Frank Pick
Encyclopedia
Frank Pick LLB Hon. RIBA
(23 November 1878 – 7 November 1941) was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway
, before moving to the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
(UERL) in 1906. At the UERL he rose through the corporate ranks, becoming joint assistant managing director in 1921 and managing director in 1928. He was chief executive officer
and vice-chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board
from its creation in 1933 until 1940.
He steered the development of the London Underground
's corporate identity
by commissioning eye-catching commercial art
, graphic design
and modern architecture, establishing a highly recognisable brand. Pick's interest in design extended beyond his own organisation and he was a founding member and later served as President of the Design and Industries Association
. He was also the first chairman of the Council for Art and Industry.
, Lincolnshire
. He was the first child of five born to draper
Francis Pick and his wife Fanny Pick (née Clarke). Pick's paternal grandfather, Charles Pick, was a farmer in Spalding who died in his forties leaving eight children. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Clarke, was a blacksmith and Wesleyan lay preacher
. As a child, Frank Pick was bookish, preferring to read and build collections of moths and butterflies and objects found on the beach rather than take part in sports.
Before becoming a draper, Pick's father had had an ambition to become a lawyer and he encouraged his son to follow this career. He attended St Peter's School
in York
on a scholarship
, but failed to get a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford
. Instead, he was articled
to a York solicitor, George Crombie, in March 1897. He qualified in January 1902 and completed a law degree at the University of London
in the same year, but he was not sufficiently interested in a legal career to apply to be admitted to practice.
In 1902, Pick began working for the North Eastern Railway, first working in the company's traffic statistics department before becoming assistant to the company's general manager, Sir George Gibb
in 1904. In 1904, Pick married Mabel Mary Caroline Woodhouse. The couple had no children.
(MDR) and, during 1906 and 1907, opened three deep-level tube lines – the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway
(Bakerloo tube), the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (Hampstead tube) and the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
(Piccadilly tube).
The UERL had financial problems. Ticket prices were low and passenger numbers were significantly below the pre-opening estimates. The lower than expected passenger numbers were partly due to competition between the UERL's lines and those of the other tube and sub-surface railway companies, and the spread of electric trams and motor buses, replacing slower, horse-drawn road transport, took a large number of passengers away from the trains.
, began developing the strong corporate identity and visual style for which the London Underground
later became famous, including the introduction of the "UNDERGROUND" brand. Pick's philosophy on design was that "the test of the goodness of a thing is its fitness for use. If it fails on this first test, no amount of ornamentation or finish will make it any better; it will only make it more expensive, more foolish."
In 1909, Pick became traffic development officer and he became commercial manager in 1912. Albert Stanley replaced Gibb as managing director in 1910. During 1912 and 1913, the UERL increased its control over transport services in London through the purchase of two tube railways, the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) and Central London Railway
(CLR), and a number of bus and tram
companies. One of Pick's responsibilities was to increase passenger numbers and he saw that the best way to achieve this was to encourage the use of the company's services outside peak hours. He began commissioning posters promoting the recreational use of the Underground's trains and London General Omnibus Company
's (LGOC's) buses to reach the countryside around London or attractions within the city. Pick realised that variety was important to maintain travellers' interest and he commissioned designs from artists working in many different styles. At the same time, he rationalised bus routes to ensure that they complemented and acted as feeder services for the company's railway lines; tripling the number of LGOC operated routes during 1912 and extending the area covered to five times its previous size.
Pick introduced a common advertising policy; improving the appearance of stations by standardising poster sizes, limiting the number used and controlling their positioning. Before he took control of advertising, posters had been stuck up on any available surface on station buildings and platform walls in a crowded jumble of shapes and sizes that led to complaints from passengers that it was difficult to find the station name. Pick standardised commercial poster sizes on printers' double crown sheets, arranging these in organised groups to enable the station name to be easily seen. The Underground's own promotional posters were smaller, using single or paired double royal sheets, and were arranged separately from the commercial advertising. Pick described the process: "after many fumbling experiments I arrived at some notion of how poster advertising ought to be. Everyone seemed quite pleased and I got a reputation that really sprang out of nothing."
To make the Underground Group's posters and signage more distinctive he commissioned calligrapher
and typographer Edward Johnston
to design a clear new typeface
. Pick specified to Johnston in 1913 that he wanted a typeface that would ensure that the Underground Group's posters would not be mistaken for advertisements; it should have "the bold simplicity of the authentic lettering of the finest periods" and belong "unmistakably to the twentieth century". Johnston's sans serif
"Underground" typeface, (now known as Johnston
) was first used in 1916 and was so successful that, with minor modifications in recent years, it is still in use today.
