Most people who live in London have walked along the Brompton Road between Harrods and Harvey Nichols; it takes about five minutes if the pavement isn’t too congested.
It is a valuable piece of real estate – about the same size as the kitchen garden at Barmeath, three and a half acres. It is all under the same ownership and, for once, not the Crown Estate or the Duke of Westminster or the like. Sulaiman Saleh Olayan was born in 1918 in ‘Unayzah, in Saudi Arabia, and went to work for Aramco. In 1947 he started his own business and, after his death in 2002, the business continues as a family company – the Olayan Group. Among many other assets worth in excess of $10 billion (about the same as the Duke of Westminster coincidentally) it owns that plot of land.
Below ground is Knightsbridge tube station. The original ticket hall is at the Harvey Nichols end with exits beside Harvey Nichols, on the north side of Knightsbridge between the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Candy Towers, and onto the Brompton Road. A newish ticket hall at the west end of the platforms has an exit that emerges beside Harrods. When the Olayan Group redeveloped the properties above the old ticket hall one condition was to make a new exit onto the Brompton Road: wider and emerging onto a wider pavement. This they have done.
As you can see it is convenient for the Apple Store. Along the tiled passage to the exit is an exhibition of London Transport posters, 1912 – 1959.
I thought you’d like to see them all as I expect they will soon be replaced by advertising. The graphic art is striking and it’s good the artists are credited: Charles Shapland, Elijah Albert Cox, Dora M Batty, Frederick Charles Herrick, Annie Gertrude Fletcher, Herbert Ashwin Budd, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Frank Newbould, Austin Cooper and Victor Galbraith.
I saw this arresting exhibition on Wednesday evening after spending the day with two friends seeing plenty more art in a beautiful setting and it was free, too.
(to be continued)
All of the LT poster collection are stored at the LT Museum Depot by Acton Town station. An amazing collection of posters and the original artwork: imagine the one with the squeezed paint tubes! The Museum has two open days a year: the next is sometime in September. The curator will take you round the posters, but this is so popular you need to book a slot when you arrive.