---
title: The Proud City - Chelsea Power House from Meek Street
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-proud-city-chelsea-power-house-1944/
description: A painted view of Chelsea Power House and ruined houses under searchlight beams in wartime London, signed Walter E. Spradbery 1944.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. The Proud City - Chelsea Power House from Meek Street

[![The Proud City - Chelsea Power House from Meek Street, 1944 UK poster: A painted view of Chelsea Power House and ruined](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-proud-city-chelsea-power-house-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-proud-city-chelsea-power-house-1944.jpg)

# The Proud City - Chelsea Power House from Meek Street

A painted view of Chelsea Power House and ruined houses under searchlight beams in wartime London, signed Walter E. Spradbery 1944, with the title 'The Proud City' and a quotation from a literary author beneath. The tell is the pairing of bomb-damaged or wartime scenes with an admired author's lines and the London Transport roundel, which attaches the prestige of the quotation and the city's landmarks to the sight of the damage.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
THE PROUD CITY

CHELSEA POWER HOUSE FROM MEEK STREET
"...the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens..."
James McNeill Whistler
[signed:] WALTER E. SPRADBERY 1944
[imprint:] JOHNSON RIDDLE & CO. LTD
```

[← On to Berlin Across Our Baileys](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-on-to-berlin-across-our-baileys-ministry-of-supply-1944/) [The Proud City - The Noble Fabric of the Church of St. Clement Danes →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-proud-city-st-clement-danes-1944/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)