ABSTRACT
This chapter argues a form of popular art, railway posters of the period between 1920 and 1955 were an important influence on how tourism places were represented and understood. With some small exceptions, railways neither invented the rituals of tourism, nor, in isolation, did they create tourism places. In inter-war Britain, leisure travel was one of the social arenas in which class distinctions were played out, drawing on an established tendency for touristic places, especially resorts, to adopt contrasting social tones. Poster art mirrors this relationship in several ways. Both the Great Western Railway (GWR) and Southern Railway (SR) were relentless in emphasising the sunshine of the southern and western areas of Britain that they served, whilst the LNER, confronted with the more awkward challenge of promoting the colder east coast and the North Sea, alighted on the presumed health benefits of the invigorating qualities of sea air.
