All posts tagged: United Kingdom

Submission – Official Map: Valleys & Cardiff Local Routes, Wales, 2013

July 11, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by coto524, who says: This is a map for the Valleys & Cardiff Local Routes, a network of commuter lines serving Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Although the map certainly makes a decent effort, it feels a little bland and half-hearted. The handling of the Welsh and English seems careless, and the irregular angle between Bridgend and Rhoose Cardiff International Airport is just off. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Transit Maps […]

Photo: Charing Cross Road, London, 1995

July 9, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Miscellany
Tags:

What a fantastic photo! More than anything, it illustrates how people actually use maps in real life. Now that a destination has been reached via the Tube, a street map is required for the next stage of the journey. There’s some serious study of that map going on here! Also, look at the Tube map on the wall behind our geographically-challenged subject. Charing Cross Road goes right past Leicester Square tube station, where I’m almost […]

Historical Map: Eastern Counties – South Norfolk Route Map, 1975

July 1, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

An interesting two-color bus map from 1975. Hot pink! Strangely, while the service area boundary is heavily squared off and stylised, the routes themselves are presented very accurately. Really not the most usable map, as the route numbers are very difficult to follow from end to end. The meaning behind the dotted route lines also doesn’t appear to be explained at all on the map, but may be elsewhere in the timetable book in which […]

File Under Awesome: London Tube Map Recreated With Lego Bricks

June 12, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Miscellany
Tags:

Sent my way by just about everyone this morning, this Lego map is one of five located at Tube stations across London as another part of the Tube’s 150th birthday celebrations. Each map shows the Tube at a different stage of development from the 1920s right through to the version shown here: a near-future map for 2020. Painstakingly assembled from thousands of Lego bricks, the map looks great, although Neil Bennett from Digital Arts notes […]

Photo: London Underground Quilt

May 30, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Miscellany
Tags:

Made as a wedding gift for two transit nerd friends, this is beautiful work. The artist wasn’t content with just Zone 1 or a simplification: this is the whole map, including the DLR and the Overground with their distinctive white centre-stroked route lines. Click here to view the entire set of photos on Flickr, including lots of work-in-progress shots. Simply stunning!  Source: moorina/Flickr

Historical Map: Tyne and Wear Metro, England, c. 2000

May 28, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Showing the then-proposed extension to Sunderland, which opened in 2002. Interestingly, the 60-degree angled section running through Newcastle is flipped the other way compared to the current map (Nov. 2011, 3.5 stars). I’d say the change was mainly made to accommodate the Calvert typeface used on the modern day map: it’s far more attractive than the Futura Condensed on display here, but a lot wider. Without the flip, the labels for South Gosforth and Four […]

Official Map: H.C. Chambers & Son Bury St. Edmunds – Colchester Routes, England

May 21, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

An attractive and stylish route map on the side of a handsome red double-decker bus. While the service from Bury to Colchester via Bures carries a single route number (753), you actually have to change buses in Sudbury, hence the “double dot” shown there. The timetable on the bus company’s website warns that because of congestion, connections between the two buses at Sudbury may not always be timely.  The second line shown from Sudbury to […]

Historical Map: London Connections, 1988

May 10, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

The reverse side of the British Rail Network SouthEast map, showing the detailed view of the area surrounding London. While this map is designed in a very similar style (at the same time, by the same people) to the regional map, I feel it’s slightly less successful for a few reasons. The inclusion of the London Underground introduces many more colors to the map, which instantly makes it feel much busier. After using all these […]

Historical Map: British Rail Network SouthEast, 1988

May 9, 2013
comments 2
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Network SouthEast was an operating division of British Rail that was formed in 1982 (although it was known as London & South Eastern until 1986). It was responsible for inter-city and commuter rail for the densely-populated south east of England, including London. Of course, beginning in 1994, Network SouthEast was privatised along with the rest of British Rail, leading to the convoluted network of private rail companies we see today. But what we have here […]