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Take the tube often and you’ll know that the Northern line is noisiest, the Elizabeth line is the coolest (literally) and, as reported on Time Out yesterday (September 23), the Piccadilly line is apparently the dirtiest. But how much do you know about the tube map that shows how they all connect?
Well, a new exhibition has opened and it’s dedicated to exactly that. Celebrating the 160-year evolution of Transport for London’s iconic map, the exhibition curated by The Map House in Knightsbridge has posters, unfinished sketches and, of course, plenty of maps on show dating all the way from 1863 to 2023.
Open to the public next month, ‘Mapping the Tube: 1863-2023’ will also host the largest display of Harry Beck’s original drafts and designs of the tube map he created in 1931, on the 50th anniversary of his death. Despite still being used by TfL today, and voted the second-best British design of the 20th century by the BBC, Beck only got £5 and five shillings for his map.
Originally employed by TfL to draw up circuit diagrams of the cabling and wiring on the network, Beck became fascinated with the network and ended up creating the tube map as we know it.
From Beck’s annotated drafts to the original first edition of his 1933 pocket map, the exhibition dives into the tricky design choices made by the map-maker.
And better yet, it’s all on sale. From earlier versions of the network's map dating back to 1880 and Macdonald Gill’s cartoonish Wonderground Map from 1914, as well as Beck’s original drawings, you can nab your own piece of memorabilia with prices starting at £40 and reaching £55,000.
The exhibition is free and open to the public from 25 October to 30 November 2024. You can visit during regular opening hours: Monday to Friday: 10:30am to 6pm, Saturday: 10:30am to 5pm.
Find out more about visiting on The Map House’s website here.
Time Out and tubes
In recent tube news on Time Out, did you see that a university lecturer from the University of Essex has had a go at redesigning Beck’s TfL map? Plus, expect delays on the the Central line until December.
Did you see that? Victoria station’s Edwardian arcade has been restored to its former glory.
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