Vintage 365: “Westminster from the Thames” vintage travel poster

✯ Day 4 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

 

When one thinks of vintage travel posters, those exquisite works of art from the golden era of luxurious sightseeing and adventure, it is usually images of sun-kissed locations, portrayed as dripping with tropical or Mediterranean splendour that spring to mind. Yet, just as today not every journey is to a beach or rolling Italian hillside, so too were travel destinations of yesteryear a very mixed lot.

 

While perusing vintage travel posters this week (daydreaming, I’ll admit it, of leaving behind the snow that came barrelling back into town on Sunday for some wildly warm corner of the globe), I chanced upon this understatedly beautiful one from 1934 (on the wonderful UK site Exploring 20th century London) that beckons tourists and locals alike to explore London and see Westminster Abbey from the vantage point of the River Thames.

 

I adore the muted tones, the iconic hints of late art deco era style to the illustration, and the fact there there is absolutely no sense of pomp to this deeply sophisticated vintage poster. It is now, every bit as lovely and intriguing today as it was 77 years ago – so much so actually, that it (at least temporarily) made me forget about warm, sandy beaches and suddenly want to pack my bags for a trip to merry old England!