London The Bastion of Liberty poster – Kerry Lee – 1947

Vintage Pictorial Map: London The Bastion of Liberty poster – Kerry Lee – 1947

This incredible London The Bastion of Liberty poster is one of several pictorial maps created over the years to promote travel to London. The success and popularity of MacDonald Gill’s groundbreaking 1914 Wonderground Map of London ensured that the genre was returned to time and time again.

This poster, titled ‘London, The Bastion of Liberty’ was created by the London-born artist Kerry Ernst Lee. The artist was obviously influenced and inspired by the work of Gill. And just like Gill, Lee succeeds in creating a stunning, informative, and accurate pictorial map. Kerry Lee’s maps are almost cartoonlike featuring notes and characters from historical, social, and cultural events.

The Bastion of Liberty map was issued by British Railways in 1947, only a couple of years after world war two. The nation, its people, and its industries, including the railways, were in the process of recovering. The London poster celebrates the great city of London and the British spirit, designed to help promote British tourism after the second world war.

During the wars years, the countries four railway companies had been placed under government control. By the end of the war, the railways had been decimated. According to an article in the 1946 July/August edition of The Railway Magazine in 1946, it has been calculated that 482 locomotives, 13,314 passenger coaches, and 16,132 freight vehicles were damaged by the Luftwaffe. A calculation made by the Central Statistical Office determined that between 1938–1953 the railway’s network suffered disinvestment of £440 million (around £16 billion in 2021 prices).

Very little investment had been forthcoming and only essential maintenance had been carried out during the war. The railways were run-down and on the brink of collapse. After the war, it was clear that the rail network could not be maintained in the private sector. The government nationalised the railways, which were taken over by the British Transport Commission in 1948 and given the name British Railways. 

Kerry Lee’s map celebrated London. At a time when people needed it. The poster portrays Britain’s stoic and defiant mood with the largest text on the poster recalling a quote from Sir Winston Churchill. It reads: “We would rather see London in ruins and ashes than that it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved”. The coats of arms of each of the four counties, Middlesex, Essex, Sussex and Kent, that make up the capital city of the proud nation appear in each corner. The border is made up of cameos of some of London’s most prominent sites and places for people to visit by train. The list read like a tourist guide and includes Harrow and the Hill,  Wembley Stadium, Hampstead Heath, Waltham Abbey, Alexandria Palace, Epping Forest, Old Temple Bar, River Lea, the River Dart, London Docks, Chinatown, Wapping, the River Thames, Greenwich Observatory, Dulwich, Epsom, Crystal Palace, Wimbledon, Kew, Hampton Court, Richmond, Windsor, Earl’s Court, Olympia, Runnymeade and London Airport. In addition, the map includes many main roads and the city’s visitor attractions. Important and the more prominent buildings are highlighted in bright red ribbons and the train stations are marked in blue scrolls. Oh! and Kerry Lee himself is sitting with his dog, Jim, by his signature in the bottom right-hand corner. The poster was originally published by Chromoworks of London and sponsored by the short-lived Travel Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This Kerry Lee poster is truly is a remarkable piece of work. It will appeal to Londoners, tourists, history buffs and railway enthusiasts alike. Original copies of this poster at the time of listing (2021) sell for around £2,000.

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.