In conjunction with his changes to poster display arrangements, Pick experimented with the positioning and sizing of station name signs on platforms, which were often inadequate in number or poorly placed. In 1908, he settled on an arrangement where the sign was backed by a red disc to make it stand out clearly, creating the "bulls-eye" device – the earliest form of what is today known as the roundel. In 1909, Pick started to combine the "bulls-eye" and the "UNDERGROUND" brand on posters and station buildings, but was not satisfied with the arrangement. By 1916, he had decided to adapt the logo used by the LGOC, the Underground Group's bus company, which was in the form of a ring with a bar bearing the name "GENERAL" across the centre. Pick commissioned Johnston to redesign the "bulls-eye" and the form used today is based on that developed by Johnston and first used in 1919.
in 1910, and the extension of the Bakerloo tube to Watford Junction
between 1913 and 1917. In 1919, with a return to normality after the First World War, Pick began developing plans to extend the Underground network out into suburbs that lacked adequate transport services. Permitted schemes put on hold during the war were revived: the CLR was extended to Ealing Broadway
in 1920, the Hampstead tube was extended to Edgware
between 1923 and 1924 and the C&SLR was reconstructed and extended to Camden Town
between 1922 and 1924. In 1921, Pick became joint assistant managing director of the Underground Group.
One of the most pressing needs for a new Underground service was in north-east London where the mainline suburban services of the Great Northern Railway
and Great Eastern Railway
were poor and unreliable with particular problems around the interchange between trains, tubes, trams and buses at Finsbury Park
. Neither company was prepared to allow competition within its territory and agreements signed by the UERL before the Piccadilly tube was constructed presented a major hurdle to any extension from Finsbury Park. Pick decided that the extension of the C&SLR south-west from Clapham Common
to Sutton
in Surrey presented an easier opportunity. Pick still faced strong opposition from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
and the London and South Western Railway
which operated in the area, but the UERL had the advantage of already having an approval for the last few miles of the route as part of an unused pre-war permission for a new line from Wimbledon to Sutton
. The companies challenged the need for a new service, claiming it would simply drain passengers from their own trains and that any extension should only run as far as Tooting
. Pick was able to counter their arguments and negotiated a compromise settlement to extend the C&SLR as far as Morden
.
In 1924, with plans for the extension developing, Pick commissioned architect Charles Holden
to design the station buildings in a modern style. The designs replaced a set by the UERL's own architect, Stanley Heaps
, which Pick had found unsatisfactory. Pick had first met Holden at the Design and Industries Association
. Over the next sixteen years they worked closely together on projects across the Underground network including the Underground Group headquarters at 55 Broadway
, St. James's
(1927–1929) and the modernisation of many central London stations. In 1930, Pick and Holden made a tour of Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden to see the latest developments in modern architecture. The UERL was planning extensions of the Piccadilly line
to the west, north-west and north of London, and Pick wanted a new type of station. The designs Pick commissioned from Holden (1931–33) adapted the architectural styles they had seen on the tour and established a new standard for the Underground.
In 1928, Pick became joint managing director of the Underground Group, and when, on 1 July 1933, the group was taken into public ownership to form part of the London Passenger Transport Board
(LPTB), he became chief executive officer
and vice-chairman, on an annual salary of £10,000 (approximately £ in present day terms). Albert Stanley (ennobled as Lord Ashfield in 1920) was chairman.
The extensions of the Piccadilly line
to Uxbridge
, Hounslow
and Cockfosters
were completed in 1933. On the Metropolitan Railway
, Pick and Ashfield instigated a rationalisation of services. The barely used and loss-making Brill
and Verney Junction
branches beyond Aylesbury
were closed in 1935 and 1936. Freight services were reduced and electrification of the remaining steam operated sections of the line was planned. In 1935, the availability of government-backed loans to stimulate the flagging economy allowed Pick and Ashfield to promote system-wide improvements under the New Works Programme for 1935–1940
, including the transfer of the Metropolitan line
's Stanmore
services to the Bakerloo line
in 1939, the Northern line
's Northern Heights project and extension of the Central line
to Ongar
and Denham
.Much of the works were interrupted by World War II
. After the War, changed priorities, funding shortages and the creation of London's Metropolitan Green Belt
led to much of the Northern line expansion plan being cancelled and delays in completing other plans.
On 18 May 1940, with his health failing, Pick retired from the LPTB at the end of his seven-year appointment with the board.
in London, at the Royal Scottish Academy
in Edinburgh and elsewhere. After the First World War, Pick continued to give talks regularly and published articles on design and also began to set out his ideas on reconstruction and town planning, an area of design he became interested through its connection to transport planning. He wrote and lectured extensively on this subject during the 1920s and 1930s including presenting a 14,000 word paper to the Institute of Transport in 1927 and addressing the International Housing and Town Planning Congress in 1939. Concerned about the uncontrolled and unchecked growth of London, partly facilitated by the new lines that London Underground was building, Pick was a strong supporter of the need for a green belt around the capital to maintain open space within reach of urban areas.
In 1922 he wrote and published privately a pamphlet This is the World that Man Made, or The New Creation that was influenced by the rationalist writing of Ray Lankester
. In it Pick was pessimistic that mankind was not achieving its creative potential. Later, in the last year of his life and with the Second World War under way, he published two booklets on post war reconstruction, Britain Must Rebuild and Paths to Peace. Pick wrote the introduction to the English translation of Walter Gropius
's The New Architecture and the Bauhaus published in 1935.
