Gledhill did a series of drawings in the London Underground at rush hour. He says that ‘The Treadmill’ concerns the experience of daily work for the commuter and office worker.

Gledhill’s city workers are uniformly dressed moving forward on a striped flat surface which lies beneath the feet of the marching men. All in dark blue suits the figures look ahead while their intertwining legs and tramping feet create intricate buoyant patterns on the striped yellow platform.

While the idea for the Treadmill scenes was drawn from reality the paintings and linocuts encapsulate a way of life for the city worker. Driven yet repetitive, successful yet monotonous, striving yet motionless.