A poster map of an exhibition at Wembley Park

NORTH, Stanley Kennedy.

British Empire Exhibition 1924. Wembley Park. April-October Its Situation Described In Relation to the Railways of London. Done by Kennedy North 1923.
London: Dobson, Molle & Co. for the British Empire Exhibition, 1924. Chromolithographic map, with half-tones on reverse. Sheet 515 x 760mm.

Minor restoration to original folds.

A pictorial map of the layout of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park in 1924, a swansong for the Empire as it was morphing into the British Commonwealth.
It was for this exhibition that the original Wembley Stadium was built and opened the previous year. The oval is clearly visible, underneath two large areas marked 'Industry' and 'Engineering' and large pavilions for Australia, India & Canada, and smaller ones for other nations, including New Zealand, East Africa, Malay, Burma, Hong Kong & Malta.
Underneath is a diagrammatic map of the rail links to Wembley via the lines that are now London Underground, with a circular 'Circle Line' surrounding a silhouette of Nelson's Column against the London skyline. On the reverse are guides to the pavilions, with a note 'With the Compliments of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph', showing this printing was for the Yorkshire region.

The mapmaker, Stanley Kennedy North (1887-1942), has drawn upon a number of cartographic influences, including strapwork cartouches reminiscent of the first county maps by Christopher Saxton, and the arts and crafts style of the maps of his contemporary Leslie MacDonald Gill (1884-1947).

North later turned to restoring paintings, becoming 'Keeper of the King's Pictures', a semi-formal role later filled by Soviet spy Sir Anthony Blunt.


Stock ID : 22523