More notes from the rabbit hole. This time about poster boards and non-railway station ads in Edwardian times. Please note that this is not systematic archival research, just my own little investigation based on perusal of period photos for pragmatic modelling purposes. For the posters themselves, see this entry.
My station building is modelled on Newbury, and when studying Edwardian photos of that station I see different kinds of poster boards. So I looked at period photos of other GWR stations to get a feel for the subject.
Looking at photos of GWR stations, I found more extensive use of poster boards than I had expected. This is Earlswood Lake station in Edwardian days, showing a typical situation with most space between windows given over to poster boards.
Likewise at Hungerford (crop from postcard). The poster boards were used for the company’s own advertising. Non-railway advertisements were a separate thing.
Even smaller stations often show multiple poster boards – sometimes in odd locations, as here at Chalford. It wasn’t universal though, there are also examples of small stations with just a few boards.
Types of poster boards
The simplest type of poster boards in Edwardian photos is the simple frame with no header panel. Sadly I have found no documented dimensions (beware that dimensions in HMRS GW Way are for notice boards, not poster boards). The above crop from a photo of Lambourn in 1910 shows what I have observed to be three common variants: A “single” type (extreme left, stacked); a “double” type (center), and a ”low double” variant (on the right). The latter seems to have been for timetables.
Long - and sometimes tall - versions of the simple boards were used for multiple posters, as here at Dawlish Warren.
The more elaborate design of poster board had an upper panel with the words “Great Western Railway”. They were also widespread, including at small stations. This is Corsham in the 1900s. The poster with the ball advertises a football special.
These boards also came in various widths. This crop from a photo of Stretton on Fosse shows singles and low doubles, all with the header panel.
Like the simple boards, the header type boards also came in extended versions. This is Windsor, no date but my guess is 1897 when rebuilding was completed. Both the pictorial and non-pictorial posters match late 1890s styles.
Judging by photos, the header panel was often separated by a thin wood strip. This is Saunderton station, 1905.
Some extended boards were divided into bays using vertical wood strips, as appears to be the case in this undated Buckfastleigh postcard (see joins with header panel strip when zoomed in).
In other photos the bays - and sometimes also the header panel - are just indicated with painted lines, as appears to be the case here at High Wycombe (GWR/GCR joint station). Perhaps a development to save time and material.
Where space allowed, very large boards with header panels were used. Above is a two-row example at Henley. The header lettering is presumably there, although the camera has not captured it. The ca. 1911 Brittany poster with two women in profile can be spotted, and next to it the “diagonal GWR” poster, common in this period.
Free-standing boards like this one at Paddington turn up in photos of the largest stations. I’m not sure how common they were beyond that.
Colours and lettering
Ready-made poster boards from the trade tend to be black and white, as per this (modified) one that I made many years ago. I am now sceptical about that colour scheme for the Edwardian period.
Looking at Edwardian photos suggests chocolate brown poster boards to me, with gold or yellow lettering. This would also match the chocolate doors and windows that were widespread on GWR stations at the time. That said, I sometimes wonder if two different station livery schemes existed on the GWR in the 1900s, á la Wolverhampton and Swindon!
At some point the words “Great Western Railway” in the header panel were replaced by “G.W.R.”. I have not so far seen boards with that variant before WW1. This is Weymouth 1936.
Mounting of poster boards
Posterboards were positioned at eye-height and typically making the most of the available space on the main station building. Above is Melksham (no date).
The boards were mounted on pre-fitted wooden battens. Sometimes the battens extended from top to bottom of the building, as seen above at Shirley. In such cases the poster boards shared the battens with adverts mounted above them (yet to be fitted in this case). Embedded link from Warwickshire Railways.
In other cases, posterboards and adverts had separate battens, as here at Lambourn in 1910. The battens protude behind the adverts but are not visible behind the poster boards (presumably because the former are irregularly sized while the latter are standard).
The battens are inconspicuous from a distance but often turn up if you look closely, as in this crop of a Chalford postcard.
Not all poster boards were mounted! A nice little feature for the modeller here. This is a crop from a Birmingham Snow Hill photo, shortly after the 1906–1912 rebuild.
Non-railway station adverts
Finally a few observations about non-railway stations ads. Not a systematic review, just some things I hadn’t noticed before.
Photos shows two types of adverts at stations: Enamel ads are well-known of course, and available from the trade. This is Plymouth North Rd. Note poster boards along the station frontage, ads everywhere else.
The other type is poster adverts. I have always associated these with Victorian times and later mainly with street hoardings, but they can also be seen mounted on Edwardian station buildings, as here at Lambourn in 1910. Indeed towards the end of steam, poster ads seem to have become dominant again, see e.g. the delightful platform photos at Stratford on Avon here.
Repeated use of the same advert is fairly common in station photos. This is Edwardian Slough, showing multiple ads for "Van Houtens Cocoa" (right) and "Stephens’ Ink" (left). Those two companies plus "Mazawattee Tea" seem to have been particularly fond of multiple identical ads. Getty Images, embedding allowed.
More repeated ads, here in the grouping period (Weymouth 1936). "Stephens’ Inks" below the GWR boards and "Mazawattee Tea" above them. Also two larger "Robertsons" ads under the canopy. This serial feature is rarely modelled, perhaps because the trade tends to supply us with just one of each ad. I’m making my own ads to get past that, good fun.
From a distance, the positioning of adverts at stations can seem random and ad hoc. But closer scrutiny often reveals a method to the madness. This is newly constructed Newbury station ca. 1910. Battens and boards for mounting ads have been pre-mounted, including all along the lower base of the building. In other words, prior thought has gone into the positioning of ads.
As a rule of thumb, Edwardian photos show GWR posters in prime position at the main station building’s waist and adverts then go everywhere else - i.e. above them, below them, in vacant spaces beside them, and anywhere else around the station where there’s room. This is Abingdon in Edwardian days, note also the battens.
Maiden Newton. GWR poster boards at the center of the platform, enamel adverts where there is room.
Paddington arrival side pre-1914. Same basic principle: GWR poster boards in prime location at eye height, adverts fills out the rest of the space.
This pattern seems to have lasted into grouping years. Here for example is a 1930s shot of Didcot. GWR poster boards along the waist of the building, adverts above and on the ends.
Lastly another shot of Newbury in Edwardian times, with lots of adverts on the retaining wall. I wonder how advertising contracts worked. Did they apply to the whole system and stipulate numbers and sizes of adverts? Did particular manufacturers have contracts with particular railways? And were some ads thereby more prevalent on some railways than others?
So much there is to learn!