LOST IN TRANSITION TFL Lost Property
in tro dex The TFL (transport for London) Lost Property Office, the new Sherlock Holmes, receives over 220,000 items every year from the TfL network: busses,tube & taxis, including bags, books, keys to very unusual things like stuffed eagles and false teeths.
This zine is a taste of what is a weird and wonderful world set in Baker Street by exploring examples of lost objects and their history.
Disposable camera
/ 2012
Beano comic
/ 1987
Post stamps
/ 1976
Pan Am lighter
/ 1971
Moustache grooming kit box
/ 1963
Kodak wallet
/ 1933
Tobacco tin box
/ 1932
Disposable Camera The first cheap camera was wade by Photo-Pac in 1949. It was made of cardboard and could shoot 8 exposures which were then sent-into process. In 1988 Kodak released a plastic film 35 mm version as shown. The economical lenses, fixed focus and arguable quality of film led interest in photographers looking for an
‘easy to shoot’ camera and not so
perfect result. The following photos show where the camera has been.
Found: 2012 / Bus
route 23
(liverpool street station)
35mm
iso 400
Beano comic Beano is a children’s comic first appeared in 1938. Dennis the Menace and it’s other iconic characters have been well known to brithish children for generations. Since 1982 Beano started running “Comic Library” titles which were released monthly and would be long(er) adventures of one of the characters from the comic. These were available only in A5.
Found:
1987 / Bus route 183 ( pinner)
Post stamps These stamps are the first of a series designed by Clive Abbot: the first artist to get his name printed on UK postage stamps he created. The cover displays a drawing of the official uniform of the London General Post Letter Carrier in 1973: beaver hat, scarlet coat with brass buttons and a blue cloth waistcoat. While the back displays an advertisement by the Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada.
Found:
1976 / Circle Line (edgeware road)
Pan Am airlines lighter Pan Am was the largest international airline in the USA from 1927 until it’s fall down in 1991. In the late 1960s the airline was at it’s pinnacle and started advertising themselves under the slogan, “World’s Most Experienced Airline” The Pan Am airlines cigarette lighter was made by penguin in the 60’s
Found:
1971 / Taxi (richmond)
Moustache grooming kit box The moustaches had a mixed history in Britain with the Victorian age being at its peak.
“In the gentlemen’s clubs of St James’s, to appear with a naked upper lip was as unacceptable as forgetting to put on your trousers, and probably rarer.” Michael Leapman
In between the wars the portrayal of the mustache slightly changed coming off as an untrustworthy sign. As time changed after the IIWW the ‘stache had a comeback being a sign of unriffled elegange.
Found:
1963 / Hammersmith & City (Hammersmith)
Kodak wallet Small film envelopes were made around the 1920’s by the Kodak company for people to send their photographs to get developed and enlarged. The wallet was found containing a collection of negatives from people’s portraits to landscapes.
Found:
1933 / Taxi (kensington)
Tobacco tin box John Player & Sons a.k.a. Player’s, was a tobacco and cigarette manufacturer from Nottingham, In 1877 John Player bought the business from William Wright, as it was getting larger, who set it up in Broadmarsh in 1832. The Innovation that John Player brought was to prepack the tabacco where as before customers would have had to buy it loosely, He also guaranteed quality by registering a trademark. The tin box was found not containing tobacco, but tiny screws.
Found:
1932 / Piccadilly line (cockfosters)