Tube map
Encyclopedia
The Tube map is a schematic
transit map representing the lines and stations of London's rapid transit
railway systems, namely the London Underground
(commonly known as the Tube, hence the name), the Docklands Light Railway
and London Overground
.
As a schematic diagram it shows not necessarily the geographic but rather the relative positions of stations along the lines, stations' connective relations with each other and fare zones. The basic design concepts have been widely adopted for other network maps around the world, especially that of mapping topologically
rather than geographically
.
s indicating the directions of lines and locations of station, overlaid on geographic features and main roads.
The first combined map was published in 1908 by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
(UERL) in conjunction with four other underground railway companies using the "Underground" brand
as part of a common advertising initiative.
The map showed eight lines – four operated by the UERL and one from each of the other four companies:
Being geographically-based presented restrictions in this early map; to enable sufficient clarity of detail in the crowded central area of the map, the extremities of the District and Metropolitan lines were omitted, so a full network diagram was not provided. The problem of truncation remained for nearly half a century. Although all of the western branches of the District and Piccadilly lines were included for the first time in 1933 with Harry Beck
's first map, the portion of the Metropolitan line beyond Rickmansworth did not appear until 1938 and the eastern end of the District line did not appear on the map until the mid-1950s.
The route map continued to be developed and was issued in various formats and artistic styles until 1920, when, for the first time, the geographic background detail was omitted in a map designed by MacDonald Gill. This freed the design to enable greater flexibility in the positioning of lines and stations. The routes became more stylised but the arrangement remained, largely, geographic in nature. The 1932 edition was the last geographic map to be published, before the diagrammatic map was introduced.
in 1931. Beck was a London Underground employee who realised that because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another — only the topology
of the railway mattered. This approach is similar to that of electrical circuit diagram
s; while these were not the inspiration for Beck's maps, his colleagues pointed out the similarities and he once produced a joke map with the stations replaced by electrical circuit symbols and names, with terminology such as "bakelite" for the Bakerloo line
.
To this end, Beck devised a simplified map, consisting of stations, straight line segments connecting them, and the River Thames
; lines ran only vertically, horizontally, or on 45 degree diagonals. To make the map clearer and to emphasise connections, Beck differentiated between ordinary stations (marked just with tick marks) and interchange stations (marked with diamond
s). London Underground was initially sceptical of his proposal — it was an uncommissioned spare-time project, and it was tentatively introduced to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. It immediately became popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since.
Despite the complexity of making the map, Beck was paid just five guineas
for the work. After its initial success, he continued to design the Underground map until 1960, a single (and unpopular) 1939 edition by Hans Scheger being the exception. During this time, as well as accommodating new lines and stations, Beck continually altered the design, for example changing the interchange symbol from a diamond to a circle
, as well as altering the line colours - the Central line
from orange to red, and the Bakerloo line
from red to brown. Beck's final design, in 1960, bears a strong resemblance to the modern-day map. Beck lived in Finchley
and one of his maps is still preserved on the southbound platform at Finchley Central station
on the Northern line
.
); in addition, lines were generally less straight. However, Hutchinson also introduced interchange symbols (circles for Underground-only, squares for connections with British Rail
) that were black and allowed multiple lines through them, as opposed to Beck who used one circle for each line at an interchange, coloured according to the corresponding line.
In 1964, the design of the map was taken over by Paul Garbutt who, like Beck, had produced a map in his spare time due to his dislike of the Hutchinson design. Garbutt's map restored curves and bends to the diagram, but retained Hutchinson's black interchange circles (the squares however were replaced with circles with a dot inside). Garbutt continued to produce Underground maps for at least another twenty years — Tube maps stopped bearing the designer's name in 1986, by which time the elements of the map bore a very strong resemblance to today's map. Today, the Tube map bears the legend, "This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck" in the lower right-hand corner.
While the standard Tube map mostly avoided representing mainline rail services, a new variant of the map issued in 1973, the 'London's Railways' map, was the first to depict Tube and surface rail services in a diagrammatic style closely matched to Beck's designs. This version was created by Tim Demuth of the London Transport publicity office and was jointly sponsored by British Rail and London Transport. Demuth's map did not replace the standard Tube map but continued to be published as a supplementary resource, later known as the 'London Connections' map.
Some alterations have been made to the map over the years. More recent designs have incorporated changes to the network, such as the Docklands Light Railway
and the extension
of the Jubilee line
. It also includes major rail lines used for journeys within London, such as London Overground
routes, and Tube stops with connections to National Rail services, rail links to airports, and river boats. Stations that can be walked between are now shown, often with the distance between them (this is an evolution of the pedestrian route between Bank and Monument stations, which was once prominently marked on the map). Further, step-free access notations are also incorporated in the map.
In addition, since 2002 the fare zones have been added, to better help passengers judge the cost of a journey. Nevertheless the map remains true to Beck's original scheme, and many other transport systems use schematic maps to represent their services, likely inspired by Beck.
Despite there having been many versions over the years, somehow the perception of many users is that the current map actually is, more or less, Beck's original version from the 1930s — a testament to the effectiveness of his design. Beck did actually draw versions with other formats, 22½ degrees rather than 45 (the Paris Métro
version uses 22½ degrees as a base); and an unused version for the 1948 Olympic Games
.
One of the major changes to be made to the revision of the Tube map put out in September 2009 was the removal of the River Thames
. Although historically the river was not present on several official maps (for example, according to David Leboff and Tim Demuth's book; in 1907, 1908, and 1919), from 1921 it was absent for several years (on pocket maps designed by MacDonald Gill). The Thames-free 2009 version was the first time that the river has not appeared on the Tube map since the Stringemore pocket map of 1926. This latest removal resulted in widespread international media attention, and general disapproval from most Londoners as well as from mayor
Boris Johnson
. Based on this reaction, the following edition of the diagram in December 2009 reinstated both the river and fare zones.
The font for the map, including station names, is Johnston
, which uses perfect circles for the letter 'O'.
's colour standards guide, which defines the precise colours from the Pantone
palette, and also a colour naming scheme that is particular to TfL. Earlier maps were limited by the number of colours available that could be clearly distinguished in print. Improvements in colour printing technology have reduced this problem and the map has coped with the identification of new lines without great difficulty.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan=2|Line
!rowspan=2|TfL colour name
!colspan=7|Shown as
|-
!colspan=7|Notes
|-
|Bakerloo
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Brown
Pantone 470
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brownUERL
|-
|Central
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Red
Pantone 485
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blueUERL
|-
|rowspan=2|Circle
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Corporate Yellow
Pantone 116
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
yellow1987-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|yellow
(black outline)
The Tube map is a schematic
transit map representing the lines and stations of London's rapid transit
railway systems, namely the London Underground
(commonly known as the Tube, hence the name), the Docklands Light Railway
and London Overground
.
As a schematic diagram it shows not necessarily the geographic but rather the relative positions of stations along the lines, stations' connective relations with each other and fare zones. The basic design concepts have been widely adopted for other network maps around the world, especially that of mapping topologically
rather than geographically
.
s indicating the directions of lines and locations of station, overlaid on geographic features and main roads.
The first combined map was published in 1908 by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
(UERL) in conjunction with four other underground railway companies using the "Underground" brand
as part of a common advertising initiative.
The map showed eight lines – four operated by the UERL and one from each of the other four companies:
Being geographically-based presented restrictions in this early map; to enable sufficient clarity of detail in the crowded central area of the map, the extremities of the District and Metropolitan lines were omitted, so a full network diagram was not provided. The problem of truncation remained for nearly half a century. Although all of the western branches of the District and Piccadilly lines were included for the first time in 1933 with Harry Beck
's first map, the portion of the Metropolitan line beyond Rickmansworth did not appear until 1938 and the eastern end of the District line did not appear on the map until the mid-1950s.
The route map continued to be developed and was issued in various formats and artistic styles until 1920, when, for the first time, the geographic background detail was omitted in a map designed by MacDonald Gill. This freed the design to enable greater flexibility in the positioning of lines and stations. The routes became more stylised but the arrangement remained, largely, geographic in nature. The 1932 edition was the last geographic map to be published, before the diagrammatic map was introduced.
in 1931. Beck was a London Underground employee who realised that because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another — only the topology
of the railway mattered. This approach is similar to that of electrical circuit diagram
s; while these were not the inspiration for Beck's maps, his colleagues pointed out the similarities and he once produced a joke map with the stations replaced by electrical circuit symbols and names, with terminology such as "bakelite" for the Bakerloo line
.
To this end, Beck devised a simplified map, consisting of stations, straight line segments connecting them, and the River Thames
; lines ran only vertically, horizontally, or on 45 degree diagonals. To make the map clearer and to emphasise connections, Beck differentiated between ordinary stations (marked just with tick marks) and interchange stations (marked with diamond
s). London Underground was initially sceptical of his proposal — it was an uncommissioned spare-time project, and it was tentatively introduced to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. It immediately became popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since.
Despite the complexity of making the map, Beck was paid just five guineas
for the work. After its initial success, he continued to design the Underground map until 1960, a single (and unpopular) 1939 edition by Hans Scheger being the exception. During this time, as well as accommodating new lines and stations, Beck continually altered the design, for example changing the interchange symbol from a diamond to a circle
, as well as altering the line colours - the Central line
from orange to red, and the Bakerloo line
from red to brown. Beck's final design, in 1960, bears a strong resemblance to the modern-day map. Beck lived in Finchley
and one of his maps is still preserved on the southbound platform at Finchley Central station
on the Northern line
.
); in addition, lines were generally less straight. However, Hutchinson also introduced interchange symbols (circles for Underground-only, squares for connections with British Rail
) that were black and allowed multiple lines through them, as opposed to Beck who used one circle for each line at an interchange, coloured according to the corresponding line.
