherall, and Dora M Batty, who was the most prolific female designer ever commissioned by the London Underground. 

London Transport has, in fact, been commissioning poster art ever since 1908 and the inaugural exhibition, titled How to Make a Poster, primarily explores design in the pre-digital age.

Opening in time for the school half-term, the exhibition will be complemented by family fun activities including a treasure hunt for a ‘secret’ poster, puppet theatre and DIY poster art sessions.

The 110-plus posters we’ll see on show are just the tip of the iceberg, selected from more than 30,000 in the museum’s archives and loans from other significant collections.

Among those on display will be on the Underground’s very first pictorial poster titled ‘No need to ask a p’liceman’ by John Hassall, dating all the way back to 1908. 

For more on the gallery, head here.

In all, the museum boasts a collection of some half a million items, tracing the story of the capital’s transport network, and there’s a searchable database which you can access here.

There’s all manner of vehicles on display, with changing exhibitions making repeat visits well worthwhile. The Museum also runs ‘Hidden London’ tours to lost stations and disused tunnels

Admission to the new gallery is included in general admission to the London Transport Museum by way of an annual pass which, for £24, allows unlimited admission all year round.

Anyone under the age of 17 gets in free, and there’s a variety of concessionary rates, including lower prices for off-peak visiting, local residents, students and senior citizens.

Remarkably, there’s also a £1 ticket for those in receipt of Universal Credit, Pension Credit or Working Tax Credit. See the full list of admission prices here.

London Transport Museum is sited in Covent Garden Piazza, just a two-minute walk from Covent Garden Underground station. My thanks to Brian D Butler, whose Travel Beyond The Pages blog is a daily delight, for bringing the opening to my attention.