Oxford Map British Railways poster – J.P. Sayer – 1949

Poster: Oxford Map British Railways poster – J.P. Sayer – 1949

With this fantastic map of Oxford, the artist JP Sayer is continuing a steady tradition of Pictorial Maps for the transport industry and following in the footsteps of artists such as MacDonald Gill and Kerry Lee. The pictorial maps were very popular with the British public.

Sayer’s map of Oxford covers the city’s streets from St John’s and the Ashmolean on the left-hand side to the River Cherwell and Broad Street on the right. Along the top edge the map takes in Balliol Cricket Ground and Magdalen Grove whilst the bottom goes down as far as Worcester Street and Campion Hall.

The map of the City of Oxford was published by British Railways in 1949. It was produced to promote rail travel to the city. As home to two universities and many more colleges, it has some 40,000 students. Those students have visiting family members. The colleges have lecturers, teachers, admin and background staff that need to get to work. And with Oxford being a popular tourists destination, there are visitors and tourists to the city itself. The railway had to try to capitalise on such a large potential customer base.

It depicts illustrations of the city’s landmarks, colleges and universities. It also includes snippets of relevant or interesting information about the city’s history usually accompanied by an illustrated figure.

All the colleges are marked with small black and white vignette images of the buildings. At the right is a listing of four Women’s Colleges which are noted as being outside the area of the map.

J.P Sayer was an English artist and graphic designer. He is best remembered for the posters that he designed for the Great Western Railway Company, and the uniquely pictographic style of his that emerged from these commissions. Other pictorial maps created by the artist include posters of  Somerset. Cornwall, Leamington Spa, and the Cambrian Coast. He also provided the illustrations for the Motorist’s Rhyme Book; a booklet produced by British Petroleum, which contorted popular nursery rhymes in order to sell its products.

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 print and frame for a great price.