For many years London Underground produced posters encouraging spectators to attend the Boat Race by tube. The practice started in 1910 and continued on a regular basis up to 1990. In recent years Transport for London has revived the practice.

The use of posters by London Underground was part of its campaign to encourage use of the tube outside regular peak hours. As such they produced posters for many sporting events such as Wimbledon, Test matches, the Derby, international football matches and a few of the upriver regatta’s. The Boat Race however produced some of the most stunning imagery.

Many famous poster artists produced artwork for London Underground, including Charles Paine, Percy Drake Brookshaw and Henry Perry. Their use of colour and evocative styling always gave the posters a contemporary feel and especially in the 1920’s and 1930’s were at the forefront of the art world.

Most of the posters London Underground produced for the Boat Race would have been small format panel posters to be pasted on the glass draught screens inside Underground trains, they would have been put up 3-4 weeks prior to the race. Occasionally the same poster would advertise both the Boat Race and the Head of the River Race, traditionally held the following weekend giving the poster greater longevity.

A number of these wonderful posters can be seen on display at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden and many more are on the London Transport Museum website where they are also available for purchase.