Beside his position at the UERL and LPTB, Pick held a number of industrial administrative and advisory positions. In 1917, during the First World War, Pick was appointed to be head of the Mines Directorate's Household Fuel and Lighting Department at the Board of Trade
where Albert Stanley was the President of the Board of Trade. Pick was responsible for the control of the rationing and distribution of domestic fuel supplies. He remained in this position until June 1919. In 1928, he was appointed as a member of the Royal Commission On Police Powers and Procedure. He also served as a member of the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee
and as a member of the Crown Lands Advisory Committee.
Pick was President of the Institute of Transport
for 1931/32. He was President of the Design and Industries Association from 1932 to 1934 and the chairman of the Board of Trade's Council for Art and Industry from 1934 to 1939.
During 1938 with expectations of approaching war, the government appointed Pick to plan the transport operations for the evacuation of civilians from London
. Initially scheduled for 30 September 1938, these were cancelled when Neville Chamberlain
's Munich conference with Adolf Hitler
averted war that year, but were activated a year later at the beginning of September 1939 on the declaration of war with Germany. After leaving the LPTB, Pick visited British ports for the Ministry of Transport
to examine ways of speeding up cargo unloading. In August 1940 he was appointed director-general of the Ministry of Information. His time at the Ministry of Information was short and unhappy and he left after four months and returned to the Ministry of Transport, where he carried out studies on improvements in the use of Britain's canals and rivers.
Lord Ashfield considered that Pick possessed "a sterling character and steadfast loyalty", and "an administrative ability which was outstanding", with "a keen analytical mind which was able to seize upon essentials and then drive his way through to his goal, always strengthened by a sure knowledge of the problem and confidence in himself." Charles Holden described Pick's management of meetings: "Here his decisions were those of a benevolent dictator, and the members left the meeting with a clear sense of a task to be performed, difficult, perhaps, and sometimes impossible, as might subsequently prove to be, but usually well worth exploring if only in producing convincing proof of obstacles. Out of these exploratory methods there often emerged new and most interesting solutions, which Pick was quick to appreciate, and to adopt in substitution for his own proposals."
Disliking honours, Pick declined the offer of a knighthood and a peerage
. He did accept, in 1932, the Soviet Union
's Honorary Badge of Merit for his advice on the construction of the Moscow Metro
. He was an honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects
.
on 11 November 1941 and a memorial service was held at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square on 13 November 1941.
Working with Lord Ashfield, Pick's impact on London's transport system was considerable. Transport historian Christian Wolmar
considers it "almost impossible to exaggerate the high regard in which LT was held during its all too brief heyday, attracting official visitors from around the world eager to learn the lessons of its success and apply them in their own countries." and that "it represented the apogee of a type of confident public administration ... with a reputation that any state organisation today would envy ... only made possible by the brilliance of its two famous leaders, Ashfield and Pick." In his obituary of Pick, Charles Holden described him as "the Maecenas
of our time." Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner
described Pick as "the greatest patron of the arts whom this century has so far produced in England, and indeed the ideal patron of our age." Historian Michael Saler compared Pick's influence on London Transport to that of Lord Reith
on the BBC
's development during the same, interwar, period. Urban planner Sir Peter Hall
suggested that Pick "had as much influence on London's development in the twentieth century as Haussmann had on that of Paris in the nineteenth", and historian Anthony Sutcliffe compared him to Robert Moses
, the city planner responsible for many urban infrastructure projects in New York.
Pick's will was probate
d at £36,433 12s 9d
(approximately £ in present day terms). In his will he bequeathed a painting, Ely, by Francis Dodd
to the Tate Gallery
. He is commemorated with a memorial plaque at St Peter's School, York, unveiled in 1953 by Lord Latham
, and a blue plaque
was erected at his Golders Green home in 1981.
Transport for London
and the London Transport Museum maintain archives of Pick's business and personal papers.
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(23 November 1878 – 7 November 1941) was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway
North Eastern Railway (UK)
The North Eastern Railway , was an English railway company. It was incorporated in 1854, when four existing companies were combined, and was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923...
, before moving to the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...
(UERL) in 1906. At the UERL he rose through the corporate ranks, becoming joint assistant managing director in 1921 and managing director in 1928. He was chief executive officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
and vice-chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
from its creation in 1933 until 1940.
He steered the development of the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
's corporate identity
Corporate identity
In Corporate Communications, a corporate identity is the "persona" of a corporation which is designed to accord with and facilitate the attainment of business objectives...
by commissioning eye-catching commercial art
Commercial art
Commercial art is historically a subsector of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. The term has become increasingly anachronistic in favor of more contemporary terms such as graphic design and advertising art.Commercial art traditionally...
, graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
and modern architecture, establishing a highly recognisable brand. Pick's interest in design extended beyond his own organisation and he was a founding member and later served as President of the Design and Industries Association
Design and Industries Association
The Design and Industries Association is a United Kingdom charity whose object is to engage with all those who share a common interest in the contribution that design can make to the delivery of goods and services that are sustainable and enhance the quality of life for communities and the...
