Spandrels

Had a few minutes to kill at the station waiting for the train after the one I missed, and spent it contemplating these decorated spandrels.

My first thought was that we would never have anything hand-painted like that in a newly built station because 'value engineering' would make the labour costs untenable. My second was that we would now have advertising or at least sponsorship filling such a prime spot. But my third was a realisation that what we have here, while not advertising, is still PR. Plus ça change ...