London Journal — Bateman LNER 1939 St Paul’s Cathedral & Max Gill 1940 Pictorial Map

Carry a portrait of London at its most extraordinary moment—where James Bateman’s 1939 railway poster and MacDonald Gill’s 1940 pictorial map together capture the City of London in the last months before the Blitz transformed it forever.

This hardcover journal brings together two masterworks of British graphic art from the eve of the Second World War. The front cover presents James Bateman’s 1939 poster for the LNER It’s Quicker by Rail campaign; the back cover presents a section of MacDonald “Max” Gill’s 1940 pictorial map of London centred on the City and St. Paul’s Cathedral. Both works depict the same square mile—Ludgate Hill, St. Paul’s, the medieval street network, the Thames wharves—in the same year, from two different artistic perspectives: a time capsule of a city about to change forever.

Front Cover — St. Paul’s Cathedral, James Bateman, LNER 1939: One of the finest examples of British interwar graphic design, commissioned for the It’s Quicker by Rail campaign. Bateman (1893–1959), Royal Academy member, captures the view from Ludgate Hill: St. Paul’s dome rising majestically at the end of the street, flanked by red AEC Regent buses. Unlike contemporaries who favoured abstraction, Bateman focuses on stone texture and individual pedestrians—achieving the atmosphere of a snapshot of everyday London life, published just before the Blitz transformed this area beyond recognition.

Back Cover — City of London Pictorial Map, MacDonald Gill, 1940: A section of a pictorial map in the vibrant style of MacDonald “Max” Gill (1884–1947), creator of the celebrated Wonderground Map of 1914. This 1940 map centres on the City: St. Paul’s in reddish tones with the Queen Anne Statue marked; Knightrider Street; the Thames wharves—White Lion Wharf, Trig Wharf; 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.

Why This Journal Inspires:

• Two masterworks of British graphic art from 1939–1940—Bateman’s LNER poster and Max Gill’s pictorial map—both depicting the same square mile of London in the last months before the Blitz
• Bateman’s poster documents the area around St. Paul’s as it existed just before the bombing of 1940–1941 transformed it beyond recognition
• Max Gill’s 1940 map shows Cordwainers Hall and the Thames wharves destroyed within months of the map being printed
• Front and back together form a complete portrait of the City of London as a time capsule—two artistic visions, one vanishing world

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 that lays flat and flexes for comfortable writing
• Dimensions: 5.5 × 8.5 inches, lightweight and portable
• Weight: 0.1 kg
• Cover: Bateman LNER 1939 poster front, Max Gill 1940 pictorial map back, matte finish; small 0.5"x0.5" production barcode on back

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 LNER It’s Quicker by Rail golden age campaign
• 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

Carry the legacy of Bateman and Max Gill—where the dome of St. Paul’s above Ludgate Hill and the medieval street names of the 1940 map remind us that the most extraordinary cities are also the most fragile, and that sometimes a poster and a map are all that remains of a world that was.

EU representative: HONSON VENTURES LIMITED, gpsr@honsonventures.com, 3, Gnaftis House flat 102, Limassol, Mesa Geitonia, 4003, CY

Product information: Generic brand, 2 year warranty in EU and Northern Ireland as per Directive 1999/44/EC

Care instructions: Use a soft, clean and dry cloth to gently brush any dust or dirt off from the center of book outwards.