. He was also the first chairman of the Council for Art and Industry.
Early life
Frank Pick was born on 23 November 1878 at SpaldingSpalding, Lincolnshire
Spalding is a market town with a population of 30,000 on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. Little London is a hamlet directly south of Spalding on the B1172 road....
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
. He was the first child of five born to draper
Draper
Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...
Francis Pick and his wife Fanny Pick (née Clarke). Pick's paternal grandfather, Charles Pick, was a farmer in Spalding who died in his forties leaving eight children. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Clarke, was a blacksmith and Wesleyan lay preacher
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
. As a child, Frank Pick was bookish, preferring to read and build collections of moths and butterflies and objects found on the beach rather than take part in sports.
Before becoming a draper, Pick's father had had an ambition to become a lawyer and he encouraged his son to follow this career. He attended St Peter's School
St Peter's School, York
St Peter's School is a co-educational independent boarding and day school located in the English City of York, with extensive grounds on the banks of the River Ouse...
in York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
on a scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
, but failed to get a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
. Instead, he was articled
Articled clerk
An articled clerk, also known as an articling student, is an apprentice in a professional firm in Commonwealth countries. Generally the term arises in the accountancy profession and in the legal profession. The articled clerk signs a contract, known as "articles of clerkship", committing to a...
to a York solicitor, George Crombie, in March 1897. He qualified in January 1902 and completed a law degree at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
in the same year, but he was not sufficiently interested in a legal career to apply to be admitted to practice.
In 1902, Pick began working for the North Eastern Railway, first working in the company's traffic statistics department before becoming assistant to the company's general manager, Sir George Gibb
George Gibb
Sir George Stegmann Gibb was a Scottish transport administrator who served as the general manager of the North Eastern Railway, managing director of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, and as chairman of the former British Road Board.-Early life:George Gibb was born in Aberdeen,...
in 1904. In 1904, Pick married Mabel Mary Caroline Woodhouse. The couple had no children.
London's transport
In 1906, Gibb was appointed managing director of the UERL. At Gibb's invitation, Pick also moved to the UERL to continue working as his assistant. The UERL controlled the Metropolitan District RailwayMetropolitan District Railway
The Metropolitan District Railway was the predecessor of the District line of the London Underground. Set up on 29 July 1864, at first to complete the "Inner Circle" railway around central London, it was gradually extended into the suburbs...
(MDR) and, during 1906 and 1907, opened three deep-level tube lines – the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway
Baker Street and Waterloo Railway
The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway , also known as the Bakerloo tube, was a railway company established in 1893 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London...
(Bakerloo tube), the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (Hampstead tube) and the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway , also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The GNP&BR was formed through a merger of two older companies, the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus...
(Piccadilly tube).
The UERL had financial problems. Ticket prices were low and passenger numbers were significantly below the pre-opening estimates. The lower than expected passenger numbers were partly due to competition between the UERL's lines and those of the other tube and sub-surface railway companies, and the spread of electric trams and motor buses, replacing slower, horse-drawn road transport, took a large number of passengers away from the trains.
Branding – a clear identity
By 1908, Pick had become publicity officer responsible for marketing and it was at this time that he, working with the company's general manager Albert StanleyAlbert Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield
Albert Henry Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield, PC, TD , born Albert Henry Knattriess, was a British-American who was managing director, then chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London from 1910 to 1933 and chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board from 1933 to 1947.Although...
, began developing the strong corporate identity and visual style for which the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
later became famous, including the introduction of the "UNDERGROUND" brand. Pick's philosophy on design was that "the test of the goodness of a thing is its fitness for use. If it fails on this first test, no amount of ornamentation or finish will make it any better; it will only make it more expensive, more foolish."
In 1909, Pick became traffic development officer and he became commercial manager in 1912. Albert Stanley replaced Gibb as managing director in 1910. During 1912 and 1913, the UERL increased its control over transport services in London through the purchase of two tube railways, the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) and Central London Railway
Central London Railway
The Central London Railway , also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railway that opened in London in 1900...
(CLR), and a number of bus and tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
companies. One of Pick's responsibilities was to increase passenger numbers and he saw that the best way to achieve this was to encourage the use of the company's services outside peak hours. He began commissioning posters promoting the recreational use of the Underground's trains and London General Omnibus Company
London General Omnibus Company
The London General Omnibus Company or LGOC, was the principal bus operator in London between 1855 and 1933. It was also, for a short period between 1909 and 1912, a motor bus manufacturer.- Overview :...
's (LGOC's) buses to reach the countryside around London or attractions within the city. Pick realised that variety was important to maintain travellers' interest and he commissioned designs from artists working in many different styles. At the same time, he rationalised bus routes to ensure that they complemented and acted as feeder services for the company's railway lines; tripling the number of LGOC operated routes during 1912 and extending the area covered to five times its previous size.
