All posts tagged: tube map

Unofficial Map: “Orbital” London Underground Map by Jonny Fisher

January 28, 2013
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Here’s an interesting new look at the London Underground from architect/designer/writer Jonny Fisher. It’s always fun when someone reinterprets something as well known as this: every designer approaches the same problem differently. For me, this map isn’t wholly successful, but it’s definitely thought-provoking. Have we been there? Yes. What we like: A bold attempt at a redesign of possibly the most well-known transit map of all. The “orbital” theme actually makes a lot of sense: […]

Historical Map: Railways of London, showing the Metropolitan and District Lines, 1889

January 10, 2013
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One last post for the Tube’s 150th birthday (it’s still the 9th of January here on the West Coast of the United States!). This is the oldest map I can find that shows what would later be known as the London Underground: an 1889 map of London’s railways – still some 26 years after the first part of the Metropolitan Line opened. Main line routes are shown in red and the newfangled “underground lines” are […]

London Underground Map Tin in the Doctor Who Christmas Special, “The Snowmen”

December 29, 2012
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Historical Maps, Popular Culture
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It’s not very often I get to combine two of my absolute favourite things in one post: Doctor Who and transit maps! Without giving too much away (spoilers, sweetie!), the tin is presented in-story as being from 1967, and it looks like the BBC props department did a pretty decent job. The map shown on the tin is indeed Paul Garbutt’s 1964 map, which can be differentiated from the very similar 1970 map – even on-screen […]

“Storylines”: the Literary London Tube Map by Anna Burles

December 20, 2012
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Mash-Up Maps, Unofficial Maps
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Storylines London’s iconic tube map is transformed into a pit-stop journey through classic styles of storytelling, with the individual tube lines turned into genres and sub genres of literature. The depths of the Northern Line are made over into the aptly named Horror Line. The Bakerloo Line coursing past Sherlock Holmes’s Baker Street becomes, of course, the Crime & Mystery Line. And the pink trajectory of the Hammersmith & City is converted to the Romance […]

TubeTable

December 4, 2012
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If you’ve got a spare 1500 quid lying around, you could pick up this sweet London Tube coffee table by artist Alex Hammond for Christmas. Limited edition of 50. See also: MetroTable, a Moscow Metro-themed coffee table. Source: Alex’s website – link no longer active

Fantasy Map: A Tube Map of the Periodic Table of Elements

November 26, 2012
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Submitted by the awesome Gnimmel’s House of Maps, who says: There are a lot of infographics around which are based on the tube map, and a lot which are based on the periodic table. So I decided to combine the two. Here’s a tube map of the periodic table (see also here for more details) and there’s also a periodic table of the tube map. Transit Maps says: Science combined with a tube map equals a […]

Fantasy Map: Tops Pizza Delivery Map for Tunbridge Wells, England

November 20, 2012
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Just when I thought I’d seen every possible variation on things designed “in the style of a subway/tube map”, along comes something to prove me completely wrong. This isn’t the latest Metro system – it’s a pizza delivery map. Have we been there? I believe I stopped in Tunbridge Wells very briefly to get some photos developed and have some lunch on my way from Hastings to London, all the way back in 1997. What […]

Historical Map: 1949 London Underground Quad Royal Poster

November 15, 2012
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This photo, shared by Flickr user IsarSteve, shows an absolutely amazing discovery. Construction work at the Knightsbridge Underground station in 1996 uncovered this stunning 1949 quad royal* poster of the Tube map. It looks as if the workers know they’ve found something wonderful as well, judging by the yellow and black warning tape surrounding the frame. For many, the 1949 tube map is the apotheosis of the Beck style, with his ruthless quest for simplification […]

Fantasy Map: London Underground Map from “The Escapist”

November 5, 2012
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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 […]