In 1964, the design of the map was taken over by Paul Garbutt who, like Beck, had produced a map in his spare time due to his dislike of the Hutchinson design. Garbutt's map restored curves and bends to the diagram, but retained Hutchinson's black interchange circles (the squares however were replaced with circles with a dot inside). Garbutt continued to produce Underground maps for at least another twenty years — Tube maps stopped bearing the designer's name in 1986, by which time the elements of the map bore a very strong resemblance to today's map. Today, the Tube map bears the legend, "This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck" in the lower right-hand corner.
While the standard Tube map mostly avoided representing mainline rail services, a new variant of the map issued in 1973, the 'London's Railways' map, was the first to depict Tube and surface rail services in a diagrammatic style closely matched to Beck's designs. This version was created by Tim Demuth of the London Transport publicity office and was jointly sponsored by British Rail and London Transport. Demuth's map did not replace the standard Tube map but continued to be published as a supplementary resource, later known as the 'London Connections' map.
Some alterations have been made to the map over the years. More recent designs have incorporated changes to the network, such as the Docklands Light Railway
and the extension
of the Jubilee line
. It also includes major rail lines used for journeys within London, such as London Overground
routes, and Tube stops with connections to National Rail services, rail links to airports, and river boats. Stations that can be walked between are now shown, often with the distance between them (this is an evolution of the pedestrian route between Bank and Monument stations, which was once prominently marked on the map). Further, step-free access notations are also incorporated in the map.
In addition, since 2002 the fare zones have been added, to better help passengers judge the cost of a journey. Nevertheless the map remains true to Beck's original scheme, and many other transport systems use schematic maps to represent their services, likely inspired by Beck.
Despite there having been many versions over the years, somehow the perception of many users is that the current map actually is, more or less, Beck's original version from the 1930s — a testament to the effectiveness of his design. Beck did actually draw versions with other formats, 22½ degrees rather than 45 (the Paris Métro
version uses 22½ degrees as a base); and an unused version for the 1948 Olympic Games
.
One of the major changes to be made to the revision of the Tube map put out in September 2009 was the removal of the River Thames
. Although historically the river was not present on several official maps (for example, according to David Leboff and Tim Demuth's book; in 1907, 1908, and 1919), from 1921 it was absent for several years (on pocket maps designed by MacDonald Gill). The Thames-free 2009 version was the first time that the river has not appeared on the Tube map since the Stringemore pocket map of 1926. This latest removal resulted in widespread international media attention, and general disapproval from most Londoners as well as from mayor
Boris Johnson
. Based on this reaction, the following edition of the diagram in December 2009 reinstated both the river and fare zones.
The font for the map, including station names, is Johnston
, which uses perfect circles for the letter 'O'.
's colour standards guide, which defines the precise colours from the Pantone
palette, and also a colour naming scheme that is particular to TfL. Earlier maps were limited by the number of colours available that could be clearly distinguished in print. Improvements in colour printing technology have reduced this problem and the map has coped with the identification of new lines without great difficulty.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan=2|Line
!rowspan=2|TfL colour name
!colspan=7|Shown as
|-
!colspan=7|Notes
|-
|Bakerloo
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Brown
Pantone 470
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brownUERL
|-
|Central
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Red
Pantone 485
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blueUERL
|-
|rowspan=2|Circle
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Corporate Yellow
Pantone 116
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
yellow1987-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|yellow
(black outline)
The Tube map is a schematic
transit map representing the lines and stations of London's rapid transit
railway systems, namely the London Underground
(commonly known as the Tube, hence the name), the Docklands Light Railway
and London Overground
.
As a schematic diagram it shows not necessarily the geographic but rather the relative positions of stations along the lines, stations' connective relations with each other and fare zones. The basic design concepts have been widely adopted for other network maps around the world, especially that of mapping topologically
rather than geographically
.
s indicating the directions of lines and locations of station, overlaid on geographic features and main roads.
The first combined map was published in 1908 by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
(UERL) in conjunction with four other underground railway companies using the "Underground" brand
as part of a common advertising initiative.
The map showed eight lines – four operated by the UERL and one from each of the other four companies:
Being geographically-based presented restrictions in this early map; to enable sufficient clarity of detail in the crowded central area of the map, the extremities of the District and Metropolitan lines were omitted, so a full network diagram was not provided. The problem of truncation remained for nearly half a century. Although all of the western branches of the District and Piccadilly lines were included for the first time in 1933 with Harry Beck
's first map, the portion of the Metropolitan line beyond Rickmansworth did not appear until 1938 and the eastern end of the District line did not appear on the map until the mid-1950s.
The route map continued to be developed and was issued in various formats and artistic styles until 1920, when, for the first time, the geographic background detail was omitted in a map designed by MacDonald Gill. This freed the design to enable greater flexibility in the positioning of lines and stations. The routes became more stylised but the arrangement remained, largely, geographic in nature. The 1932 edition was the last geographic map to be published, before the diagrammatic map was introduced.
in 1931. Beck was a London Underground employee who realised that because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another — only the topology
of the railway mattered. This approach is similar to that of electrical circuit diagram
s; while these were not the inspiration for Beck's maps, his colleagues pointed out the similarities and he once produced a joke map with the stations replaced by electrical circuit symbols and names, with terminology such as "bakelite" for the Bakerloo line
.
To this end, Beck devised a simplified map, consisting of stations, straight line segments connecting them, and the River Thames
; lines ran only vertically, horizontally, or on 45 degree diagonals. To make the map clearer and to emphasise connections, Beck differentiated between ordinary stations (marked just with tick marks) and interchange stations (marked with diamond
s). London Underground was initially sceptical of his proposal — it was an uncommissioned spare-time project, and it was tentatively introduced to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. It immediately became popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since.
Despite the complexity of making the map, Beck was paid just five guineas
for the work. After its initial success, he continued to design the Underground map until 1960, a single (and unpopular) 1939 edition by Hans Scheger being the exception. During this time, as well as accommodating new lines and stations, Beck continually altered the design, for example changing the interchange symbol from a diamond to a circle
, as well as altering the line colours - the Central line
from orange to red, and the Bakerloo line
from red to brown. Beck's final design, in 1960, bears a strong resemblance to the modern-day map. Beck lived in Finchley
and one of his maps is still preserved on the southbound platform at Finchley Central station
on the Northern line
.
); in addition, lines were generally less straight. However, Hutchinson also introduced interchange symbols (circles for Underground-only, squares for connections with British Rail
) that were black and allowed multiple lines through them, as opposed to Beck who used one circle for each line at an interchange, coloured according to the corresponding line.
In 1964, the design of the map was taken over by Paul Garbutt who, like Beck, had produced a map in his spare time due to his dislike of the Hutchinson design. Garbutt's map restored curves and bends to the diagram, but retained Hutchinson's black interchange circles (the squares however were replaced with circles with a dot inside). Garbutt continued to produce Underground maps for at least another twenty years — Tube maps stopped bearing the designer's name in 1986, by which time the elements of the map bore a very strong resemblance to today's map. Today, the Tube map bears the legend, "This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck" in the lower right-hand corner.
While the standard Tube map mostly avoided representing mainline rail services, a new variant of the map issued in 1973, the 'London's Railways' map, was the first to depict Tube and surface rail services in a diagrammatic style closely matched to Beck's designs. This version was created by Tim Demuth of the London Transport publicity office and was jointly sponsored by British Rail and London Transport. Demuth's map did not replace the standard Tube map but continued to be published as a supplementary resource, later known as the 'London Connections' map.
Some alterations have been made to the map over the years. More recent designs have incorporated changes to the network, such as the Docklands Light Railway
and the extension
of the Jubilee line
. It also includes major rail lines used for journeys within London, such as London Overground
routes, and Tube stops with connections to National Rail services, rail links to airports, and river boats. Stations that can be walked between are now shown, often with the distance between them (this is an evolution of the pedestrian route between Bank and Monument stations, which was once prominently marked on the map). Further, step-free access notations are also incorporated in the map.
In addition, since 2002 the fare zones have been added, to better help passengers judge the cost of a journey. Nevertheless the map remains true to Beck's original scheme, and many other transport systems use schematic maps to represent their services, likely inspired by Beck.
Despite there having been many versions over the years, somehow the perception of many users is that the current map actually is, more or less, Beck's original version from the 1930s — a testament to the effectiveness of his design. Beck did actually draw versions with other formats, 22½ degrees rather than 45 (the Paris Métro
version uses 22½ degrees as a base); and an unused version for the 1948 Olympic Games
.
One of the major changes to be made to the revision of the Tube map put out in September 2009 was the removal of the River Thames
. Although historically the river was not present on several official maps (for example, according to David Leboff and Tim Demuth's book; in 1907, 1908, and 1919), from 1921 it was absent for several years (on pocket maps designed by MacDonald Gill). The Thames-free 2009 version was the first time that the river has not appeared on the Tube map since the Stringemore pocket map of 1926. This latest removal resulted in widespread international media attention, and general disapproval from most Londoners as well as from mayor
Boris Johnson
. Based on this reaction, the following edition of the diagram in December 2009 reinstated both the river and fare zones.
The font for the map, including station names, is Johnston
, which uses perfect circles for the letter 'O'.
's colour standards guide, which defines the precise colours from the Pantone
palette, and also a colour naming scheme that is particular to TfL. Earlier maps were limited by the number of colours available that could be clearly distinguished in print. Improvements in colour printing technology have reduced this problem and the map has coped with the identification of new lines without great difficulty.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan=2|Line
!rowspan=2|TfL colour name
!colspan=7|Shown as
|-
!colspan=7|Notes
|-
|Bakerloo
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Brown
Pantone 470
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brownUERL
|-
|Central
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Red
Pantone 485
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blueUERL
|-
|rowspan=2|Circle
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Corporate Yellow
Pantone 116
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
yellow1987-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|yellow
(black outline)
Schematic
A schematic diagram represents the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the information the schematic is intended to convey, and may add unrealistic elements that aid comprehension...
transit map representing the lines and stations of London's rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
railway systems, namely the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
(commonly known as the Tube, hence the name), the Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
and London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...