Pick introduced a common advertising policy; improving the appearance of stations by standardising poster sizes, limiting the number used and controlling their positioning. Before he took control of advertising, posters had been stuck up on any available surface on station buildings and platform walls in a crowded jumble of shapes and sizes that led to complaints from passengers that it was difficult to find the station name. Pick standardised commercial poster sizes on printers' double crown sheets, arranging these in organised groups to enable the station name to be easily seen. The Underground's own promotional posters were smaller, using single or paired double royal sheets, and were arranged separately from the commercial advertising. Pick described the process: "after many fumbling experiments I arrived at some notion of how poster advertising ought to be. Everyone seemed quite pleased and I got a reputation that really sprang out of nothing."
To make the Underground Group's posters and signage more distinctive he commissioned calligrapher
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
and typographer Edward Johnston
Edward Johnston
Edward Johnston, CBE was a British-Uruguayan craftsman who is regarded, with Rudolf Koch, as the a father of modern calligraphy, in the form of the broad edged pen as a writing tool, a particular form of calligraphy....
to design a clear new typeface
Typeface
In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....
. Pick specified to Johnston in 1913 that he wanted a typeface that would ensure that the Underground Group's posters would not be mistaken for advertisements; it should have "the bold simplicity of the authentic lettering of the finest periods" and belong "unmistakably to the twentieth century". Johnston's sans serif
Sans-serif
In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif or san serif typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without"....
"Underground" typeface, (now known as Johnston
Johnston (typeface)
Johnston is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. It is well known for its use by Transport for London....
) was first used in 1916 and was so successful that, with minor modifications in recent years, it is still in use today.
In conjunction with his changes to poster display arrangements, Pick experimented with the positioning and sizing of station name signs on platforms, which were often inadequate in number or poorly placed. In 1908, he settled on an arrangement where the sign was backed by a red disc to make it stand out clearly, creating the "bulls-eye" device – the earliest form of what is today known as the roundel. In 1909, Pick started to combine the "bulls-eye" and the "UNDERGROUND" brand on posters and station buildings, but was not satisfied with the arrangement. By 1916, he had decided to adapt the logo used by the LGOC, the Underground Group's bus company, which was in the form of a ring with a bar bearing the name "GENERAL" across the centre. Pick commissioned Johnston to redesign the "bulls-eye" and the form used today is based on that developed by Johnston and first used in 1919.
Expansion – growing the network
The only major extensions made to the UERL's network since the three tube lines had opened were the extension of the MDR to UxbridgeUxbridge tube station
Uxbridge is a London Underground station in Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon, north-west London. The station is the terminus of the Uxbridge branches of both the Metropolitan Line and the Piccadilly Line. The next station towards London is Hillingdon. The station is 15.5 miles west of...
in 1910, and the extension of the Bakerloo tube to Watford Junction
Watford Junction railway station
On 23 January 1975, an express train from Manchester to Euston derailed just south of Watford Junction after striking some stillages that had fallen on to the track. It then collided with a sleeper service from Euston to Glasgow. The driver of the Manchester train was killed, and eight passengers...
between 1913 and 1917. In 1919, with a return to normality after the First World War, Pick began developing plans to extend the Underground network out into suburbs that lacked adequate transport services. Permitted schemes put on hold during the war were revived: the CLR was extended to Ealing Broadway
Ealing Broadway station
Ealing Broadway is an east-west National Rail and London Underground station in Ealing in west London. The station is located in Haven Green , at the termination of The Broadway, and is in Travelcard Zone 3.-Services:...
in 1920, the Hampstead tube was extended to Edgware
Edgware tube station
Edgware tube station is a London Underground station in Edgware, in the London Borough of Barnet, in North London. The station is the terminus of the Edgware branch of the Northern Line and the next station towards central London is . Edgware is in Travelcard Zone 5.-Location:The station is in...
between 1923 and 1924 and the C&SLR was reconstructed and extended to Camden Town
Camden Town tube station
Camden Town tube station is a major junction on the Northern Line and one of the busiest stations on the London Underground network...
between 1922 and 1924. In 1921, Pick became joint assistant managing director of the Underground Group.
One of the most pressing needs for a new Underground service was in north-east London where the mainline suburban services of the Great Northern Railway
Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....
and Great Eastern Railway
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia...
were poor and unreliable with particular problems around the interchange between trains, tubes, trams and buses at Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park station
Finsbury Park Station is a busy transport interchange in North London. The interchange consists of an interconnected National Rail station, London Underground station and two bus stations. The main entrances are by the eastern bus station on Station Place...
. Neither company was prepared to allow competition within its territory and agreements signed by the UERL before the Piccadilly tube was constructed presented a major hurdle to any extension from Finsbury Park. Pick decided that the extension of the C&SLR south-west from Clapham Common
Clapham Common tube station
Clapham Common tube station is a station on London Underground's Northern Line. It lies between Clapham North and Clapham South stations and is in Travelcard Zone 2.-History:...
to Sutton
Sutton, London
Sutton is a large suburban town in southwest London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Sutton. It is located south-southwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. The town was connected to central London by...
in Surrey presented an easier opportunity. Pick still faced strong opposition from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
and the London and South Western Railway
London and South Western Railway
The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...
which operated in the area, but the UERL had the advantage of already having an approval for the last few miles of the route as part of an unused pre-war permission for a new line from Wimbledon to Sutton
Wimbledon and Sutton Railway
The Wimbledon and Sutton Railway was a railway company established by an Act of Parliament in 1910 to build a railway line in Surrey from Wimbledon to Sutton via Merton and Morden in the United Kingdom. The railway was promoted by local landowners hoping to increase the value of their land...
