A mobile Canteen from TfL

Restaurant chain Canteen is collaborating with Transport for London (TfL) to create a new mobile canteen, which will debut at Clerkenwell Design Week next week.

Sketch of the new unit
Sketch of the new unit

The mobile London Transport Canteen has been created by consultancy Very Good & Proper, which created the design concepts for the Canteen’s four existing branches.

The designs aim to replicate the 1940s and ’50s food wagons that fed transport workers in static or mobile canteens throughout London, and the collaboration forms part of TfL’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

Interior of a 1937 TfL mobile canteen
Interior of a 1937 TfL mobile canteen

The mobile unit’s graphic identity, also created by very good and proper, places the word Canteen within the iconic London transport roundel.

Canteen logo
Canteen logo

The interiors are inspired by TfL stations, buses and train carriages, with features including newly commissioned traditional vitreous enamel signage made by London Underground sign makers AJ Wells.

TfL and Canteen collaboration for last year's Design Junction
TfL and Canteen collaboration for last year’s Design Junction

Very Good & Proper has also designed the tables and chairs for the unit, and the consultancy’s Canteen Utility Chair, used across Canteen’s branches, will also feature.

TfL and Canteen collaboration for last year's Design Junction
TfL and Canteen collaboration for last year’s Design Junction

Canteen has previously collaborated with TfL at least year’s Design Junction, at London Design Festival, with Very Good & Proper creating a pop-up restaurant serving dishes from TfL’s 1950s canteen menu.

Following its tenure at Clerkenwell Design Week, the mobile unit will remain in use, though it is not known at this stage where it will be sited.

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