.
As a schematic diagram it shows not necessarily the geographic but rather the relative positions of stations along the lines, stations' connective relations with each other and fare zones. The basic design concepts have been widely adopted for other network maps around the world, especially that of mapping topologically
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
rather than geographically
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
.
Early maps
What is now a single network of lines controlled by a single organisation began as a collection of independent underground railway companies that constructed lines in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These companies published route maps of their own services but did not, generally, co-operate in advertising their services collectively. Early maps were based on standard geographic city mapCity map
A city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduced to generally understood symbology.Depending upon its target group or...
s indicating the directions of lines and locations of station, overlaid on geographic features and main roads.
The first combined map was published in 1908 by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...
(UERL) in conjunction with four other underground railway companies using the "Underground" brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
as part of a common advertising initiative.
The map showed eight lines – four operated by the UERL and one from each of the other four companies:
- UERL lines:
- Bakerloo tubeBaker Street and Waterloo RailwayThe Baker Street and Waterloo Railway , also known as the Bakerloo tube, was a railway company established in 1893 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London...
- brown - Hampstead tube - grey
- Piccadilly tubeGreat Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton RailwayThe Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway , also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The GNP&BR was formed through a merger of two older companies, the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus...
- yellow - Metropolitan District RailwayMetropolitan District RailwayThe Metropolitan District Railway was the predecessor of the District line of the London Underground. Set up on 29 July 1864, at first to complete the "Inner Circle" railway around central London, it was gradually extended into the suburbs...
- green
- Bakerloo tube
- Other lines:
- Central London RailwayCentral London RailwayThe Central London Railway , also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railway that opened in London in 1900...
- blue - City and South London Railway - black
- Great Northern and City RailwayNorthern City LineThe Northern City Line is a railway line from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in London, once part of the Great Northern Electrics line. It should not be confused with the City branch of the Northern line, nor with the North London Line...
- orange - Metropolitan RailwayMetropolitan railwayMetropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...
- red
- Central London Railway
Being geographically-based presented restrictions in this early map; to enable sufficient clarity of detail in the crowded central area of the map, the extremities of the District and Metropolitan lines were omitted, so a full network diagram was not provided. The problem of truncation remained for nearly half a century. Although all of the western branches of the District and Piccadilly lines were included for the first time in 1933 with Harry Beck
Harry Beck
Henry Charles Beck , known as Harry Beck, was an English engineering draftsman best known for creating the present London Underground Tube map in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office...
's first map, the portion of the Metropolitan line beyond Rickmansworth did not appear until 1938 and the eastern end of the District line did not appear on the map until the mid-1950s.
The route map continued to be developed and was issued in various formats and artistic styles until 1920, when, for the first time, the geographic background detail was omitted in a map designed by MacDonald Gill. This freed the design to enable greater flexibility in the positioning of lines and stations. The routes became more stylised but the arrangement remained, largely, geographic in nature. The 1932 edition was the last geographic map to be published, before the diagrammatic map was introduced.
Beck's maps
The first diagrammatic map of London's rapid transit network was designed by Harry BeckHarry Beck
Henry Charles Beck , known as Harry Beck, was an English engineering draftsman best known for creating the present London Underground Tube map in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office...
in 1931. Beck was a London Underground employee who realised that because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another — only the topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
of the railway mattered. This approach is similar to that of electrical circuit diagram
Circuit diagram
A circuit diagram is a simplified conventional graphical representation of an electrical circuit...
s; while these were not the inspiration for Beck's maps, his colleagues pointed out the similarities and he once produced a joke map with the stations replaced by electrical circuit symbols and names, with terminology such as "bakelite" for the Bakerloo line
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
.
To this end, Beck devised a simplified map, consisting of stations, straight line segments connecting them, and the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
; lines ran only vertically, horizontally, or on 45 degree diagonals. To make the map clearer and to emphasise connections, Beck differentiated between ordinary stations (marked just with tick marks) and interchange stations (marked with diamond
Rhombus
In Euclidean geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a convex quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.Every...
s). London Underground was initially sceptical of his proposal — it was an uncommissioned spare-time project, and it was tentatively introduced to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. It immediately became popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since.
Despite the complexity of making the map, Beck was paid just five guineas
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
for the work. After its initial success, he continued to design the Underground map until 1960, a single (and unpopular) 1939 edition by Hans Scheger being the exception. During this time, as well as accommodating new lines and stations, Beck continually altered the design, for example changing the interchange symbol from a diamond to a circle
Circle
A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane that are a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any of the points and the centre is called the radius....
, as well as altering the line colours - the Central line
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
from orange to red, and the Bakerloo line
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
from red to brown. Beck's final design, in 1960, bears a strong resemblance to the modern-day map. Beck lived in Finchley
Finchley
Finchley is a district in Barnet in north London, England. Finchley is on high ground, about north of Charing Cross. It formed an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, becoming a municipal borough in 1933, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965...
and one of his maps is still preserved on the southbound platform at Finchley Central station
Finchley Central tube station
Finchley Central tube station is a London Underground station in the Church End area of Finchley, North London.The station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line, between West Finchley and East Finchley stations and is the junction for the short branch to Mill Hill East station...
on the Northern line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
.
After Beck
By 1960, Beck had fallen out with the Underground's publicity officer, Harold Hutchinson. Hutchinson, though not a designer himself, drafted his own version of the Tube map that year. It removed the smoothed corners of Beck's design and created some highly cramped areas (most notably, around Liverpool Street stationLiverpool Street station
Liverpool Street railway station, also known as London Liverpool Street or simply Liverpool Street, is both a central London railway terminus and a connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, England...
); in addition, lines were generally less straight. However, Hutchinson also introduced interchange symbols (circles for Underground-only, squares for connections with British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
) that were black and allowed multiple lines through them, as opposed to Beck who used one circle for each line at an interchange, coloured according to the corresponding line.
In 1964, the design of the map was taken over by Paul Garbutt who, like Beck, had produced a map in his spare time due to his dislike of the Hutchinson design. Garbutt's map restored curves and bends to the diagram, but retained Hutchinson's black interchange circles (the squares however were replaced with circles with a dot inside). Garbutt continued to produce Underground maps for at least another twenty years — Tube maps stopped bearing the designer's name in 1986, by which time the elements of the map bore a very strong resemblance to today's map. Today, the Tube map bears the legend, "This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck" in the lower right-hand corner.
While the standard Tube map mostly avoided representing mainline rail services, a new variant of the map issued in 1973, the 'London's Railways' map, was the first to depict Tube and surface rail services in a diagrammatic style closely matched to Beck's designs. This version was created by Tim Demuth of the London Transport publicity office and was jointly sponsored by British Rail and London Transport. Demuth's map did not replace the standard Tube map but continued to be published as a supplementary resource, later known as the 'London Connections' map.
Some alterations have been made to the map over the years. More recent designs have incorporated changes to the network, such as the Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
and the extension
Jubilee Line Extension
The Jubilee Line Extension is the extension of the London Underground Jubilee line from to through south and east London. An eastward extension of the Jubilee line was first proposed in the 1970s and a modified route was constructed during the 1990s...
of the Jubilee line
Jubilee Line
The Jubilee line is a line on the London Underground , in the United Kingdom. It was built in two major sections—initially to Charing Cross, in central London, and later extended, in 1999, to Stratford, in east London. The later stations are larger and have special safety features, both aspects...
. It also includes major rail lines used for journeys within London, such as London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...
routes, and Tube stops with connections to National Rail services, rail links to airports, and river boats. Stations that can be walked between are now shown, often with the distance between them (this is an evolution of the pedestrian route between Bank and Monument stations, which was once prominently marked on the map). Further, step-free access notations are also incorporated in the map.
In addition, since 2002 the fare zones have been added, to better help passengers judge the cost of a journey. Nevertheless the map remains true to Beck's original scheme, and many other transport systems use schematic maps to represent their services, likely inspired by Beck.
Despite there having been many versions over the years, somehow the perception of many users is that the current map actually is, more or less, Beck's original version from the 1930s — a testament to the effectiveness of his design. Beck did actually draw versions with other formats, 22½ degrees rather than 45 (the Paris Métro
Paris Métro
The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...
version uses 22½ degrees as a base); and an unused version for the 1948 Olympic Games
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...
.
One of the major changes to be made to the revision of the Tube map put out in September 2009 was the removal of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
. Although historically the river was not present on several official maps (for example, according to David Leboff and Tim Demuth's book; in 1907, 1908, and 1919), from 1921 it was absent for several years (on pocket maps designed by MacDonald Gill). The Thames-free 2009 version was the first time that the river has not appeared on the Tube map since the Stringemore pocket map of 1926. This latest removal resulted in widespread international media attention, and general disapproval from most Londoners as well as from mayor
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
. Based on this reaction, the following edition of the diagram in December 2009 reinstated both the river and fare zones.
Technical aspects
The designers of the map have tackled a variety of problems in showing information as clearly as possible and have sometimes adopted different solutions.The font for the map, including station names, is Johnston
Johnston (typeface)
Johnston is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. It is well known for its use by Transport for London....
, which uses perfect circles for the letter 'O'.
