Here’s something via Chris Applegate on Flickr, where Chris says:
Finally put up and framed the gorgeous vintage Tube map I won in a competition yonks ago.
It is gorgeous, but it’s not just a Tube map, nor is it anything I’ve ever actually seen before.
It appears to be a Greater London Tube Map/main line railway diagram produced in a Beck-like style – a precursor to this 1988 “London Connections” map (May 2013, 3 stars) if you will – although I have no way of knowing whether or not is was actually produced by Beck’s hand. I’ve certainly never heard mention of him producing such a map in addition to his tireless and all-consuming work on the Tube Map itself.
Interestingly, the map shows a number of stations and lines that were never actually built, mostly on the Northern Line – the branch out to Alexandra Palace and the “Mill Hill” line being obvious examples. These lines were shown as planned future extensions on Tube Maps in the mid-1940s, so perhaps this map is of a proposed “future” system map from around then? The style of the map certainly fits that time period, as does the fact that it shows a single green “District and Metropolitan Line” – the Metropolitan Line wouldn’t be split off from the District Line and shown in its own distinctive magenta until 1949.
Also interesting: Addison Road station is still connected to the District and Metropolitan Line at Latimer Road, but doesn’t go through to Earls Court to the south, as it actually did in the mid-1940s. These days, the station is better known as Kensington (Olympia) and only connects to Earls Court as an infrequent District Line service.
Design-wise, I love the little swoop beneath the District & Metropolitan Line that the Bakerloo Line makes just east of Paddington, almost certainly introduced to account for the extra complexity of the interchange once the mainline station was added to the mix.
In all, it’s a lovely, fascinating piece, but I’d love to know more. Does anyone know its provenance, or have a link to the full map? Let me know!
UPDATE: Mystery solved: it’s actually a modern digital map by Maxwell Roberts, based on – but not identical to – an unsolicited map produced by Beck in 1938.
Source: qwghlm/Flickr