The Railway Station: a design for J.Lyons & Co.

In the period after the Second World War the teashops J.Lyons & Co. began a programme of maintenance. Materials were in short supply and so they decided to concentrate on improving the cosmetic appearance of their shops by commissioning lithographs. Young British artists including Ardizzone, Duncan Grant, John Nash and L.S. Lowry were commissioned for the first series of lithographs which were produced in 1947. The present work is the original for Picture 1 in series one, which totalled sixteen works in all. Many of the lithographs were designed to plate by the artists themselves and each artist received a fee of £50-100 depending on their reputation and whether an original was used or auto-lithographed. The print run for the series was 1,500 and the prints were initially hung in only 30 tea shops in London. In a short time they generated so much interest that they were eventually hung in all Lyon's teashops and put on sale to the public. Two more series were commissioned in 1951 and 1955 in response to their popularity and on completion of the entire project there was an exhibition of the forty posters at the Tea Centre, London, which was opened by Sir Kenneth Clarke. When the teashops closed from 1960-70 the lithographs that had been on display were dispersed.