. The companies challenged the need for a new service, claiming it would simply drain passengers from their own trains and that any extension should only run as far as Tooting
Tooting
Tooting is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
. Pick was able to counter their arguments and negotiated a compromise settlement to extend the C&SLR as far as Morden
Morden tube station
Morden is a London Underground station in Morden in the London Borough of Merton. The station is the southern terminus for the Northern line and is the most southerly station on the Underground network. The next station north is...
.
Charles Holden
Charles Henry Holden, Litt. D., FRIBA, MRTPI, RDI was a Bolton-born English architect best known for designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s, for Bristol Central Library, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at 55 Broadway and for the...
to design the station buildings in a modern style. The designs replaced a set by the UERL's own architect, Stanley Heaps
Stanley Heaps
Stanley A. Heaps was an English architect responsible for the design of a number of stations on the London Underground system as well as the design of train depots and bus and trolleybus garages for London Transport.-Works:...
, which Pick had found unsatisfactory. Pick had first met Holden at the Design and Industries Association
Design and Industries Association
The Design and Industries Association is a United Kingdom charity whose object is to engage with all those who share a common interest in the contribution that design can make to the delivery of goods and services that are sustainable and enhance the quality of life for communities and the...
. Over the next sixteen years they worked closely together on projects across the Underground network including the Underground Group headquarters at 55 Broadway
55 Broadway
55 Broadway is a notable building overlooking St. James's Park in London. It was designed by Charles Holden and built between 1927 and 1929, and in 1931 the building earned him the RIBA London Architecture Medal...
, St. James's
St. James's
St James's is an area of central London in the City of Westminster. It is bounded to the north by Piccadilly, to the west by Green Park, to the south by The Mall and St. James's Park and to the east by The Haymarket.-History:...
(1927–1929) and the modernisation of many central London stations. In 1930, Pick and Holden made a tour of Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden to see the latest developments in modern architecture. The UERL was planning extensions of the Piccadilly line
Piccadilly Line
The Piccadilly line is a line of the London Underground, coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fifth busiest line on the Underground network judged by the number of passengers transported per year. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1, with...
to the west, north-west and north of London, and Pick wanted a new type of station. The designs Pick commissioned from Holden (1931–33) adapted the architectural styles they had seen on the tour and established a new standard for the Underground.
In 1928, Pick became joint managing director of the Underground Group, and when, on 1 July 1933, the group was taken into public ownership to form part of the London Passenger Transport Board
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
(LPTB), he became chief executive officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
and vice-chairman, on an annual salary of £10,000 (approximately £ in present day terms). Albert Stanley (ennobled as Lord Ashfield in 1920) was chairman.
The extensions of the Piccadilly line
Piccadilly Line
The Piccadilly line is a line of the London Underground, coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fifth busiest line on the Underground network judged by the number of passengers transported per year. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1, with...
to Uxbridge
Uxbridge tube station
Uxbridge is a London Underground station in Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon, north-west London. The station is the terminus of the Uxbridge branches of both the Metropolitan Line and the Piccadilly Line. The next station towards London is Hillingdon. The station is 15.5 miles west of...
, Hounslow
Hounslow West tube station
Hounslow West is a London Underground station in Hounslow in west London. The station is on the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly Line, between Hatton Cross and Hounslow Central stations. The station is located on Bath Road about 600m from the junction of Bath Road, Great West Road and Great...
and Cockfosters
Cockfosters tube station
Cockfosters is a London Underground station on the Piccadilly Line for which it is the northern terminus. The station is located on Cockfosters Road approximately 9 miles from central London and serves Cockfosters in the London Borough of Barnet although it is actually located a short distance...
were completed in 1933. On the Metropolitan Railway
Metropolitan railway
Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...
, Pick and Ashfield instigated a rationalisation of services. The barely used and loss-making Brill
Brill Tramway
The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway, Wotton Tramway, Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and Metropolitan Railway Brill Branch, was a six-mile rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England...
and Verney Junction
Verney Junction railway station
Verney Junction was a railway station at a junction serving four directions between 1868 and 1968 and from where excursions as far as Ramsgate could be booked...
branches beyond Aylesbury
Aylesbury railway station
Aylesbury railway station is a railway station in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England and is a major stop on the London to Aylesbury Line from Marylebone station via Amersham. It is 37.75 miles from Aylesbury Station to Marylebone Station...
were closed in 1935 and 1936. Freight services were reduced and electrification of the remaining steam operated sections of the line was planned. In 1935, the availability of government-backed loans to stimulate the flagging economy allowed Pick and Ashfield to promote system-wide improvements under the New Works Programme for 1935–1940
New Works Programme
The "New Works Programme, 1935 - 1940" was the major investment programme delivered by the London Passenger Transport Board , commonly known as London Transport, which had been created in 1933 to coordinate underground train, tram, trolleybus and bus services in the capital and the surrounding areas...
