Samuel Mackertich

Just like the ever expanding TfL map, interest in the history of London’s transport network is bigger than ever these days; you need only look at the popularity of TfL’s Depot Days to see that. Tube-heads will be similarly impressed by the latest exhibition at The Map House. Located right near the long closed Brompton Road station in Knightsbridge, this historic antique dealer has curated a wonderful selection of printed maps, adverts and drawings that detail the complex, evolving design we all know so well. The window display greets you with a large gilded rendition of Harry Bec’s 1933 masterpiece of topographic design, which is not only the foundation of our current TfL map but the progenitor to all non geographic transport maps around the world. The full story behind Beck’s work is fascinating, and has been turned into a play currently on at the Transport Museum in Covent Garden. You don’t have to be an anorak or cartographer to appreciate what’s on sale here The exhibit has examples dating all the way back to the earliest 1863 Metropolitan Railway map, the very first underground railway on the planet, and the origin of the word metro. There are test prints with handwritten annotations by Beck’s predecessor Fredrick Stingemore, as well as the newest unofficial reimagining of the map, a circular concept that did the rounds on social media earlier this year. My favorite piece on show is one of Beck’s pencil sketches from the 1960s; showing how the Victoria line could bisect

Last week, rail fans were blindsided by the news that TfL is officially renaming all six branches of the Overground and giving them brand new colours. But as we all battle to adjust to these new monikers, let’s not forget that these lines have stories stretching back to before the Overground began its life in 2007. What is now called the Mildmay Line was once called the North London Line, and then the Silverlink. Other branches have picked up nicknames along the way: once, the new Suffragette Line, stretching from Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside, was affectionately known as The Goblin.  Before being added to the Overground network, this unsung hero of local transit was in a desperate state. There was the inconsistent half-hour schedule, sometimes breaking down to hourly, with passengers cramming themselves into a single diesel powered unit when the usual rolling stock failed. There was a severe lack of ticket machines, ticket barriers, station staff and ticket inspectors, and the announcement ‘There is no service on the Gospel Oak to Barking line’ was comically frequent.  But things weren’t always so grim. The oldest section of the Goblin is the western end, which is thought to have been built around 1868. A split venture by the prominent London, Tilbury & Southend Railway (founders of the District Railway) and the Midland Railway, it was constructed not just as a standalone route but also a way for the companies to share each other’s existing networks via a few curves of tra