Print, "Modern Advertising: A Railway Station in 1874"

Print, "Modern Advertising: A Railway Station in 1874", by Alfred Concanen, 1874. Coloured lithograph depicting the interior of a railway station. In the foreground are crowds of passengers with their luggage, with two passenger trains waiting at the platforms, one headed in each direction. The walls of the train shed are covered with colourful advertisements. Signed at bottom right "Alfred Concanen del". The title is in the bottom margin, with on either side "A Concanen del. et lith." and "Stannard & Son Imp."

Stations offered plenty of space for advertising notices and companies jostled to get prime positions. The walls of the station are completely covered with advertisements. In the foreground can be seen a WHSmith kiosk selling books and newspapers. The amount of advertising notices grew when the railways put up their rent. Station booksellers W.H.Smith had to lease more space to advertisers to cover their rent increases.

Adverts distracted from important signs such as the name of the station.

“The time may yet come when railway passengers will be enabled to discern the names of the stations at which they stop with some approximation to certainty, and without the risk of a confounding the name of small town with that of a quack medicine or a popular condiment” Lichfield Mercury - Friday 24 August 1894