, including the transfer of the Metropolitan line
Metropolitan Line
The Metropolitan line is part of the London Underground. It is coloured in Transport for London's Corporate Magenta on the Tube map and in other branding. It was the first underground railway in the world, opening as the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863...
's Stanmore
Stanmore tube station
Stanmore tube station is a London Underground station at Stanmore. It is the northern terminus of the Jubilee Line; the previous station is Canons Park. It is in Travelcard Zone 5...
services to the Bakerloo line
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
in 1939, the Northern line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
's Northern Heights project and extension of the Central line
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
to Ongar
Ongar tube station
Ongar tube station is a former London Underground station in the town of Chipping Ongar, Essex. Until its closure in 1994, it was the easternmost point of the Central line, and from 1961 until closure, it held the distinction of being the London Underground station farthest from Central...
and Denham
Denham railway station
Denham railway station is in Buckinghamshire, England, on the Chiltern Main Line north west of Marylebone towards High Wycombe.-History:The station was built just to the north of Denham village as part of the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway from Grendon Underwood junction to...
.Much of the works were interrupted by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After the War, changed priorities, funding shortages and the creation of London's Metropolitan Green Belt
Metropolitan Green Belt
The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It includes designated parts of Greater London and the surrounding counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey in the South East and East of England regions.-History:The...
led to much of the Northern line expansion plan being cancelled and delays in completing other plans.
On 18 May 1940, with his health failing, Pick retired from the LPTB at the end of his seven-year appointment with the board.
Other activities
Pick's interest in design led to his involvement with the founding, in 1915, of the Design and Industries Association. The organisation aimed to bring manufacturers and designers together to improve the quality of industrial design. Through his improvements in the UERL's advertising and branding, Pick was considered by many of its members to be achieving the organisation's aims and he was soon lecturing on the subject; giving talks during 1916 and 1917 at the Art Workers GuildArt Workers Guild
The Art Workers Guild or Art-Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British architects associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of all the arts', denying the distinction between fine and applied art...
in London, at the Royal Scottish Academy
Royal Scottish Academy
The Royal Scottish Academy is a Scottish organisation that promotes contemporary Scottish art. Founded in 1826, as the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, the RSA maintains a unique position in Scotland as an independently funded institution led by eminent artists and...
in Edinburgh and elsewhere. After the First World War, Pick continued to give talks regularly and published articles on design and also began to set out his ideas on reconstruction and town planning, an area of design he became interested through its connection to transport planning. He wrote and lectured extensively on this subject during the 1920s and 1930s including presenting a 14,000 word paper to the Institute of Transport in 1927 and addressing the International Housing and Town Planning Congress in 1939. Concerned about the uncontrolled and unchecked growth of London, partly facilitated by the new lines that London Underground was building, Pick was a strong supporter of the need for a green belt around the capital to maintain open space within reach of urban areas.
In 1922 he wrote and published privately a pamphlet This is the World that Man Made, or The New Creation that was influenced by the rationalist writing of Ray Lankester
Ray Lankester
Sir E. Ray Lankester KCB, FRS was a British zoologist, born in London.An invertebrate zoologist and evolutionary biologist, he held chairs at University College London and Oxford University. He was the third Director of the Natural History Museum, and was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal...
. In it Pick was pessimistic that mankind was not achieving its creative potential. Later, in the last year of his life and with the Second World War under way, he published two booklets on post war reconstruction, Britain Must Rebuild and Paths to Peace. Pick wrote the introduction to the English translation of Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
's The New Architecture and the Bauhaus published in 1935.
Beside his position at the UERL and LPTB, Pick held a number of industrial administrative and advisory positions. In 1917, during the First World War, Pick was appointed to be head of the Mines Directorate's Household Fuel and Lighting Department at the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
where Albert Stanley was the President of the Board of Trade. Pick was responsible for the control of the rationing and distribution of domestic fuel supplies. He remained in this position until June 1919. In 1928, he was appointed as a member of the Royal Commission On Police Powers and Procedure. He also served as a member of the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee
London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee
The London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee was established in 1924 to advise the Minister of Transport on issues concerning traffic and transport in the London Traffic Area. It was abolished in 1965....
and as a member of the Crown Lands Advisory Committee.
Pick was President of the Institute of Transport
Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport
The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport is a professional body representing the transport and logistics industries worldwide...
for 1931/32. He was President of the Design and Industries Association from 1932 to 1934 and the chairman of the Board of Trade's Council for Art and Industry from 1934 to 1939.
During 1938 with expectations of approaching war, the government appointed Pick to plan the transport operations for the evacuation of civilians from London
Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II
Evacuation of civilians in Britain during the Second World War was designed to save the population of urban or military areas in the United Kingdom from aerial bombing of cities and military targets such as docks. Civilians, particularly children, were moved to areas thought to be less at risk....