Line colours
The table below shows the changing use of colours since Beck's first map. The current colours are taken from Transport for LondonTransport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
's colour standards guide, which defines the precise colours from the Pantone
Pantone
Pantone Inc. is a corporation headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System , a proprietary color space...
palette, and also a colour naming scheme that is particular to TfL. Earlier maps were limited by the number of colours available that could be clearly distinguished in print. Improvements in colour printing technology have reduced this problem and the map has coped with the identification of new lines without great difficulty.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan=2|Line
!rowspan=2|TfL colour name
!colspan=7|Shown as
|-
!colspan=7|Notes
|-
|Bakerloo
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Brown
Pantone 470
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brownUERL
|-
|Central
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Red
Pantone 485
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blueUERL
|-
|rowspan=2|Circle
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Corporate Yellow
Pantone 116
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
yellow1987-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|yellow
(black outline)
The Tube map is a schematic
Schematic
A schematic diagram represents the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the information the schematic is intended to convey, and may add unrealistic elements that aid comprehension...
transit map representing the lines and stations of London's rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
railway systems, namely the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
(commonly known as the Tube, hence the name), the Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
and London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...
.
As a schematic diagram it shows not necessarily the geographic but rather the relative positions of stations along the lines, stations' connective relations with each other and fare zones. The basic design concepts have been widely adopted for other network maps around the world, especially that of mapping topologically
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
rather than geographically
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
.
Early maps
What is now a single network of lines controlled by a single organisation began as a collection of independent underground railway companies that constructed lines in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These companies published route maps of their own services but did not, generally, co-operate in advertising their services collectively. Early maps were based on standard geographic city mapCity map
A city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduced to generally understood symbology.Depending upon its target group or...
s indicating the directions of lines and locations of station, overlaid on geographic features and main roads.
The first combined map was published in 1908 by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...
(UERL) in conjunction with four other underground railway companies using the "Underground" brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
as part of a common advertising initiative.
The map showed eight lines – four operated by the UERL and one from each of the other four companies:
- UERL lines:
- Bakerloo tubeBaker Street and Waterloo RailwayThe Baker Street and Waterloo Railway , also known as the Bakerloo tube, was a railway company established in 1893 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London...
- brown - Hampstead tube - grey
- Piccadilly tubeGreat Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton RailwayThe Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway , also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The GNP&BR was formed through a merger of two older companies, the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus...
- yellow - Metropolitan District RailwayMetropolitan District RailwayThe Metropolitan District Railway was the predecessor of the District line of the London Underground. Set up on 29 July 1864, at first to complete the "Inner Circle" railway around central London, it was gradually extended into the suburbs...
- green
- Bakerloo tube
- Other lines:
- Central London RailwayCentral London RailwayThe Central London Railway , also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railway that opened in London in 1900...
- blue - City and South London Railway - black
- Great Northern and City RailwayNorthern City LineThe Northern City Line is a railway line from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in London, once part of the Great Northern Electrics line. It should not be confused with the City branch of the Northern line, nor with the North London Line...
- orange - Metropolitan RailwayMetropolitan railwayMetropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...
- red
- Central London Railway
Being geographically-based presented restrictions in this early map; to enable sufficient clarity of detail in the crowded central area of the map, the extremities of the District and Metropolitan lines were omitted, so a full network diagram was not provided. The problem of truncation remained for nearly half a century. Although all of the western branches of the District and Piccadilly lines were included for the first time in 1933 with Harry Beck
Harry Beck
Henry Charles Beck , known as Harry Beck, was an English engineering draftsman best known for creating the present London Underground Tube map in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office...
's first map, the portion of the Metropolitan line beyond Rickmansworth did not appear until 1938 and the eastern end of the District line did not appear on the map until the mid-1950s.
The route map continued to be developed and was issued in various formats and artistic styles until 1920, when, for the first time, the geographic background detail was omitted in a map designed by MacDonald Gill. This freed the design to enable greater flexibility in the positioning of lines and stations. The routes became more stylised but the arrangement remained, largely, geographic in nature. The 1932 edition was the last geographic map to be published, before the diagrammatic map was introduced.
Beck's maps
The first diagrammatic map of London's rapid transit network was designed by Harry BeckHarry Beck
Henry Charles Beck , known as Harry Beck, was an English engineering draftsman best known for creating the present London Underground Tube map in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office...
in 1931. Beck was a London Underground employee who realised that because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another — only the topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
of the railway mattered. This approach is similar to that of electrical circuit diagram
Circuit diagram
A circuit diagram is a simplified conventional graphical representation of an electrical circuit...
s; while these were not the inspiration for Beck's maps, his colleagues pointed out the similarities and he once produced a joke map with the stations replaced by electrical circuit symbols and names, with terminology such as "bakelite" for the Bakerloo line
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
.
To this end, Beck devised a simplified map, consisting of stations, straight line segments connecting them, and the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
; lines ran only vertically, horizontally, or on 45 degree diagonals. To make the map clearer and to emphasise connections, Beck differentiated between ordinary stations (marked just with tick marks) and interchange stations (marked with diamond
Rhombus
In Euclidean geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a convex quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.Every...
s). London Underground was initially sceptical of his proposal — it was an uncommissioned spare-time project, and it was tentatively introduced to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. It immediately became popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since.
Despite the complexity of making the map, Beck was paid just five guineas
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
for the work. After its initial success, he continued to design the Underground map until 1960, a single (and unpopular) 1939 edition by Hans Scheger being the exception. During this time, as well as accommodating new lines and stations, Beck continually altered the design, for example changing the interchange symbol from a diamond to a circle
Circle
A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane that are a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any of the points and the centre is called the radius....
, as well as altering the line colours - the Central line
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
from orange to red, and the Bakerloo line
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
from red to brown. Beck's final design, in 1960, bears a strong resemblance to the modern-day map. Beck lived in Finchley
Finchley
Finchley is a district in Barnet in north London, England. Finchley is on high ground, about north of Charing Cross. It formed an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, becoming a municipal borough in 1933, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965...
and one of his maps is still preserved on the southbound platform at Finchley Central station
Finchley Central tube station
Finchley Central tube station is a London Underground station in the Church End area of Finchley, North London.The station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line, between West Finchley and East Finchley stations and is the junction for the short branch to Mill Hill East station...
on the Northern line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
.
After Beck
By 1960, Beck had fallen out with the Underground's publicity officer, Harold Hutchinson. Hutchinson, though not a designer himself, drafted his own version of the Tube map that year. It removed the smoothed corners of Beck's design and created some highly cramped areas (most notably, around Liverpool Street stationLiverpool Street station
Liverpool Street railway station, also known as London Liverpool Street or simply Liverpool Street, is both a central London railway terminus and a connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, England...
); in addition, lines were generally less straight. However, Hutchinson also introduced interchange symbols (circles for Underground-only, squares for connections with British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
) that were black and allowed multiple lines through them, as opposed to Beck who used one circle for each line at an interchange, coloured according to the corresponding line.
In 1964, the design of the map was taken over by Paul Garbutt who, like Beck, had produced a map in his spare time due to his dislike of the Hutchinson design. Garbutt's map restored curves and bends to the diagram, but retained Hutchinson's black interchange circles (the squares however were replaced with circles with a dot inside). Garbutt continued to produce Underground maps for at least another twenty years — Tube maps stopped bearing the designer's name in 1986, by which time the elements of the map bore a very strong resemblance to today's map. Today, the Tube map bears the legend, "This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck" in the lower right-hand corner.
While the standard Tube map mostly avoided representing mainline rail services, a new variant of the map issued in 1973, the 'London's Railways' map, was the first to depict Tube and surface rail services in a diagrammatic style closely matched to Beck's designs. This version was created by Tim Demuth of the London Transport publicity office and was jointly sponsored by British Rail and London Transport. Demuth's map did not replace the standard Tube map but continued to be published as a supplementary resource, later known as the 'London Connections' map.
Some alterations have been made to the map over the years. More recent designs have incorporated changes to the network, such as the Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
and the extension
Jubilee Line Extension
The Jubilee Line Extension is the extension of the London Underground Jubilee line from to through south and east London. An eastward extension of the Jubilee line was first proposed in the 1970s and a modified route was constructed during the 1990s...
of the Jubilee line
Jubilee Line
The Jubilee line is a line on the London Underground , in the United Kingdom. It was built in two major sections—initially to Charing Cross, in central London, and later extended, in 1999, to Stratford, in east London. The later stations are larger and have special safety features, both aspects...
. It also includes major rail lines used for journeys within London, such as London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...
routes, and Tube stops with connections to National Rail services, rail links to airports, and river boats. Stations that can be walked between are now shown, often with the distance between them (this is an evolution of the pedestrian route between Bank and Monument stations, which was once prominently marked on the map). Further, step-free access notations are also incorporated in the map.
In addition, since 2002 the fare zones have been added, to better help passengers judge the cost of a journey. Nevertheless the map remains true to Beck's original scheme, and many other transport systems use schematic maps to represent their services, likely inspired by Beck.
Despite there having been many versions over the years, somehow the perception of many users is that the current map actually is, more or less, Beck's original version from the 1930s — a testament to the effectiveness of his design. Beck did actually draw versions with other formats, 22½ degrees rather than 45 (the Paris Métro
Paris Métro
The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...
version uses 22½ degrees as a base); and an unused version for the 1948 Olympic Games
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...
.
One of the major changes to be made to the revision of the Tube map put out in September 2009 was the removal of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
. Although historically the river was not present on several official maps (for example, according to David Leboff and Tim Demuth's book; in 1907, 1908, and 1919), from 1921 it was absent for several years (on pocket maps designed by MacDonald Gill). The Thames-free 2009 version was the first time that the river has not appeared on the Tube map since the Stringemore pocket map of 1926. This latest removal resulted in widespread international media attention, and general disapproval from most Londoners as well as from mayor
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
. Based on this reaction, the following edition of the diagram in December 2009 reinstated both the river and fare zones.
Technical aspects
The designers of the map have tackled a variety of problems in showing information as clearly as possible and have sometimes adopted different solutions.The font for the map, including station names, is Johnston
Johnston (typeface)
Johnston is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. It is well known for its use by Transport for London....
, which uses perfect circles for the letter 'O'.
