New home for Philip Larkin's letters from Hull alongside poetry archive from London Underground

Larkin, known today for his cutting verses on parenting flaws, was to spend half his life in Yorkshire as librarian at the University of Hull. He died in December 1985, having expressed a wish to see his words in situ on the Tube.

The Poems on the Underground art project, launched 1986, has since grown to be one of Britain's most successful, inspiring others from New York to Shanghai and featuring some of the biggest names in literary history.

As today sees the 116th set of poems rolled out, featuring works by Byron and Emily Bronte alongside contemporary artists, its archives are donated to Cambridge University Library.

Within, a letter from Larkin striking a sadly poignant and prophetic tone.“I am glad your project is being favourably regarded,” he wrote, in a letter dictated due to failing health in 1985.

“It makes me wonder whether I shall ever actually see one of the poems in the proposed location.”

Poems on the Underground has captured the imaginations of millions of commuters, tourists and Londoners since the first posters appeared on the Tube.

The project was first conceived and brought to life by writers Judith Chernaik, Gerard Benson and Cicely Herbert.

The archive today features Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners such as Seamus Heaney and Louise Gluck as well as hundreds of famous posters.

In one card to founders, dated May 8, 1999, Seamus Heaney also wrote: “I admire you for keeping the underground poems a priority: it is worth doing and has made a difference, I am sure, to the life-worth of poetry for many people. Blessings on the work.”

Heaney’s poem The Railway Children was included in the very first set of Poems on the Underground posters, in January 1986; and to date, eight poems and translations by Heaney have appeared on posters across the London Underground.

John Wells, senior archivist at Cambridge University Library, said the project also features a strong international element.

“This wonderful archive highlights the whole range of activities sponsored by Poems on the Underground – not just the well-known poetry posters in Tube carriages, but also readings, concerts and book publications," he added.

"The letters from poets are backed up by correspondence from prominent supporters from political and cultural life, such as Michael Foot, Glenda Jackson and Matthew Parris."

The Poems on the Underground collection has been catalogued and is available for consultation at the University of Cambridge Library.

Judith Chernaik, one of the founders of the project, said: “It is hugely gratifying to know that our archive is now housed and catalogued at one of the greatest libraries of the world, fully available to readers and researchers, to everyone interested in public space for the arts and in poets past and present - the most eloquent and enduring witnesses to their times.”