. Initially scheduled for 30 September 1938, these were cancelled when Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
's Munich conference with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
averted war that year, but were activated a year later at the beginning of September 1939 on the declaration of war with Germany. After leaving the LPTB, Pick visited British ports for the Ministry of Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
to examine ways of speeding up cargo unloading. In August 1940 he was appointed director-general of the Ministry of Information. His time at the Ministry of Information was short and unhappy and he left after four months and returned to the Ministry of Transport, where he carried out studies on improvements in the use of Britain's canals and rivers.
Personality
Biographers have characterised Pick as being "very shy", and "brilliant but lonely". Charles Barman described him as a person who inspired conflicting opinions about his personality and his actions: "a man about whom so many people held so many different views". Pick acknowledged that he could be difficult to work with: "I have always kept in mind my own frailties – a short temper. Impatience with fools, quickness rather than thoroughness. I am a bad hand at the gracious word or casual congratulation."Lord Ashfield considered that Pick possessed "a sterling character and steadfast loyalty", and "an administrative ability which was outstanding", with "a keen analytical mind which was able to seize upon essentials and then drive his way through to his goal, always strengthened by a sure knowledge of the problem and confidence in himself." Charles Holden described Pick's management of meetings: "Here his decisions were those of a benevolent dictator, and the members left the meeting with a clear sense of a task to be performed, difficult, perhaps, and sometimes impossible, as might subsequently prove to be, but usually well worth exploring if only in producing convincing proof of obstacles. Out of these exploratory methods there often emerged new and most interesting solutions, which Pick was quick to appreciate, and to adopt in substitution for his own proposals."
Disliking honours, Pick declined the offer of a knighthood and a peerage
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
. He did accept, in 1932, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's Honorary Badge of Merit for his advice on the construction of the Moscow Metro
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro is a rapid transit system serving Moscow and the neighbouring town of Krasnogorsk. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the Moscow Metro has 182 stations and its route length is . The system is...
. He was an honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
.
Legacy
Pick had not been well for some years. He died at his home, 15 Wildwood Road, Golders Green, on 7 November 1941. His funeral was held at Golders Green CrematoriumGolders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000, and was opened in 1902 by Sir Henry Thompson....
on 11 November 1941 and a memorial service was held at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square on 13 November 1941.
Working with Lord Ashfield, Pick's impact on London's transport system was considerable. Transport historian Christian Wolmar
Christian Wolmar
Christian Wolmar is a British journalist, author, and railway historian of Swedish and Russian descent. He is best known for his books and commentary on transport, especially as a pundit on Britain's railway network, and was named Transport Journalist of the Year in the National Transport Awards in...
considers it "almost impossible to exaggerate the high regard in which LT was held during its all too brief heyday, attracting official visitors from around the world eager to learn the lessons of its success and apply them in their own countries." and that "it represented the apogee of a type of confident public administration ... with a reputation that any state organisation today would envy ... only made possible by the brilliance of its two famous leaders, Ashfield and Pick." In his obituary of Pick, Charles Holden described him as "the Maecenas
Gaius Maecenas
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas was a confidant and political advisor to Octavian as well as an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets...
of our time." Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
described Pick as "the greatest patron of the arts whom this century has so far produced in England, and indeed the ideal patron of our age." Historian Michael Saler compared Pick's influence on London Transport to that of Lord Reith
John Reith, 1st Baron Reith
John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom...
on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's development during the same, interwar, period. Urban planner Sir Peter Hall
Peter Hall (urbanist)
Sir Peter Geoffrey Hall, FBA is an English town planner, urbanist and geographer. He is the Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration at The Bartlett, University College London and President of both the Town and Country Planning Association and the Regional Studies Association.He is...
suggested that Pick "had as much influence on London's development in the twentieth century as Haussmann had on that of Paris in the nineteenth", and historian Anthony Sutcliffe compared him to Robert Moses
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
, the city planner responsible for many urban infrastructure projects in New York.
Pick's will was probate
Probate
Probate is the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person by resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under the valid will. A probate court decides the validity of a testator's will...
d at £36,433 12s 9d
Penny (British pre-decimal coin)
The penny of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, was in circulation from the early 18th century until February 1971, Decimal Day....
(approximately £ in present day terms). In his will he bequeathed a painting, Ely, by Francis Dodd
Francis Dodd
Francis Edgar Dodd RA was a notable British portrait and landscape artist and printmaker.Born in Holyhead, north Wales, the son of a Wesleyan minister, Dodd trained at the Glasgow School of Art, winning the Haldene Scholarship in 1893 and travelling around France, Italy and later Spain...
to the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
. He is commemorated with a memorial plaque at St Peter's School, York, unveiled in 1953 by Lord Latham
Charles Latham, 1st Baron Latham
Charles Latham, 1st Baron Latham was a British politician and Leader of the London County Council from 1940 to 1947....
, and a blue plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
was erected at his Golders Green home in 1981.
Transport for London
Transport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
and the London Transport Museum maintain archives of Pick's business and personal papers.