2010/150

Summer Conducted Rambles,

Collecting 20th Century Rural Cultures, The Nook, Mental Health

Audrey Weber (Artist), Waterlow & Sons Limited (Printer)

This is a 1936 poster for ‘Summer Conducted Rambles’. It is one of a series of four posters, one for each season, designed by Audrey Weber (1917–1950) for Southern Railway and printed by Waterlow & Sons Ltd. It is a very colourful poster depicting the countryside at its most attractive in order to tempt suburban commuters waiting on crowded platforms to the joys of rambling. The Ramblers’ Association was founded in 1935, the year before this poster was printed, and rambling was a highly popular pastime.

Poster text – ‘Summer // Conducted Rambles // during June, July & August. // Ask for special folder at Stations & Travel Agencies // Southern Railway’, Collecting 20thc Rural Culture blog [Friday, 10 September 2010] – ‘Rail poster for ramblers, 1936 // This is the most colourful of the posters we have acquired through the project to date. It is the summer number in a series of four - one for each season - created by in-house poster designer Audrey Weber (1917-50) for the Southern Railway. Very deliberately, the countryside is visually depicted in the most attractive light in order to draw suburban commuters waiting on noisy and crowded platforms to the tranquil joys of rambling. The date is 1936, just a year after the formal creation of The Ramblers' Association which provided a national focus for what had become a highly popular pastime. The Southern Railway served counties to the south and west of London and had an obvious commercial incentive in promoting leisure journeys out into the countryside rather than just business travel into the city.’

, South East England [region]

1936 - 1936