During the inter-war period the Underground Group, that also owned the General Buses , and the successor organisation after 1933, London Transport, issued a series of leaflets in which were collected series of newspaper adverts. These were often commissioned, as were panel and full size posters, from various artists and designers. This series of seven, showing activities and destinations on a typical London Sunday are by artist Arthur Watts. It is worth recalling that for many decades British Sunday's were markedly quieter days than today; most shops and businesses were closed and the day was intended for religious observance, family events or cultural activities such as museums and art galleries.
The seven adverts feature; Petticoat Lane Market via Aldgate East station, Speakers Corner via Marble Arch station, Regents Park via the station of that name, model boats on the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens via High Street Kensington station, the Victoria & Albert Museum via South Kensington, Hyde Park via Hyde Park Corner station and the Natural History Museum, again via South Kensington. The artist depicts these busy scenes, and with vignettes, and it must be rememebered that the illustrations could contain depictions that conform to the contemporary social attitudes and not those we would expect today. This copy of the leaflet was acquired some years ago via a dealer having been surplus from the LT publicity files. It was likely printed by the Curwen Press in Plaistow, London.
Arthur George Watts DSO (1883 - 1935) was a noted illustrator and artist who was widely commissioned for periodicals and advertising. Watts, who had won the DSO for bravery during wartime service in the Royal Naval Reserve, was killed in a crash of a KLM flight in the Italian Alps on 20 July 1935.
