St Andrews vintage railway poster – Gilbert Dunlop – c1950

St Andrews vintage railway poster – Gilbert Dunlop – c1950

Most St Andrews vintage railway posters focus on the town’s famous golf course. This St Andrews poster was created by Gilbert Dunlop who is famous for his book cover illustrations. Specifically for many Enid Blyton books.  This poster was produced by British Railways to promote rail travel to Scotland and St Andrews in particular. The text on the poster reads, St. Andrews – Guide free from town clerk, St. Andrews, Fife. Train services and fares from British railways stations, offices and agencies.

Dunlop’s image shows students from Scotland’s oldest university, St Andrews University. The scene offers a birds-eye view high above City Road. The gateway in the poster St Andrew’s West Port Gate. It was built in 1587 and then rebuilt in 1834. It is one of the last remaining city gates still to survive in Scotland. The road through the gate is the A918, or South Street. The road leads down past Blackfriars Chapel a medieval monastery and St Mary’s Quad on the right and the spires of Holy Trinity Church on the left.

After about half a mile the road leads to The Pends, a pair of 14th century arches that were the original gateway to St Andrews’s cathedral. In the same vicinity as the Pends are the historic ruins of  St Andrew’s Cathedral, St Rule’s Tower and the nearby University and the ruins of the 13th Century St Andrew’s Castle. The North Sea can be seen in the distance at the top of the poster. The vintage St Andrews poster was published by the Railway Executive Scottish Region, printed in Great Britain.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and poster for just £22.