London Underground

It seems right to kick off the return of Ladybird Tuesday with what is probably the best Ladybird book in my whole collection. One which my husband bought me as a recent birthday present after I made a comment about not having any of the Uncle Mac series in my Ladybird collection. I’m proud to say that I now have three titles, but my favourite has to be In The Train with Uncle Mac.

You might be wondering just who Uncle Mac was. And why there was a series of Ladybird books in his name.

Uncle Mac was otherwise known as Derek McCulloch, star of the BBC Radio Programme Children’s Hour. In fact, he went on to be head of Children’s Broadcasting at the BBC from 1933 to 1951. Ladybird teamed up with him for series 455 as they could see the value of working with someone as high-profile as he was and a “trusted”name and voice in many households.

In The Train with Uncle Mac was actually the last book to be published in series 455. The series started in 1945, but by the time In the Train was published it was 1955. Written by Derek McCulloch, this book was illustrated in a photographic style by W. C. Watson. In fact, it appeared to outlive the other titles in the Uncle Mac series and the copy I have (with a dust jacket) only has the one title in the series listed on the inside endpaper.

Bob and Betty, and their dog Trigger, were introduced in the “beside the sea” with Uncle Mac book and they reappear to take a train journey with Uncle Mac in In The Train. The journey starts though with them travelling alone from Newtown to London, where they meet with Uncle Mac, take the Underground across London before boarding another train at Waterloo to their destination of Sandbay.

In The Train follows their journey, with each page pointing out various features of their journey and the runnings of the railway. It covers everything from stoking the engine, to the guard who looks after them when they travel alone, and level crossings that the train goes over. The London Underground also features as the children use it with Uncle Mac to get from one London mainline station to another.

The book is incredibly of its time in so many different ways. There’s the obvious steam train on the cover that features in the mainline sections of their journey, but also the simple fact that children of Bob and Betty’s age travel alone, and are well behaved enough to have been bought tickets to take dinner in the train’s dining car. Nowadays you’d be hard pushed to find a train in the UK with a dining car of the sort where you can order a three course meal at your table which is beautifully adorned with a white table cloth.

My love of old fashioned train travel and the London Underground means that combining these together in a vintage Ladybird book is simply my idea of perfection. A gorgeous look back at the 1950s in Ladybird-land.

There haven’t been anywhere near enough vintage books on here recently so let me try and rectify that situation with one of my recent car boot sale finds – Visitor’s London.

Whenever I go to a car boot sale or charity shop there are certain things that I am always looking out for. Ladybird Books is one such category, but not at all the only one. B and I have numbers collecting habits so we’re just as likely to be seeking out vintage toys and games or transport related bits and pieces. The further away from London you get the less you see with the familiar London. Transport (or TfL) roundel on it, but there is still treasure to be found and Visitor’s London is one such gem.

It was the roundel under the title on the front cover that first drew my attention to Visitor’s London, and then I spotted the slightly jazzy roundel used as the background on the rest of the book.

Written by Harold F. Hutchison Visitor’s London describes itself as “an alphabetic reference book for the visitor to London who wishes to also see something of London’s countryside”. Published by London Transport it seems that the first edition of this came out in 1954, with the 13th edition that I have found being published in 1967. In fact, it seems that a new edition was brought out in every year except 1961.

The book itself is split into two sections: London and London’s Country.

The first being an alphabetic list of places in London and the second being tourist attractions further afield.

Possibly the most exciting part for me is the How to Get There booklet that is inside the back cover – again in perfect condition.

Dated clearly on the cover as 1967 (and priced at 1/-) this little booklet contains the addresses, opening hours, prices of admission and routes for all the destinations featured in the main book. At the back is a fold out colour version of Beck’s Underground map showing the network as it was at the time.

The Victoria line, Hammersmith and City line and Jubilee line obviously didn’t exist back in 1967. Although you can see the second branch of the Bakerloo line, which went on to become the northern section of the Jubilee line and also the Baker Street to Hammersmith section of the Metropolitan line. Also marked as a branch of the Northern line is the section from Moorgate to Finsbury Park, that is now sometimes known as the Northern City Line and no longer part of Transport for London’s infrastructure.

The book as a whole is a gorgeous slice of London Transport history. There is reference to an earlier edition of such a book on the London Transport Museum website where there is a catalogue entry for a poster called Visitor’s London and the text there talks about an alphabetical guide which I am guessing is an earlier version of the same book.

It might have been the only bit of London Underground treasure that I found at this particular car boot, but bearing in mind that it, and a pile of six vintage cook books cost me only £3 I’m pretty damn pleased with my find!

Ladybird Tuesday – In The Train with Uncle Mac

Visitor’s London – a vintage alphabetical guide by London Transport