All posts tagged: Europe

Reader Question: Which of Beck’s London Underground Maps Do You Prefer?

February 17, 2015
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Questions
Tags:

Question: Which of Beck’s maps of the London Underground do you most prefer, and what properties does it have that elevate it above the others in your opinion as a designer? Answer: My absolute favourite Beck-drawn Tube Map is actually his unpublished 1961 Victoria Line proposal, which I wrote about in this post back in 2012. Go take a look at it – it’s simply gorgeous, with an arrow-straight lavender Victoria Line cutting directly across […]

Historical Map: Old Paris Metro Map at Marcadet Poissonniers Station (pre-1967?)

December 3, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Great photo of the remnants of an old Metro map. The original poster of this photo on Flickr notes that it’s normally hidden behind advertisements these days. The best I can do with dating is pre-1967, as Line 7 has yet to be split into 7 and 7bis north of Louis Blanc station, instead being branches of the same line. Source: andrew gallix/Flickr

Historical Map: Graphical Time Table for Steamer Routes in the Sognefjord, Norway, 1907

November 30, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

A beautiful early example of a stylised transportation map, showing routes and departure times for steamer ferries along the Sognefjord in Norway (the third longest fjord in the world, apparently), way back in 1907. While the “crinkly bits” of the fjord itself and the locations of the ports of call are faithful to geography, the routes themselves are overlaid with little regard to reality. Instead, they travel smooth, easy to follow paths that make the […]

Submission – Berlin Christmas Markets S- and U-Bahn Map

November 28, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Now that Thanksgiving is done and dusted, let’s move on to Christmas! Submitted by Metrolley, here’s a lovely little map produced by anamea.de that shows the location of the myriad Christmas markets around Berlin in relation to the U- and S-Bahn networks. A nice amalgam of the official map’s style and form with just enough Christmas cheer added – the colour-coded market names (tied to the line they’re on) are a lovely little touch. Nicely […]

Historical Map: Principal Railways of France, 1958

November 21, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

A page from a high school geography text book depicting the major railways and operating regions of France. Notable mainly for the eye-popping candy-striping of the regions. Although the source on Flickr says the book dates from 1958, I’m pretty certain it’s a reprinted edition of an older book, as the train moderne at the top of the page seems to be a streamlined “Pacific” 4-6-2 steam engine, popular in Europe in the late 1930s. […]

Unofficial Map: Belgian Rail Network by Arne Nys, December 2014

November 20, 2014
comments 2
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Arne himself (and others). Arne says: I started my own diagram of all the regular rail connections in Belgium that will be active after the schedule change coming in half December. I got the feeling there was so much noise around this schedule change (train lines being canceled or rerouted), but at no point the rail company had any nice visual representation of what the network would look like in the future. So […]

My Journey on the London Underground by Tom Davies, Age 6

November 20, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

If you ever wonder just how much the Tube Map is ingrained into British culture, then I think we have the answer here: drawn (and drawn well) by a six year old, complete with National Rail interchange icons. Fantastic! This is my representation of the London Underground map (which I am very interested in) and shows the journey from my house to my Daddy’s work near Waterloo (identified by the star – which is unfortunately […]