Line colours
The table below shows the changing use of colours since Beck's first map. The current colours are taken from Transport for LondonTransport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
's colour standards guide, which defines the precise colours from the Pantone
Pantone
Pantone Inc. is a corporation headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System , a proprietary color space...
palette, and also a colour naming scheme that is particular to TfL. Earlier maps were limited by the number of colours available that could be clearly distinguished in print. Improvements in colour printing technology have reduced this problem and the map has coped with the identification of new lines without great difficulty.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan=2|Line
!rowspan=2|TfL colour name
!colspan=7|Shown as
|-
!colspan=7|Notes
|-
|Bakerloo
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Brown
Pantone 470
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brownUERL
|-
|Central
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Red
Pantone 485
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blueUERL
|-
|rowspan=2|Circle
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Corporate Yellow
Pantone 116
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
yellow1987-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|yellow
(black outline)
The Tube map is a schematic
Schematic
A schematic diagram represents the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the information the schematic is intended to convey, and may add unrealistic elements that aid comprehension...
transit map representing the lines and stations of London's rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
railway systems, namely the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
(commonly known as the Tube, hence the name), the Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
and London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...
.
As a schematic diagram it shows not necessarily the geographic but rather the relative positions of stations along the lines, stations' connective relations with each other and fare zones. The basic design concepts have been widely adopted for other network maps around the world, especially that of mapping topologically
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
rather than geographically
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
.
Early maps
What is now a single network of lines controlled by a single organisation began as a collection of independent underground railway companies that constructed lines in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These companies published route maps of their own services but did not, generally, co-operate in advertising their services collectively. Early maps were based on standard geographic city mapCity map
A city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduced to generally understood symbology.Depending upon its target group or...
s indicating the directions of lines and locations of station, overlaid on geographic features and main roads.
The first combined map was published in 1908 by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...
(UERL) in conjunction with four other underground railway companies using the "Underground" brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
as part of a common advertising initiative.
The map showed eight lines – four operated by the UERL and one from each of the other four companies:
- UERL lines:
- Bakerloo tubeBaker Street and Waterloo RailwayThe Baker Street and Waterloo Railway , also known as the Bakerloo tube, was a railway company established in 1893 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London...
- brown - Hampstead tube - grey
- Piccadilly tubeGreat Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton RailwayThe Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway , also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The GNP&BR was formed through a merger of two older companies, the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus...
- yellow - Metropolitan District RailwayMetropolitan District RailwayThe Metropolitan District Railway was the predecessor of the District line of the London Underground. Set up on 29 July 1864, at first to complete the "Inner Circle" railway around central London, it was gradually extended into the suburbs...
- green
- Bakerloo tube
- Other lines:
- Central London RailwayCentral London RailwayThe Central London Railway , also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railway that opened in London in 1900...
- blue - City and South London Railway - black
- Great Northern and City RailwayNorthern City LineThe Northern City Line is a railway line from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in London, once part of the Great Northern Electrics line. It should not be confused with the City branch of the Northern line, nor with the North London Line...
- orange - Metropolitan RailwayMetropolitan railwayMetropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...
- red
- Central London Railway
Being geographically-based presented restrictions in this early map; to enable sufficient clarity of detail in the crowded central area of the map, the extremities of the District and Metropolitan lines were omitted, so a full network diagram was not provided. The problem of truncation remained for nearly half a century. Although all of the western branches of the District and Piccadilly lines were included for the first time in 1933 with Harry Beck
Harry Beck
Henry Charles Beck , known as Harry Beck, was an English engineering draftsman best known for creating the present London Underground Tube map in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office...
's first map, the portion of the Metropolitan line beyond Rickmansworth did not appear until 1938 and the eastern end of the District line did not appear on the map until the mid-1950s.
The route map continued to be developed and was issued in various formats and artistic styles until 1920, when, for the first time, the geographic background detail was omitted in a map designed by MacDonald Gill. This freed the design to enable greater flexibility in the positioning of lines and stations. The routes became more stylised but the arrangement remained, largely, geographic in nature. The 1932 edition was the last geographic map to be published, before the diagrammatic map was introduced.
Beck's maps
The first diagrammatic map of London's rapid transit network was designed by Harry BeckHarry Beck
Henry Charles Beck , known as Harry Beck, was an English engineering draftsman best known for creating the present London Underground Tube map in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office...
in 1931. Beck was a London Underground employee who realised that because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another — only the topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
of the railway mattered. This approach is similar to that of electrical circuit diagram
Circuit diagram
A circuit diagram is a simplified conventional graphical representation of an electrical circuit...
s; while these were not the inspiration for Beck's maps, his colleagues pointed out the similarities and he once produced a joke map with the stations replaced by electrical circuit symbols and names, with terminology such as "bakelite" for the Bakerloo line
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
.
To this end, Beck devised a simplified map, consisting of stations, straight line segments connecting them, and the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
; lines ran only vertically, horizontally, or on 45 degree diagonals. To make the map clearer and to emphasise connections, Beck differentiated between ordinary stations (marked just with tick marks) and interchange stations (marked with diamond
Rhombus
In Euclidean geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a convex quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.Every...
s). London Underground was initially sceptical of his proposal — it was an uncommissioned spare-time project, and it was tentatively introduced to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. It immediately became popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since.
Despite the complexity of making the map, Beck was paid just five guineas
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
for the work. After its initial success, he continued to design the Underground map until 1960, a single (and unpopular) 1939 edition by Hans Scheger being the exception. During this time, as well as accommodating new lines and stations, Beck continually altered the design, for example changing the interchange symbol from a diamond to a circle
Circle
A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane that are a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any of the points and the centre is called the radius....
, as well as altering the line colours - the Central line
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
from orange to red, and the Bakerloo line
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
from red to brown. Beck's final design, in 1960, bears a strong resemblance to the modern-day map. Beck lived in Finchley
Finchley
Finchley is a district in Barnet in north London, England. Finchley is on high ground, about north of Charing Cross. It formed an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, becoming a municipal borough in 1933, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965...
and one of his maps is still preserved on the southbound platform at Finchley Central station
Finchley Central tube station
Finchley Central tube station is a London Underground station in the Church End area of Finchley, North London.The station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line, between West Finchley and East Finchley stations and is the junction for the short branch to Mill Hill East station...
on the Northern line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
.
After Beck
By 1960, Beck had fallen out with the Underground's publicity officer, Harold Hutchinson. Hutchinson, though not a designer himself, drafted his own version of the Tube map that year. It removed the smoothed corners of Beck's design and created some highly cramped areas (most notably, around Liverpool Street stationLiverpool Street station
Liverpool Street railway station, also known as London Liverpool Street or simply Liverpool Street, is both a central London railway terminus and a connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, England...
); in addition, lines were generally less straight. However, Hutchinson also introduced interchange symbols (circles for Underground-only, squares for connections with British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
) that were black and allowed multiple lines through them, as opposed to Beck who used one circle for each line at an interchange, coloured according to the corresponding line.
In 1964, the design of the map was taken over by Paul Garbutt who, like Beck, had produced a map in his spare time due to his dislike of the Hutchinson design. Garbutt's map restored curves and bends to the diagram, but retained Hutchinson's black interchange circles (the squares however were replaced with circles with a dot inside). Garbutt continued to produce Underground maps for at least another twenty years — Tube maps stopped bearing the designer's name in 1986, by which time the elements of the map bore a very strong resemblance to today's map. Today, the Tube map bears the legend, "This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck" in the lower right-hand corner.
While the standard Tube map mostly avoided representing mainline rail services, a new variant of the map issued in 1973, the 'London's Railways' map, was the first to depict Tube and surface rail services in a diagrammatic style closely matched to Beck's designs. This version was created by Tim Demuth of the London Transport publicity office and was jointly sponsored by British Rail and London Transport. Demuth's map did not replace the standard Tube map but continued to be published as a supplementary resource, later known as the 'London Connections' map.
Some alterations have been made to the map over the years. More recent designs have incorporated changes to the network, such as the Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
and the extension
Jubilee Line Extension
The Jubilee Line Extension is the extension of the London Underground Jubilee line from to through south and east London. An eastward extension of the Jubilee line was first proposed in the 1970s and a modified route was constructed during the 1990s...
of the Jubilee line
Jubilee Line
The Jubilee line is a line on the London Underground , in the United Kingdom. It was built in two major sections—initially to Charing Cross, in central London, and later extended, in 1999, to Stratford, in east London. The later stations are larger and have special safety features, both aspects...
. It also includes major rail lines used for journeys within London, such as London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...
routes, and Tube stops with connections to National Rail services, rail links to airports, and river boats. Stations that can be walked between are now shown, often with the distance between them (this is an evolution of the pedestrian route between Bank and Monument stations, which was once prominently marked on the map). Further, step-free access notations are also incorporated in the map.
In addition, since 2002 the fare zones have been added, to better help passengers judge the cost of a journey. Nevertheless the map remains true to Beck's original scheme, and many other transport systems use schematic maps to represent their services, likely inspired by Beck.
Despite there having been many versions over the years, somehow the perception of many users is that the current map actually is, more or less, Beck's original version from the 1930s — a testament to the effectiveness of his design. Beck did actually draw versions with other formats, 22½ degrees rather than 45 (the Paris Métro
Paris Métro
The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...
version uses 22½ degrees as a base); and an unused version for the 1948 Olympic Games
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...
.
One of the major changes to be made to the revision of the Tube map put out in September 2009 was the removal of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
. Although historically the river was not present on several official maps (for example, according to David Leboff and Tim Demuth's book; in 1907, 1908, and 1919), from 1921 it was absent for several years (on pocket maps designed by MacDonald Gill). The Thames-free 2009 version was the first time that the river has not appeared on the Tube map since the Stringemore pocket map of 1926. This latest removal resulted in widespread international media attention, and general disapproval from most Londoners as well as from mayor
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
. Based on this reaction, the following edition of the diagram in December 2009 reinstated both the river and fare zones.
