Earlier this year, the Post Office confirmed that they would be issuing a number of stamps to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the Underground. The designs for these stamps have now been made public, and are featured below. The set features two second class stamps, which focus specifically on the Metropolitan Railway, and four first class stamps taking a broader look at the Underground. In addition, there are four long-format commemorative stamps each of which features a variety of Underground posters.
The set will be released on 9th January, in line with the official anniversary of the opening of the Metropolitan Railway. You can find more information on the set over at Stamp Magazine.
Tunnelling below London Streets
Metropolitan Railway Opens
Commute from the suburbs
Boston Manor Art Deco Station
Jubilee Line at Canary Wharf
Classic Rolling Stock
The Poster Set
Elsewhere, the Royal Mint’s commemorative £2 coin has also been revealed. To quote from Coin Update:
The coin, created by British designer Edwina Ellis, whose graphic work includes the design of the Bridge series of four UK £1 coins, bears the London Underground “roundel” logo which first appeared on Underground station platforms in 1908. In 1916 Edward Johnson added the official Underground typeface to the bar. The coin features an edge inscription heralding the famous advice: MIND THE GAP. The obverse features the current portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS.
London Underground Commemorative Coin
Nice!
Beautiful, both stamps and coin.
In the second stamp, “Metropolitan Railway Opens”, is or was there actually a place that seemingly wide-open or is it more of and artist impression?
Pete
It would seem to be the Baker Street junction, wouldn’t it? But then the platforms are all in the wrong place. And I’m not sure that platforms 1-4 would’ve even been open early on in the Met’s life.
It’s Praed Street Junction with a Metropolitan train heading for Bishop’s Road.
The mixed-gauge tracks in the foreground would seem to be an error on the part of the artist.
The first 2nd class stamp picture is not from the Metropolitan. It’s an early Greathead shield, I guess from construction of one of the Yerkes tubes.
That first second class stamp caught my eye too. The shield is too big to be for a tube running tunnel. It doesn’t look sophisticated enough to be a proper Greathead shield. It could be for a station where the engineers would have to have resorted to a more traditional approach. The date (1898) suggests it could have been the Waterloo & City or the Central London Railway.
Presumably the coloured strips at the bottom of the stamp represent the line – suggesting that the first stamp does indeed illustrate the Central line.
I didn’t check far enough. It could also be the extension/rebuilding of the City & South London Railway or the first phase of work on the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway. They were very busy then weren’t they !
@Fandroid – You’re right, a quick look on the London Transport Museum website shows that it’s a photo of the construction of British Museum station on the Central London Railway from January 1898.
@Pete in the USA
Yes there is an incredible amount of artistic licence in this famous picture. I recall an old book (but can’t remember which) going into quite a bit of detail about how misleading the picture was. I suspect it was an artist’s impression drawn before construction had even commenced.
There is a second London Underground £2 coin:
The ‘Train’ coin was designed by the internationally-acclaimed duo Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, best-known for the London 2012 Olympic Torch. Their dynamic coin image depicts a 1967 Victoria line Tube train and carries an unusual edge inscription inspired by Harry Beck’s Tube map.
http://www.royalmint.com/shop/u/uk13ubu2
I notice the stamps do not use the latest version of Johnston – look at the “1′s”
The 38 stock picture looks like a variation on the scratchboard artwork by AN Wolstenholme for a 1940s “British Electric Railways” book. It’s a different angle and looks a bit cleaner; I wonder if it’s an original artwork that he did or something more recent based on his style. Pic here: http://pic.twitter.com/7iCT5P3P
If they had more stamps, I wonder what they would have illustrated the 61 year gap between 1938 – 99 with. Victoria Line? Tubes used as air raid shelters?
The Metropolitan Railway image: The line to Kensington having been approved in 1884, Praed Street Junction opened to traffic in October 1868. Broad gauge was removed from the Hammersmith & City and Met in 1869.
Whoops – approved in 1864!
Living in the U.S. but make regular visits to London to see family. Already contacted them about getting me some of the coins. Would love to have some of the stamps too, though I imagine the older ones are very dear. Coin is absolutely fabulous…maybe a trend of other coins displaying famous U.K. places, activities, etc. The U.S. has done this will “State” and National Park coins and they are all the rage…some already becoming hard to find.
What does one use a stamp worth £1.28 for?
ChrisMitch asks what does one use a stamp worth £1.28 for. I am tempted to answer “not much”. Yes, you can still post a letter, even a first class one, to a UK destination, for less than this. But almost any larger package, or almost any overseas destination, costs this and more. I remember (in the 50s) a letter costing 3 old pence (£0.0125), but those days are long gone…
@ChrisMitch
the flippant answer is to send a letter to me, as I live overseas. You can use that stamp to send a letter under 20g anywhere in the world.
@Pedantic of Purley,
Thanks for the update. I’m sure I’ve seen that painting/print in other places and I always wondered about it. So much room, how could it possibly get smokey?
Pete
ChrisMitch said:
That’s the exact price of a 40g letter to Europe or a 20g letter to the rest of the world
“The set features two second class stamps,.. and four first class”; shouldn’t that be “two second class, two first class and two airmail stamps”?
You can order the stamps directly from Royal Mail online at
http://shop.royalmail.com/issue-by-issue/london-underground/icat/londonunderground/
and the coin products from the Royal Mint at
http://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/events/london-underground-150th-anniversary
(both ship worldwide)
In 1999 the view up from the Canary Wharf main escalator would have looked a little different. The stamp features a silhouette of 25 Bank Street (formerly Lehman Brothers’ European HQ, now JPMorgan)….which wasn’t built until 2004.
I Like The Pictures. So Much Deitail.
A week or so before Christmas I went to Boston manor to source an evening photograph with the illuminated fin on the station building tower lit up.
I was saddened to see that only the upper part of alight. The rest was in darkness.
Simon
I Just received one on a letter and wonder if I should soak it off – can find no information regarding whether it is gummed or adhesive – anyone help ??
@Daryle in Australia. I can’t remember the last time I bought a stamp that you had to lick or otherwise dampen. Aren’t they all self-adhesive these days?