Seats of London: A Field Guide to London Transport Moquette Patterns

by Andrew Martin

Moquette is the carpet-like fabric covering the seats we sit on in London's Tubes, buses, trams and Overground trains - and here is a brilliantly colourful guide to all its patterns. London Transport has always wanted the best design, be it Charles Holden's superb art deco Tube stations on the Piccadilly Line, its elegant Johnston typeface or Harry Beck's Tube map. And this pursuit of excellence has extended even to the design of the fabrics it covers our bus and Tube seats moquette. In the Thirties top artists like Paul Nash and Enid Marx were commissioned to design patterns; nowadays every line like Crossrail or the Overground gets its own unique, colour-co-ordinated moquette pattern. Now, in conjunction with the London Transport Museum, which has the definitive London Transport moquette archive, Andrew Martin has written a delightful, surprising and covetable guide to all these patterns, from the first horse bus to the latest Tube train.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Art

192 pages, Paperback

Published September 26, 2019

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Andrew Martin (born 6 July 1962) is an English novelist and journalist.

Martin was brought up in Yorkshire, studied at the University of Oxford and qualified as a barrister. He has since worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications while writing novels, starting with Bilton, a comic novel about journalists, and The Bobby Dazzlers, a comic novel set in the North of England, for which he was named Spectator Young Writer of the Year. His series of detective novels about Jim Stringer, a railwayman reassigned to the North Eastern Railway Police in Edwardian England, includes The Necropolis Railway, The Blackpool Highflyer, The Lost Luggage Porter, Murder at Deviation Junction and Death on a Branch Line. He has also written the non-fiction book; How to Get Things Really Flat: A Man's Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another entertaining read to add to my collection of books about the Lonon Underground.
This one is a guide to the mosquette (French for carpet) patterns used on seating across the tube, bus & tram routes of London. There are plenty of photographs & an informative text.
My sister in law laughed when she saw I had been given this as a Chrsitmas present from my wife. I on the other hand was very happy, especially as it came with a collection of items based on the Elizabeth Line mosquette-a mug, a keyring, a scarf & a pair of socks. Being a nerd about the London Underground does have its compensations when it comes to Chrsitmas time!

[Hazyhazy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far too much about the vehicles and not enough about the designers, for me. Would not want to sit next to the author on a long journey. Colour reproduction in the photos is dingy and pics are uncaptioned so quite a lot of rooting around in the text required to determine the name of the design, designer, year etc. Not the joyous exploration of textiles I had been hoping for.

[Timo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voor het brede publiek - waar ik mezelf deel van acht - is het boek soms wat te ondoorgrondelijk. Een studiereis naar Londen lijkt dan ook noodzakelijk.

[David White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating little book, lots of great insight and info on designs and designers. A trip down memory lane....and trains 😀