Author: Purple Brolly

The city of Bath in Somerset is renowned for its natural thermal springs, easily the hottest in the UK at around 45ºC. A geological quirk gifted Bath with this product of artesian pressure, which has drawn millions of visitors over the centuries, many of them seeking healing from the water’s mineral composition of sulphate calcium, chloride, sodium, bicarbonate, magnesium, silicon and iron.

The Romans called the place Aquae Sulis (Sul was a local deity) and built public baths fed by the hot springs which are still a major tourist attraction. Indeed, although a wool trade existed in the area at one time, tourism has been Bath’s primary economic activity since the 18th century. There are three springs ~ King’s, Hetling and Cross ~ and they are protected by a Royal Charter of 1591 and the 1982 County of Avon Act.

Bath and N.E. Somerset Council monitor all construction works in the vicinity to ensure they do not interfere with the springs.  In particular, there is a circular zone around them with bans on excavations ranging from below 5 to below 50 metres, from the inner to the outer rim. The source of the heat is some 2,500 metres down but these measures safeguard the water’s path upwards.

(Image of Roman bath at Bath: Julian P Guffogg at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The UK’s first significant stretch of motorway comprised the M1’s junctions 5-18, opened in 1959, though the M6 in Preston had a small section opened the previous year. With no speed limit and unschooled drivers treating these straight, wide roads as race tracks even in fog, there were thousands of crashes in those early days. One issue was the clarity of signage, which obviously had to be read and understood at speed.

This led to several years of experimentation and debate before the optimal designs and standards were selected for motorway signs. The Road Research Laboratory tested different ideas in Hyde Park, Slough and part of the M1, among other places. The Anderson Report of 1962 was expanded on by the Worboys Report of 1963 and both of these Committees employed the services of graphic designers Richard ‘Jock’ Kinneir (1917-94) from Hampshire and S.African émigrée Margaret Calvert (1936-).

Their recommendations included having a blue background behind reflective white, mixed-case lettering, for which they designed a new typeface called ‘Transport’ (this is also now used on the government website). This aids word-shape recognition and best use of space. Kinneir and Calvert went on to design all other British road signs, using pictograms instead of text wherever possible.

(Image: Steve Daniels at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)