Technical aspects
The designers of the map have tackled a variety of problems in showing information as clearly as possible and have sometimes adopted different solutions.The font for the map, including station names, is Johnston
Johnston (typeface)
Johnston is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. It is well known for its use by Transport for London....
, which uses perfect circles for the letter 'O'.
Line colours
The table below shows the changing use of colours since Beck's first map. The current colours are taken from Transport for LondonTransport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
's colour standards guide, which defines the precise colours from the Pantone
Pantone
Pantone Inc. is a corporation headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System , a proprietary color space...
palette, and also a colour naming scheme that is particular to TfL. Earlier maps were limited by the number of colours available that could be clearly distinguished in print. Improvements in colour printing technology have reduced this problem and the map has coped with the identification of new lines without great difficulty.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan=2|Line
!rowspan=2|TfL colour name
!colspan=7|Shown as
|-
!colspan=7|Notes
|-
|Bakerloo
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Brown
Pantone 470
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brownUERL
|-
|Central
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Red
Pantone 485
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red1934-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange1933–1934
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blueUERL
|-
|rowspan=2|Circle
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Corporate Yellow
Pantone 116
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
yellow1987-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|yellow
(black outline)
1949–1987
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green
(black outline)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green
(black outline)
1948
|colspan=4|
|-
|colspan=7|originally part of the Metropolitan and District lines; not shown before 1948
|-
|District
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Green
Pantone 356
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green1933-present
|colspan=5|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|greenUERL
|-
|rowspan=2|East London
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Underground Orange
Pantone 137
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2010-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange1990–2010
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta
(double stripe)1970-c.1990
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
magenta1949–1969
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
green1937–1948
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
magenta1934–1937
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(red outline)
|colspan=4|
|-
|colspan=7|originally part of the Metropolitan and District lines; not shown before 1948
|-
|District
District Line
The District line is a line of the London Underground, coloured green on the Tube map. It is a "sub-surface" line, running through the central area in shallow cut-and-cover tunnels. It is the busiest of the sub-surface lines. Out of the 60 stations served, 25 are underground...
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Green
Pantone 356
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green1933-present
|colspan=5|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|greenUERL
|-
|rowspan=2|East London
East London Line
The East London Line is a London Overground line which runs north to south through the East End, Docklands and South areas of London.Built in 1869 by the East London Railway Company, which reused the Thames Tunnel, originally intended for horse-drawn carriages, the line became part of the London...
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Underground Orange
Pantone 137
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2010-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange1990–2010
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta
(double stripe)1970-c.1990
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
magenta1949–1969
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
green1937–1948
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
magenta1934–1937
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(red outline)
1933–1934
|-
|colspan=7|part of the Metropolitan Line until c.1990; part of London Overground from 2010
|-
|rowspan=2|Hammersmith & City
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Underground Pink
Pantone 197
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|pink1988-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta1949–1988
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green1937–1948
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta1934–1937
|colspan=3|
|-
|colspan=7|part of the Metropolitan line until given its own identity in 1988
|-
|rowspan=2|Jubilee
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Grey
Pantone 430
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|grey1979-present
|colspan=6|
|-
|colspan=7|opened 1979; Baker Street to Stanmore section previously part of the Bakerloo line
|-
|rowspan=2|Metropolitan
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Magenta
Pantone 235
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta1948-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green1937–1948
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta1934–1937
|colspan=3|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|redUERL
|-
|colspan=7|shown combined with the District line 1937–1948
|-
|Northern
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Black
Pantone Black
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|black1933-present
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|grey (CCE&H)UERL
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|black (C&SL)UERL
|-
|rowspan=2|Northern City
|rowspan=2|none
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|-
|colspan=7|part of the Metropolitan Line until c.1990; part of London Overground from 2010
|-
|rowspan=2|Hammersmith & City
Hammersmith & City Line
The Hammersmith & City line is a subsurface London Underground line. It connects Hammersmith in the west with Barking in the east, running through the northern part of central London. It is coloured salmon pink on the Tube map...
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Underground Pink
Pantone 197
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|pink1988-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta1949–1988
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green1937–1948
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta1934–1937
|colspan=3|
|-
|colspan=7|part of the Metropolitan line until given its own identity in 1988
|-
|rowspan=2|Jubilee
Jubilee Line
The Jubilee line is a line on the London Underground , in the United Kingdom. It was built in two major sections—initially to Charing Cross, in central London, and later extended, in 1999, to Stratford, in east London. The later stations are larger and have special safety features, both aspects...
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Grey
Pantone 430
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|grey1979-present
|colspan=6|
|-
|colspan=7|opened 1979; Baker Street to Stanmore section previously part of the Bakerloo line
|-
|rowspan=2|Metropolitan
Metropolitan Line
The Metropolitan line is part of the London Underground. It is coloured in Transport for London's Corporate Magenta on the Tube map and in other branding. It was the first underground railway in the world, opening as the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863...
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Magenta
Pantone 235
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta1948-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green1937–1948
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|magenta1934–1937
|colspan=3|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|redUERL
|-
|colspan=7|shown combined with the District line 1937–1948
|-
|Northern
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Black
Pantone Black
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|black1933-present
|colspan=4|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|grey (CCE&H)UERL
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|black (C&SL)UERL
|-
|rowspan=2|Northern City
Northern City Line
The Northern City Line is a railway line from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in London, once part of the Great Northern Electrics line. It should not be confused with the City branch of the Northern line, nor with the North London Line...
|rowspan=2|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
c.1990–1998
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)1985-c.1990
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)1985-c.1990
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
1975–1984
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|black
(double stripe)1970–1975
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
black1937–1969
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|black
(double stripe)1970–1975
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
black1937–1969
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
1934–1937
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(magenta outline)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(magenta outline)
1933–1934
|-
|colspan=5|not shown since 1998; now a Network Rail line
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(black outline)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
|-
|colspan=5|not shown since 1998; now a Network Rail line
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(black outline)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
UERL
|-
|Piccadilly
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Blue
Pantone 072
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blue1933-present
|colspan=5|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|yellow
(black outline)
|-
|Piccadilly
Piccadilly Line
The Piccadilly line is a line of the London Underground, coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fifth busiest line on the Underground network judged by the number of passengers transported per year. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1, with...
|style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Blue
Pantone 072
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blue1933-present
|colspan=5|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|yellow
(black outline)
UERL
|-
|rowspan=2|Victoria
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Light Blue
Pantone 299
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|light blue1968-present
|colspan=6|
|-
|colspan=7|opened 1968
|-
|rowspan=2|Waterloo & City
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Corporate Turquoise
Pantone 338
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
turquoise1994-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|-
|rowspan=2|Victoria
Victoria Line
The Victoria line is a deep-level London Underground line running from the south to the north-east of London. It is coloured light blue on the Tube map...
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:white; text-align:center;"|Corporate Light Blue
Pantone 299
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|light blue1968-present
|colspan=6|
|-
|colspan=7|opened 1968
|-
|rowspan=2|Waterloo & City
Waterloo & City Line
The Waterloo & City line is a short underground railway line in London, which was formally opened on 11 July 1898. It has only two stations, Waterloo and Bank...
|rowspan=2 style="background:#; color:#; text-align:center;"|Corporate Turquoise
Pantone 338
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|
turquoise1994-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
1949–1994
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red
(black outline)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|red
(black outline)
1943–1948
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
1938–1941
|colspan=2|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|not shown before 1938; part of British Rail
until 1994
|-
|rowspan=2|Docklands Light Railway
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|DLR Turquoise
Pantone 326
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|turquoise
(double stripe)1993-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blue
(double stripe)1987–1993
|colspan=5|
|-
|colspan=7|opened 1987
|-
|rowspan=2|Tramlink
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Trams Green
Pantone 368
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green
(double stripe) |style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green
(dotted) |colspan=5|
|-
|colspan=7|not shown on the standard map - see below; both styles used on other maps
|-
|rowspan=2|West London
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Overground Orange
Pantone 158
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2010-now
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|colspan=2|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|not shown before 1938; part of British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
until 1994
|-
|rowspan=2|Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|DLR Turquoise
Pantone 326
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|turquoise
(double stripe)1993-present
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|blue
(double stripe)1987–1993
|colspan=5|
|-
|colspan=7|opened 1987
|-
|rowspan=2|Tramlink
Tramlink
Tramlink is a tramway system in south London in the United Kingdom which began operation in May 2000...
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Trams Green
Pantone 368
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green
(double stripe) |style="color:black; text-align:center;"|green
(dotted) |colspan=5|
|-
|colspan=7|not shown on the standard map - see below; both styles used on other maps
|-
|rowspan=2|West London
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Overground Orange
Pantone 158
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2010-now
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
2007–2010
|not shown
1943–2007
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|
1943–2007
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
1938–1941
|colspan=2|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|now part of London Overground
|-
|rowspan=2|North London
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Overground Orange
Pantone 158
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2007-now
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|colspan=2|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|now part of London Overground
|-
|rowspan=2|North London
North London Railway
The North London Railway was a railway company that opened lines connecting the north of London to the East and West India Docks. The main east to west route is now part the North London Line. Other lines operated by the company fell into disuse, but were later revived as part of the Docklands...
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Overground Orange
Pantone 158
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2007-now
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
c.1990–2007
|not shown
1985-c.1990
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|
1985-c.1990
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
1977–1984
|colspan=2|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|now part of London Overground
|-
|rowspan=2|Watford DC
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Overground Orange
Pantone 158
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2007-now
|not shown
1985–2007
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|colspan=2|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|now part of London Overground
|-
|rowspan=2|Watford DC
Watford DC Line
The Watford DC Line is a commuter railway line from London Euston to Watford Junction. Services on the line are operated by London Overground....
