London Stories told at Serco Prize for Illustration exhibition

This year’s Serco Prize for Illustration is all about depicting London tales, urban myths, anecdotes and historic legends.

Main exhibition image by Anne Wilson

Entrants were asked to create an illustration which visually captures ‘a well-known or obscure London narrative’ – real or imagined.

Mole man by Nicola Pontin

Illustrators have brought to life ghost buses, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show of 1887, Lenin’s ‘love letter to London’, a Pearly King and Queen, and an escaped monkey jazz band – the later presumably being based on a true story.

Going to Work by Fasbio Corazza

Meanwhile there are a plenty of literary and musical references, including The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Girl from Petrovka, Mary Poppins, Sweeny Todd, and Oranges and Lemons.
The 50 best London Stories will be exhibited at a London Transport Museum show which the museum has put together in partnership with the Association of Illustrators.

Covent Garden by Hayley Chan

It’s a fitting venue for the exhibition as it holds more than 5,000 posters and artworks by the likes of Man Ray, Paul Nash and Edward McKnight Kauffer.

Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night by David Oku

The Serco Prize for Illustration 2014 London Stories exhibition runs from 14 February - 6 April at the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, WC2E 

(Wed, 12 Feb 2014 | By Tom Banks)