London Journal — Bateman 1939 St Paul's & Max Gill 1940 Map

In 1939, James Bateman — a Royal Academician trained at the Slade under Henry Tonks — painted the view up Ludgate Hill toward St. Paul's Cathedral for the LNER's It's Quicker by Rail campaign: the dome rising above the roofline, flanked by red AEC Regent buses and populated with the pedestrians of an ordinary London day, rendered with meticulous attention to stone texture and atmospheric light in the last peacetime summer before the Blitz transformed this area beyond recognition; the back cover presents a section of MacDonald "Max" Gill's 1940 pictorial map of London centred on the City — St. Paul's in reddish tones with the Queen Anne Statue marked, Knightrider Street, the Thames wharves, and the dense medieval street network of Sermon Lane, Old Change, and Cordwainers Hall, the latter destroyed by incendiary bomb in May 1941, months after this map was printed, by the same Blitz that gave St. Paul's its most iconic moment; together, these two images form an accidental time capsule of a city about to change forever.

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Product Details

• Format: Hardcover journal with matte laminated full-wrap cover
• Pages: 150 lined pages (75 sheets) with perforations for easy removal
• Binding: Casewrap sewn binding — flexible and lay-flat
• Dimensions: 5.75 × 8 inches
• Weight: 250 g (0.55 lbs)
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap print

Perfect For

• London lovers and historians celebrating St. Paul's Cathedral and the City through two masterworks of British interwar graphic design
• Admirers of railway poster art and the golden age of British graphic art
• Collectors of MacDonald Gill's pictorial maps and decorative cartography
• History enthusiasts drawn to the Blitz and the extraordinary story of St. Paul's survival
• Travellers to London who want a journal that carries the city's history as richly as its streets do
• Gift seekers looking for a beautifully designed, historically resonant journal for lovers of London and British graphic art