All posts tagged: London Underground

Unofficial Map: London Tube Map as Electrical Circuit Board by Yuri Suzuki

September 10, 2012
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Created for an exhibition at the London Design Museum, I believe this is also a functional radio as well as a kick-ass representation of the London Underground. The intricate level of detail just has to be seen to be believed. Can I have one? I’ve seen a few comments around the Internet that this piece brings the Tube Map full circle as Harry Beck was an electrical draughtsman who based his design off circuit diagrams. […]

Unofficial Map: A Series of Twin Tubes – A Track Diagram of London

July 21, 2012
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After my previous post about this old track layout diagram from Berlin, reader Rolando Peñate brought this awesome project to my attention – a beautiful track layout diagram of the London Underground, DLR and Overground, complete with platform layouts, disused platforms, yards and sidings. What’s really amazing about this diagram, however, is that its creator, Andrew Godwin, has essentially automated its production. He explains on his website: The map is created with an automated tool […]

Historical Map: Diagram Showing London’s Underground Railways, Power Stations, Substations, 1933

June 18, 2012
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Here’s a fascinating reworking of Harry Beck’s original 1933 Tube map that I haven’t seen before. Apparently it’s from an article in a journal from November 1933 that details the work required to upgrade the electrical services on the Underground. Apart from the stark black and white treatment and addition of the power stations and substations, what’s really interesting about this map are the little tweaks and changes that have already occurred since the first […]

Historical Map: London Metropolitan Railway and Connections, c. 1930

June 15, 2012
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A fantastic old in-car map from London’s old Metropolitan Railway: the world’s first underground railway and the precursor to the modern London Underground. Today, former Metropolitan Railway tracks and stations are used by the London Underground’s Metropolitan, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Piccadilly and Jubilee lines. I’m guessing this map is from around 1930 or so, as the Railway’s lines are substantially complete apart from the Stanmore extension out of Wembley Park, which opened in […]

Historical Map: Harry Beck’s 1961 Victoria Line Tube Map Proposal

January 8, 2012
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It seems I’m having a London Underground kind of week… When people ask me what my favourite version of the London Tube Map is, I always show them this. By 1961, Harry Beck was no longer responsible for producing the Tube map, it having been forcibly passed on to Harold Hutchison. However, more out of hope than anything else, he continued to produce new mockups of the map which he passed on to London Transport […]

Historical Map: “Hutchison” London Tube Map, 1960

January 7, 2012
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Requested by: My dad (whose love of transit maps I have inherited) The London Tube Map is so synonymous with the name Harry Beck that I feel sure many people think he’s still holed up in a studio somewhere working on the maps even now (he died in 1974). In actuality, Beck’s last published Tube map was released in 1959: in 1960 it was replaced by this new version, ostensibly made by London Transport’s own […]

Art: Tube Map Made from Straws by Kyle Bean

December 13, 2011
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File this under “A” for “awesome”! Here’s Zone 1 of the London Underground map made entirely from drinking straws. I particularly like the use of striped straws to simulate the double-stroked DLR and Overground lines from the real map. Clever work from artist Kyle Bean, who has heaps of amazing work on his website. Source: Kyle Bean