Here’s another transit map made as a prop for a film, but with considerably more style and skill that the weird alternate universe DC Subway map for “Leverage” featured a while ago.

At first glance, this prop – made for the 2008 film, “The Escapist” – looks like an exact replica of Harry Beck’s unusual and short-lived 1941 London Underground diagram, which uses 30- and 60-degree angles and “Olympic Ring” style station interchanges. Everything is almost identical, even down to the “H.C. Beck” in the lower left hand corner.

Everything, that is, except for the addition of one station, “Union Street”, just east of Elephant & Castle on the Northern Line, which is a fictional disused Underground station that plays a part in the movie. The name of the station is even completely plausible, as the real Union Street in Southwark is perfectly located between Elephant & Castle and Borough stations. Fantastic attention to detail there!

In reality, the filming for the scenes set at “Union Street” was done at Holborn tramway station in the disused Kingsway tramway tunnel. This map, as well as fake “Union Street” LU roundels are still there today, glimpsed only on infrequent public tours.

Source: steve_w/Flickr