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Overground Orange
Pantone 158
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2007-now
|
1985–2007
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
1984
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown
(triple stripe)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown
(triple stripe)
1975–1983
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown/black/brown
(triple stripe)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|brown/black/brown
(triple stripe)
1973–1974
|colspan=1|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|now part of London Overground; only Queen's Park–Watford shown 1973–1984 (Bakerloo peak hours service)
|-
|rowspan=2|Gospel Oak–Barking
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Overground Orange
Pantone 158
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2007-now
|colspan=5|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|not shown before 2007
|-
|rowspan=2|Thameslink
|rowspan=2|none
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|colspan=1|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|now part of London Overground; only Queen's Park–Watford shown 1973–1984 (Bakerloo peak hours service)
|-
|rowspan=2|Gospel Oak–Barking
Gospel Oak to Barking line
The Gospel Oak – Barking Line is a railway line in north and east London which connects Gospel Oak in North London and Barking in East London as part of the London Overground network. It is sometimes known as the Goblin , although this is a nickname rather than an official title...
|rowspan=2 style="color:#; text-align:center;"|Overground Orange
Pantone 158
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)2007-now
|colspan=5|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|not shown before 2007
|-
|rowspan=2|Thameslink
Thameslink
Thameslink is a fifty-station main-line route in the British railway system running north to south through London from Bedford to Brighton, serving both London Gatwick Airport and London Luton Airport. It opened as a through service in 1988 and by 1998 was severely overcrowded, carrying more than...
|rowspan=2|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
c.1990–1998
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)1985-c.1990
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|orange
(double stripe)1985-c.1990
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|white
(black outline)
1977–1984
|colspan=3|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|a Network Rail line; not shown since 1998
|}
A dashed line indicates limited service, under construction or closed for renovation.
From the start, interchange stations were given a special mark to indicate their importance, though its shape has changed over the years. In addition, from 1960, marks were used to identify stations that offered connections with British Railways (now National Rail
). The following shapes have been used:
Since 1970 the map has used the British Rail
'double arrow' beside the station name to indicate mainline interchanges. Where the mainline station has a different name from the Underground station that it connects with, since 1977 this has been shown in a box. The distance between the Tube station and the mainline station is now shown.
Contemporary maps have marked stations offering step-free access suitable for wheelchair
users with a blue circle containing a wheelchair symbol in white.
Tube stations with links to airports (Heathrow terminals 1, 2, 3, 4
, and 5
for London Heathrow
, and the DLR station at London City
) are shown with a black aeroplane symbol, and stations with a National Rail link to airports (such as London Stansted
via Liverpool Street) are shown with a red aeroplane symbol.
Since 2000, stations with a nearby interchange to river bus piers on the Thames have been marked with a small boat symbol to promote London River Services
.
When Eurostar
services used , the Eurostar logo was shown next to Waterloo station. On 14 November 2007, these services were transferred to St. Pancras International
, and thus King's Cross St. Pancras tube station
now bears the text "for St. Pancras International", although it does not show the Eurostar logo.
Some interchanges are more convenient than others and the map designers have often rearranged the layout of the map to try to indicate where the interchanges are more awkward, such as by making the interchange circles further apart and linking them with thin black lines. Sometimes the need for simplicity overrides this goal: the Bakerloo/Northern lines interchange at Charing Cross
is not particularly convenient and passengers may be better off changing at Embankment
, but the need to simplify the inner-London area means that the map seems to indicate that Charing Cross is the easier interchange.
The District line is a classic example; it is shown as one line on the map, but comprises services on the main route between Upminster
and Ealing/Richmond
/Wimbledon
; between Edgware Road
and Wimbledon; and the High Street Kensington
to Kensington Olympia shuttle service. For most of its history the map has not distinguished these services, which could be misleading to an unfamiliar user. More recent maps have tried to tackle this problem by separating the different routes at Earl's Court
.
Limited-service routes have sometimes been identified with hatched lines, with some complications added to the map to show where peak-only services ran through to branches, such as that to Chesham
on the Metropolitan line. The number of routes with a limited service has declined in recent years as patronage recovered from its early-1980s low point. As there are now fewer restrictions to show, the remaining ones are now mainly indicated in the accompanying text rather than by special line markings.
Maps are produced in different sizes, the most common being Quad Royal (40 × 50 inches) poster size and Journey Planner pocket size. The maps showing all the National Rail routes provide useful additional information at the expense of considerably increased complexity, as they contain almost 700 stations.
Currently the only non-Underground lines shown are the Docklands Light Railway and the London Overground.
When Transport for London expanded its London Overground
service to include the East London Line
in 2010, the East London line (extended to Croydon) changed from a solid orange line to a double orange stripe. According to 2007 proposals, the addition of the South London Line to London Overground was due to add the southern loop onto future tube maps in late 2010, but, as of August 2011, this has not yet happened.
. These maps also show locations of certain cultural attractions and geographic landmarks.
"spider diagrams" to display at bus stops around the city, conveying bus route information in a schematic style similar to Beck's design, with straight lines and 45° angles depicting geographically distorted bus routes, coloured lines and numbers to differentiate services, and graphical markers to show bus stops. Tube and rail lines are not included, but interchanges are denoted with appropriate symbols by bus stop names, such as the Tube roundel. Unlike the traditional Tube map, the bus maps display services appropriate to specific transport hubs rather than a full network. Each map also contains a central rectangle of a simple, geographically accurate street map to display the positions of bus stops; outside this rectangle, the only geographic feature to appear on the bus maps is the River Thames. These maps are also available for electronic download, with map collections ordered by London borough. The bus maps were designed for TfL by the cartographic design company T-Kartor group.
In 2009, British Waterways
produced their own map of London's waterways in a Tube-style diagrammatic map, depicting the River Thames
, the various canals and subterranean rivers
in the city.
The 'look' of the London Underground map (including 45 degree angles, evenly spaced 'stations', and some geographic distortion) has been emulated by many other subway systems around the world. While London Underground have been protective of their copyright they have also allowed their concepts to be shared with other transport operators (Amsterdam
's GVB
even pays tribute to them on their map).
In June 2011, British Designer Mark Noad unveiled his vision for a more 'geographically accurate' London Underground map. The map is an attempt to see if it is possible to create a geographically-accurate representation of the underground system while still retaining some of the clarity of Beck's original diagram. It uses similar principles, fixed line angles – in this case 30 and 60 degrees instead of 45 – and shortens the extremities of the lines to make it more compact.
Stylistic aspects of the London diagram, such as the line colours and styles, the station ticks or interchange symbols, are also frequently used in advertising.
|colspan=3|
|style="color:black; text-align:center;"|thin grey
(main line)UERL
|-
|colspan=7|a Network Rail line; not shown since 1998
|}
A dashed line indicates limited service, under construction or closed for renovation.
Station marks
An important symbol that Beck introduced was the 'tick' mark to indicate stations. This allowed stations to be placed closer together while preserving clarity, because the tick was only on the side of the line nearer the station name (ideally centrally placed, though the arrangement of lines did not always allow this).From the start, interchange stations were given a special mark to indicate their importance, though its shape has changed over the years. In addition, from 1960, marks were used to identify stations that offered connections with British Railways (now National Rail
National Rail
National Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...
). The following shapes have been used:
- Circle (one for each line or station, where convenient) - standard default mark
- Circle (one for each station) - 1938 experimental map
- Diamond (one for each line) - early 1930s
- Square - interchange with British Railways, 1960–1964
- Circle with a dot inside - interchange with British RailBritish RailBritish Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
, 1964–1970
Since 1970 the map has used the British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
'double arrow' beside the station name to indicate mainline interchanges. Where the mainline station has a different name from the Underground station that it connects with, since 1977 this has been shown in a box. The distance between the Tube station and the mainline station is now shown.
Contemporary maps have marked stations offering step-free access suitable for wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
users with a blue circle containing a wheelchair symbol in white.
Tube stations with links to airports (Heathrow terminals 1, 2, 3, 4
Heathrow Terminal 4 tube station
Heathrow Terminal 4 is a London Underground station at Heathrow Airport on the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly Line. The station is situated in Travelcard Zone 6.The station opened on the 12 April 1986 to serve the then recently opened Heathrow Terminal 4...
, and 5
Heathrow Terminal 5 station
Heathrow Terminal 5 station is a shared railway station at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 which was opened on 27 March 2008. It was designed by architects HOK International in conjunction with Rogers, Stirk, Harbour & Partners....
for London Heathrow
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
, and the DLR station at London City
London City Airport DLR station
London City Airport DLR station is a station on the Docklands Light Railway which serves the London City Airport. It opened on 2 December 2005. It is located on the King George V branch. Until the extension to Woolwich Arsenal, this station was the reason for this branch. It continues to be an...
) are shown with a black aeroplane symbol, and stations with a National Rail link to airports (such as London Stansted
London Stansted Airport
-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
via Liverpool Street) are shown with a red aeroplane symbol.
Since 2000, stations with a nearby interchange to river bus piers on the Thames have been marked with a small boat symbol to promote London River Services
London River Services
London River Services is a division of Transport for London , which manages passenger transport on the River Thames in London, UK. They do not own or operate any boats but license the services of other operators...
.
When Eurostar
Eurostar
Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....
services used , the Eurostar logo was shown next to Waterloo station. On 14 November 2007, these services were transferred to St. Pancras International
St Pancras railway station
St Pancras railway station, also known as London St Pancras and since 2007 as St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus celebrated for its Victorian architecture. The Grade I listed building stands on Euston Road in St Pancras, London Borough of Camden, between the...
, and thus King's Cross St. Pancras tube station
King's Cross St. Pancras tube station
King's Cross St. Pancras is a tube station in the London Borough of Camden, on the London Underground network, serving both King's Cross and main line stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. It is the fourth busiest station on the system and serves more lines than any other...
now bears the text "for St. Pancras International", although it does not show the Eurostar logo.
