Until now, they were just two anonymous TfL underground employees, known as N1 (NoOne) and E1 (EveryOne).
The last three and a half years, a masked pair, named All On The Board, has made it their mission to bring smiles to the faces of commuters by writing creative messages, quotes and poems on stations’ service information boards.
Ian Redpath and Jeremy Chopra, masterminds of the initiative, take off their masks for the first time and speak to Raven News about the recently released book that celebrates their work.
Ian Redpath and Jeremy Chopra, two TfL station workers have been writing poems on boards since 2017 (Image: Max Rose-Fyne)
London Underground, one of the busiest places in the capital, can be the loneliest one as well at the same time.
“Every day, we see thousands of people heading to their jobs. We aimed to interrupt this journey with inspiring messages that could make them stop for a second, be inspired and ultimately change in a good way,” says Jeremy.
They have been penning poems and creative messages covering themes from music events to love and mental health.
They wrote their first board message in March 2017 when Craig David was performing at the O2 Arena.
At that time they were working at North Greenwich station. Having discussed David’s songs, Ian and Jeremy wrote a poem based on them on a service information board for the fans coming through.
“It was the dirtiest board that anyone could ever see. It looked sad and depressed. We cleaned it, we wrote the poem and seconds later, there were hundreds taking selfies and having a laugh in front of the board. We saw the smiles, the board made people come together, and this gave us a buzz of what people may want to see in the tube,” says Ian.
From that “scruffy” moment, they created the current dynamic movement that makes people search for the next inspiring poetic board.
They have gained thousands of loyal followers on their social media platforms, among them several celebrities, including Sam Smith, Katy Perry, Florence And The Machine and Michele Obama.
When Liam Gallagher shared one of their boards on Instagram, Ian “choked on his frosties”.
Image: All On The Board / Instagram
“Liam made me choke on my frosties,” Ian laughs and continues: “When we saw that Michele Obama’s Instagram account shared our post, we didn’t believe it.
“We were wondering if there is any other Michele Obama who looked at our work,” recalls Ian.
Image: All On The Board / Instagram
Their messages tend to soothe not only London commuters’ blues but the duo’s own inner demons as well.
Ian used to be a train driver, and on a very quiet Sunday night in January 2008, while he was operating a train on Victoria Line, he had a young girl jump on the tracks at Pimlico.
“I was left with post-traumatic disorder; every night I dream of the girl, I dream of a face, I was scared of the dark for ages afterwards. Anytime I was in darkness a face popped out in my mind with hallucinations, flashbacks and depression.”
“We want to celebrate togetherness and that we have one life and we should make the most out of it” say the All On The Board pair (Image: Max Rose-Fyne)
Ian and Jeremy have marked various occasions, celebrated countless artists, legends and heroes and raised awareness of mental health and invisible illnesses.
They have received plenty of messages from fans all around the world: “It was 2017 when the singer of Linkin Park took his own life and hit many people hard.
“It was a girl in Iran who was a fan of him, and we wrote a kind of tribute and an awareness board about it, and she sent us a message that she was suffering from the news, and she couldn’t handle it, read our poem and gave her strength.”
They add that this week they received a message from a man who lost his wife from cancer and found courage in our poems.
That is the “absolute huge reward” for them: “The purpose of the boards is to celebrate togetherness, show that we are humans, we have one life and encourage people to make the most out of it.”
Katy Perry with the board written for her (Image: All On The Board)
Jeremy has been working for TfL for over six years. His presence at tube stations allows him to interact with people, which is precisely what All On The Board is all about.
When in 2016, his manager put him on joint shifts with Ian, he never thought that this random meeting with a colleague could have created this strong creative bond between them. The bond that encapsulated in an initiative embraced by thousands of people around the world.
Before the All On The Board initiative, they were playing puppets to customers, singing and doing cryptic quizzes. And now they have their book made of all these poems on the boards they authored.
They say with their book “All On The Board: Inspiring Quotes from the TfL Underground duo”, which was written during the pandemic and is out this week, they wanted to create a companion for people to be carried in tube carriages and looked at when they feel down.
The duo describes the book as a rainbow of words that can change lives in a genuinely powerful way.
“We like to think that this book could give people this little boost to get up and feel good about the day although they might initially feel that is not a good day at all”.
Image: Max Rose-Fyne