London and South Western Railway Luggage Labels Type 4

London and South Western Railway Luggage Labels

Coloured Labels - Type 4

by Mike Morant

It is within Type 4 that the bulk of the coloured labels is to be found. There is a profound change of style in the title's presentation and the labels are generally well presented.

The title has reverted to mixed case but in larger letters than the Type 1s. In just a few examples the 'and' has been replaced with an ampersand.

For the first time part of the title is in the form of an abbreviation: Ry. instead of Railway. This heading format, in its entirety, will remain the standard for the remainder of the LSWR's reign and will be applied to all the white labels as well as the mauve ones for the Isle of Wight destinations.

The '787' code is also something of a lottery. The norm is that it is printed on the left-hand side but there are many examples, even for the same destination, where it is printed on the right with a few missing altogether.

It is in the Type 4s that the greatest variety of colour variations and fonts occur although, as stated elsewhere, grey had been removed from the array of colours before the era of this type dawned.

This type of label also sees the introduction of a second line which is used to accomodate a 'Via' station or stations.

Illustrated below are some of the many variations to be found in a collection of this type of label.


The vast difference in the range of hues covered by the generic name 'pink' is well displayed here and also two of the assortment of fonts. Note the 'carefully applied' overstamps. In case you can't make it out, the upside down one is YEOFORD JC.



Again, for one destination we see almost the full panoply of paper colour, stock No. position, both 'and' and ampersand in the title, and font style with the added bonus of origin station overstamps.

Mention has been made elsewhere about this oddity. All other orange labels relate to destinations on the LBSCR's coast line. This one is surrounded by destinations that were printed only on blue paper and this one is no exception as it, too, is available in blue.

The introduction of a 'Via' line was limited to just three routes: MSWJR destinations on yellow paper Via Andover Junction Five GWR destinations on blue paper Via Basingstoke Midland Railway destinations on green paper Via the S&DJR
Not the misspelt Evesham. This isn't the only 'Via' to be found on these labels. Others are: Via Evercreech Via Templecombe
The other 'Via Basingstoke' examples are: Birmingham Leamington Shrewsbury Stafford

There are one or two more oddities within this label type.

a blue label to Bristol via Templecombe
NLR destinations on the North London Railway - yellow labels and all, apparently, emanating from Shepperton.
a yellow example to Penzance - the only GWR station west of Plymouth to be so honoured
a green label to Ryde - the only green label to an Isle of Wight destination.
yellow labels to TULSE HILL and Brighton.
A blue label to Streatham (but not actually seen by the author)

All photographs are copyright

Type 1 | Type 2 | Type 3 | Type 4 | Type 5

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This page was last updated 7 July 2007