Life in Britain Today - A Typical City Thoroughfare

whole: the image is positioned in the upper four-fifths, held within a narrow black border. The title and text are separate and positioned along the top edge, in white outlined black, and in the lower fifth, in black. All set against a white background. image: a depiction of a busy London street, lined with buildings and shops. Pedestrians rush along the pavements, whilst dense traffic is packed along the road. text: LIFE IN BRITAIN TO-DAY GOLDEN. Painted by Grace Golden A TYPICAL CITY THOROUGHFARE This artist's impression of a typical scene in a busy thoroughfare is characteristic of a main shopping street such as may be found in any of the larger British towns. Omnibuses, some of which carry 72 passengers and each of which keeps to its set route and time schedule, traverse the streets, while private motor cars, commercial motor vehicles, taxicabs and motorcycles, all going their different ways, add to the immense number of vehicles in the streets. There are 50,000 omnibuses in operation in Great Britain, and in one British city alone 6,000 omnibuses and coaches run a distance of 287,000,000 miles in a year, carrying more than 2,222,700,000 passengers in a year, or over 6,000,000 people a day! Over 3,000,000 private motor vehicles and nearly 500,000 commercial motor vehicles are travelling on Britain's roads. The churches have always been the centre of British town and country life, and to-day in many towns are examples of beautifully designed churches still standing after hundreds of years, whilst around them has developed a busy town or suburb. This is illustrated in the picture above, where are seen shops, stores, cinemas and flats in a variety of styles of architecture. Shoppers throng the pavements, and to these shoppers the stores and small-traders offer a wide variety of goods from well-stocked counters. The shops vie with each other in their window displays, for window dressing is an advanced and acknowledged art - the art of attracting customers. The bulk of the shoppers live in the residential suburbs outside the busy city, but - travelling by speedy electric Underground trains - they can easily reach the city's main shopping and entertainment centre. The cinemas, whose performances start at 11 o'clock in the morning and continue until late evening, exhibit the latest films and news reels from all over the world - many of them being in colour. They are usually the rendezvous for shoppers during the afternoon, and at night are filled with people who have been at their work during the day. At the outbreak of the war lighting was dimmed, but gradually better lighting is being resumed. At night in peace times these streets were a blaze of light from street lamps, shop windows, cinemas, and advertising signs. Some people, for convenience, like to be near their work and live in flats in the heart of the city. A block of these modern flats is seen on the left of the picture. The main street bustles with traffic and humanity from early morning until late evening, when shoppers, cinema and theatre crowds wend their way to the Underground railway stations to return home. G.P.D. 377/38/9 Printed in England.

GPD 377/38/9 This poster was printed in Great Britain, presumably for distribution abroad A Hebrew language (PST 16296), Arabic language (PST 16297) and Persian language (PST 16298) version were also produced Part of the Life in Britain Today poster series (see PST 16291 to 16294, and PST 16299 to PST 16332)