Party people can join London Transport Museum for the opening night of its new exhibition, The Poster Prize for Illustration 2019: London Stories at a special love-themed Friday Late on 8 February in the heart of Covent Garden. Guests will be among the first to see one hundred new illustrations, each capturing a different story inspired by life in one of the world’s greatest cities – London.
With a London Lovers cocktail in hand, guests can enjoy a jam-packed evening of activities including talks on travel and romance, a perfume salon allowing visitors to discover the scentsthat were considered attractive in different eras, a tattoo parlour where they can get their lover’s name inked temporarily, and a Victorian craft workshop where they can print their own anti-Valentine’s card.
Be transported by poet Ella Frears’ Love on the Tracks performance in the Museum’s vintage “padded cell” Tube carriage, hear a talk on the good, the bad and the ugly of London’s architecture and go on a guided tour of the new exhibition. There’s also a bar, DJ, and quiz withAmy Bee Sting, one of London’s best quiz masters.
Highlights of the evening:
Talks
- Steamy Romance: step back in time to discover how trains transformed the romantic lives of everyday people. With Sophie Ratcliffe, author of The Lost Properties of Love
- Stardom on the Strand: find out how the Gaiety Girls wowed late-Victorian London, redefined stardom with their daringly modern musical comedies and laid the groundwork for today’s celebrity culture. With Rob Gallagher, editor at strandlines.london, a digital archive celebrating lives on the Strand, past and present
- Architectural Marmite: explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of London’s architecture, and question why it divides us. Topics include brutalism and how high-rise buildings make you feel. With Oliver Green, a Research Fellow for London Transport Museum and a freelance historian, author and curator
- What to expect on a Queer Tour of London: talk by Andrew Lumsden, QTOL guide and founder of Gay News in 1971
- Queer Tours and Accessibility: talk by Josh Hepple, QTOL and Access4All guide, disability equality trainer, and activist
Workshops and performances
- The Scent of Love: perfumer Sarah McCartney is holding a fragrant salon in the Museum’s 1930s lounge. Smell your way through a hundred years of perfume history and discover what scents were considered sexy, romantic, or attractive in different eras
- Temporary Tattoo Parlour: get your lover’s name inked, but without any of the regret! Let our resident face and body painter Jenny Hawkins adorn you with tattoo-inspired designs
- Vinegar Valentines: print your own Vinegar Valentine, the Victorian way to fend off and insult unwanted suitors. Use an original printing press and learn about the history of Fleet Street’s printing industry with objects from St Bride Foundation’s collection
- London LGBT+ Stories: visit a pop-up display of objects documenting London’s LGBT+ transport history; take a photo and record a mini oral history in the Museum’s photo booth for its collecting project; add your own love stories to a giant map of meeting places with London Transport Museum Documentary Curators Ellie Miles and Susanna Cordner. Meet OUTbound, TfL’s LGBT+ staff network group and learn about their work supporting LGBT+ transport workers in London today.
- Love on the Tracks: A short voyage of verse: With Valentine’s Day just a short hop away, join poet Ella Frears in the intimate surroundings of a vintage Tube carriage on an intoxicating voyage of verse themed around London and love
The Exhibition and Museum galleries
London Stories Highlights Tours in the Exterion Media Gallery: join a tour of the new exhibition The Poster Prize for Illustration: London stories and discover more about the artworks on display, with Brian Webb, panel judge for the Prize for Illustration and renowned designer and director of Webb & Webb Design, and Sabine Reimer, the Association of Illustrators’ Awards Manager, and a graphic designer herself. Or browse the exhibition in your own time and then enjoy London Transport Museum’s other galleries.
Bars and music
Try the Museum’s specially concocted seductive London Lovers gin and pomegranate cocktail which is on offer at the special price of 2 for £12 all night, then dance your heart out to a DJ set celebrating London and love. The Upper Deck café bar will also be serving drinks and hot and cold snacks.
The London Stories Friday Late is from 19:00 to 22:00 and entry is £15/£12. Adults only. To book tickets in advance go to www.ltmuseum.co.uk/friday-lates
For further information visit www.ltmuseum.co.uk or call 020 7565 7298.
In addition to the Friday Late event, London Transport Museum is holding a series of talks to coincide with the new Poster Prize for Illustration: London stories exhibition. These three talks are: Living with Buildings and Walking with Ghosts, with Iain Sinclair, Thursday 21 February 2019, starts at 19:00, Bus Fare: Stories of the London Bus, Thursday 21 March 2019, starts at 19:00, London Made Us: A memoir of a Shape-Shifting City with BBC broadcaster Robert Elms, Thursday 4 April 2019, starts at 19:00. All three talks take place in the Cubic Theatre at London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London, WC2E 7BB. Tickets cost £12/£10 and advance booking is available at www.ltmuseum.co.uk.
