John Hall : Haunts Of Romance

Between 1922 and 1928 Arthur Watts produced Haunts Of Romance, a series of cartoons gently satirising the emerging tourism industry.
 In The Lonely Lake, crowds flock around a jetty from which a flotilla of packed little craft set off for a trips around the lake. Two individuals stand out , a cowled and cheery motorcyclist with a pipe has paused at a stall, and a lone bearded figure gestures towards the water, his eyeline echoed by a courting couple crossing his path, perhaps towards some crash-landing Icarus out of frame. Otherwise , all is Wodehouse, Bateman and Pooter, bonnets and foxfur.

In The Waterfall, these same crowds, now in summer frocks and rolled trousers cross a river in a crocodile, led by a strawhatted guide. Above them, a bewildered family pause on a footbridge and are lectured by a tweedy bailiff. Below, a lone fly fisher sits on the rocks with a bottle. A packed charabanc– including a concertina player - obstructs a country lane at the expense of locals and visitors alike.
The rural Thames is a highway of crowded punts, noisy hoi-poloi wave their Union jacks, chuck bottles over the side and sing along to not one but two concertinas.
Elsewhere Bourgeoisies in pith helmets throng an ancient tomb, posing heroically for the camera. Stately homes unsettle, intimidate and bore their visitors.

The Smugglers Cave is a hive of entrepreneurialism; photographers, sandwichboardmen carrying cutlasses, tea huts, square yards of invasive and concealing signage. Even our view is blocked by a splayfooted youth, unmovable under the distracted glare of a father loaded down with toy spades, obliged to reach yet again into his pocket.

By 1934, Watts had a brief from the LMS Railway promote their lines and  hotels and to draw attention to the things in-between them, the  towns and coastal attractions of Lancashire Over the Sands, and the fells, mountains and lonely lakes of Westmorland and Cumberland... 

THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT

     
While crossing a field behind Bowness on Windermere, a man looks up and sees three winged figures flying from the direction of the north's industrial heartlands .
 A farmer, pitching hay by the side of the railway tracks near Kendal has seen them too; one leaves a slipstream of flowers; another carries a plate of fruit, another has a suitcase hoisted on its' shoulder. they are pursued by four more winged figures, and a winged dog.

Elsewhere below, all are oblivious, mistaking duck ponds for Windermere, lost in their search for golf courses and perch fishing.

These bewildered and bumptious figures populate the 1934 map; we even hear their thoughts and complaints. But Watts' demographically decreed family are more finely drawn, so as to encourage identification. Granted wings by their LMS purchase, these adventurers pursue the scented garlands of the Holiday Spirit. They are dressed for some sort of non-specific down-time..their walking boots and outdoor clothes presumably are in those suitcases that Hermes is lugging along ahead, as specified in the LMS offer. The Holiday Spirit herself carries the father's golf bag.  Unburdened, almost supplicant in his gratitude, he both follows and leads the way.

ENGAGEMENT

Maps, laminated, with wipe clean surfaces, sealed in clear pouches, or online and shifting under glass.. these are an extension of the protective membrane of outdoor clothing.They are there to stimulate and enable , but minimise chance and misadventure.

This one is here to promote ease of access, to smooth away any doubts about the transition from suburbia to Arcadia.

There are no footpaths here, only railtracks. Why would you walk? The only walkers are a spindly man bent under a rucksack, while his hectoring partner hurries him along to Helvelyn before sunrise. Mountains are rendered uniformly but not topographically; detailed information is available elsewhere. This is not what this map is for.
  Rather than tell you what you will find it tells you what you might: A wishful mermaid rises from Morecambe Bay; she pines for an LMS bed. Perhaps you need only catch her.

Full of literary and artistic lures, using a language devised by Watts and hired by the industry it serves, the Watts map describes a moment in the development of visitor culture and its co-opting of the arts into a leisure offer.  In recognising this, we must recognise our own place in a later stage in that development.

But let's at least  have some fun while we are here; can we revivify Watts' map, and place his moment alongside ours? Among the historical and cultural gobbets , the renderings of the passengers and visitors that are LMS's target we might add our own. Rendered in the language of the map and of the industry we serve, we might add a more recent rendering of the residents and visitors that populate the region as described in the products of Arts Council England's' 2011 and 2017 commissionedaudience segmentation analyses .

"In the context of how the arts fit into people’s everyday lives, (the research) provides new insight into the patterns of arts consumption and attitudes towards the arts, how people spend their leisure time and what competes with the arts for people’s attention.

It also considers socio-demographic factors, media consumption and lifestyles.

The research can be used as a tool to inform marketing and audience development plans for arts organisations, local authorities and other agencies working in the arts. It also contains insights that organisations might find useful for fundraising and in the development of an arts activity itself." ( ACE Arts Audiences Insight, 2011)

By now themselves  historic documents, the   segmentations  capture  moments in the process of determining the relationship between the arts  and its audience. A more recent map might include these and those of the National Trusts as  extra layers of information describing this process: active participation blurs with leisure..a reluctant climber ascends alongside the Mature Explorer...

Close-up Map details provided 
by Lindsay Ward Photography