Some interchanges are more convenient than others and the map designers have often rearranged the layout of the map to try to indicate where the interchanges are more awkward, such as by making the interchange circles further apart and linking them with thin black lines. Sometimes the need for simplicity overrides this goal: the Bakerloo/Northern lines interchange at Charing Cross
Charing Cross tube station
Charing Cross tube station is a London Underground station at Charing Cross in the City of Westminster with entrances located in Trafalgar Square and The Strand. The station is served by the Northern and Bakerloo lines and provides an interchange with the National Rail network at station...
is not particularly convenient and passengers may be better off changing at Embankment
Embankment tube station
Embankment is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster, known by various names during its history. It is served by the Circle, District, Northern and Bakerloo lines. On the Northern and Bakerloo lines, the station is between Waterloo and Charing Cross stations; on the Circle and...
, but the need to simplify the inner-London area means that the map seems to indicate that Charing Cross is the easier interchange.
Lines or services
The Tube map aims to make the complicated network of services easy to understand, but there are occasions when it might be useful to have more information about the services that operate on each line.The District line is a classic example; it is shown as one line on the map, but comprises services on the main route between Upminster
Upminster station
Upminster station is a London Underground and National Rail station located in Upminster in the London Borough of Havering and in London fare zone 6. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is the easternmost station on the London Underground network and the eastern terminus of the District...
and Ealing/Richmond
Richmond station (London)
Richmond station is a National Rail and London Underground station in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London which is managed by South West Trains....
/Wimbledon
Wimbledon station
Wimbledon station is a National Rail, London Underground, and Tramlink station located in Wimbledon in the London Borough of Merton, and is the only London station that provides an interchange between rail, Underground, and Tramlink services...
; between Edgware Road
Edgware Road tube station
Edgware Road station is a London Underground station on the corner of Chapel Street and Cabbell Street Road in Travelcard Zone 1 serving the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines. The separate Edgware Road tube station is about 150 metres away on the opposite side of the Marylebone Road...
and Wimbledon; and the High Street Kensington
High Street Kensington tube station
High Street Kensington is a London Underground station at Kensington High Street.The station is on the Circle Line between Gloucester Road and Notting Hill Gate, and the District Line between Earl's Court and Notting Hill Gate. It is in Travelcard Zone 1....
to Kensington Olympia shuttle service. For most of its history the map has not distinguished these services, which could be misleading to an unfamiliar user. More recent maps have tried to tackle this problem by separating the different routes at Earl's Court
Earl's Court tube station
Earl's Court tube station is a London Underground station in Earls Court. The station is located between Earls Court Road and Warwick Road . It is on the boundary of Travelcard Zone 1 and 2 and is in both zones....
.
Limited-service routes have sometimes been identified with hatched lines, with some complications added to the map to show where peak-only services ran through to branches, such as that to Chesham
Chesham tube station
Chesham lies at the end of the Metropolitan Line Chesham branch, and opened on 8 July 1889 as the original northern terminus of the Metropolitan Railway from . The station is a Grade II listed building. There is no station starter signal at Chesham. The branch has no intermediate stations...
on the Metropolitan line. The number of routes with a limited service has declined in recent years as patronage recovered from its early-1980s low point. As there are now fewer restrictions to show, the remaining ones are now mainly indicated in the accompanying text rather than by special line markings.
Official versions of the Tube map
The Tube map exists to help passengers navigate the London rapid transit network and it has been questioned whether it should play a wider role in helping people navigate London itself. The question has been raised as to whether mainline railways should be shown on the map, in particular those in inner-London. The Underground has largely resisted adding additional services to the standard Tube map, instead producing separate maps with different information, including:- Standard Tube map: Shows all Underground, DLR and Overground lines and stations, and zone boundaries.
- Central London map: A cropped and enlarged version of the standard map showing only the central LondonCentral LondonCentral London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally,...
area. Some versions show ThameslinkThameslinkThameslink is a fifty-station main-line route in the British railway system running north to south through London from Bedford to Brighton, serving both London Gatwick Airport and London Luton Airport. It opened as a through service in 1988 and by 1998 was severely overcrowded, carrying more than...
and Northern City LineNorthern City LineThe Northern City Line is a railway line from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in London, once part of the Great Northern Electrics line. It should not be confused with the City branch of the Northern line, nor with the North London Line...
services. - London Connections map: Produced by the Association of Train Operating CompaniesAssociation of Train Operating CompaniesThe Association of Train Operating Companies is a body which represents 24 train operating companies that provide passenger railway services on the privatised British railway system. It owns the National Rail brand. The Association is an unincorporated association owned by its members...
(ATOC), this provided the same information as TfL's Travelcard Zones map but extended further beyond Travelcard Zones 7-9. National Rail lines were emphasised by thicker lines and coloured according to their train operating companyTrain operating companyThe term train operating company is used in the United Kingdom to describe the various businesses operating passenger trains on the railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand...
(TOC). This map was replaced by the Oyster Rail Services map. - Oyster rail services in London: Issued in January 2010 to coincide with the introduction of Oyster cardOyster cardThe Oyster card is a form of electronic ticketing used on public transport services within the Greater London area of the United Kingdom. It is promoted by Transport for London and is valid on a number of different travel systems across London including London Underground, buses, the Docklands...
pay-as-you-go across National Rail services in London, this shows Underground, DLR, Tramlink, Overground, National Rail and fare zone boundaries. National Rail lines are shown in white with a thick outline coloured according to the mainline terminus station they serve. This replaces the Travelcard Zones map which had the same content except that National Rail lines were shown in white with a thin black outline. - High Frequency Services map. The same as the Travelcard Zones map except that lines offering services at greater than 15-minute intervals are de-emphasised so that the more frequent routes can be seen easily.
- Step-free Tube Guide. Underground and DLR only. Indicates stations with full or partial step-free access, and level access suitable for wheelchair users.
- Tube Toilet Map. Underground and DLR only. Indicates stations with toilet facilities.
- Tube Bicycle map. Underground and DLR only. Shows sections of the network where bicycles are permitted in green.
- Real Time Disruption map. Underground, DLR and Overground only. Interactive web-based map with disrupted lines and stations highlighted, others in light grey.
- Interactive journey map. Underground, DLR and Overground only. Interactive web-based map that can be used to access information about each station (e.g. bus connections and disabled access).
Maps are produced in different sizes, the most common being Quad Royal (40 × 50 inches) poster size and Journey Planner pocket size. The maps showing all the National Rail routes provide useful additional information at the expense of considerably increased complexity, as they contain almost 700 stations.
Non-Underground lines on the standard tube map
Some non-Underground lines have appeared on the standard tube map:- On the early maps which used a geographic background, main line railways were shown as part of the background detail.
- Prior to its transfer to the London Underground in 1994, the Waterloo and City line was operated by British RailBritish RailBritish Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
and its mainline predecessors. The line began appearing on most tube maps, from the mid-1930s. - For a short period in the late 1930s until 1940, the section of the West London LineWest London LineThe West London Line is a short railway in inner West London which links lines at in the south to lines near Willesden Junction in the north. It has always been an important cross-London link especially for freight services...
linking Willesden JunctionWillesden Junction stationWillesden Junction station is a Network Rail station in Harlesden, northwest London, UK. It is served by both London Overground and the Bakerloo line of the London Underground.-History:The station developed on three contiguous sites:...
to the Metropolitan line's Middle CircleMiddle CircleThe Middle Circle was a railway route in London which operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries over tracks which are now mainly part of the London Underground...
route at Uxbridge RoadUxbridge Road tube stationUxbridge Road was a London Underground station on a branch of the Metropolitan Line. It was located at the eastern end of the Uxbridge Road in Shepherd's Bush, west London, UK, just before the start of Holland Park Avenue, a short distance from Shepherd's Bush station on the Central Line...
was shown as a service operated by the Great Western RailwayGreat Western RailwayThe Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
and the London, Midland and Scottish RailwayLondon, Midland and Scottish RailwayThe London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...
. The service was removed when the line closed to passengers in 1940. - The North London LineNorth London LineThe North London Line is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of north London, England. Its route is a rough semicircle from the south west to the north east, avoiding central London. The line is owned and maintained by Network Rail...
was added to the map in 1977. While run by British RailBritish RailBritish Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
, and later by SilverlinkSilverlinkSilverlink Train Services Ltd was a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operated routes in North London and from London to Northampton...
, it was shown in British Rail/National Rail colours, although its appearance was intermittent, being omitted from some map editions over the years. In November 2007 it was taken over by London Overground and changed to an orange double stripe. The semi-orbital route originally ran from Richmond to Broad StreetBroad Street railway stationBroad Street railway station was a major terminal station in the City of London, England. It opened in 1865 and closed in 1986. It was the main terminus of the North London Railway network of suburban services and was adjacent to station.-Opening:...
, then Richmond to North WoolwichNorth Woolwich railway stationNorth Woolwich railway station in North Woolwich in east London was the eastern terminus of the North London Line. It was in Travelcard Zone 3. The next station was .-History:...
; today the line runs from Richmond to StratfordStratford stationStratford station is a large multilevel railway station in Stratford, east London. The station is served by the National Rail services National Express East Anglia, London Overground and c2c, by London Underground's Central and Jubilee lines, and by the Docklands Light Railway . Stratford is in...
. - The West London LineWest London LineThe West London Line is a short railway in inner West London which links lines at in the south to lines near Willesden Junction in the north. It has always been an important cross-London link especially for freight services...
, Watford DC LineWatford DC LineThe Watford DC Line is a commuter railway line from London Euston to Watford Junction. Services on the line are operated by London Overground....
and Gospel Oak-Barking line (former British Rail/Silverlink lines) were all added to the standard tube map in 2007 when they were taken over by London Overground, and all are shown as an orange double stripe. - The Northern City LineNorthern City LineThe Northern City Line is a railway line from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in London, once part of the Great Northern Electrics line. It should not be confused with the City branch of the Northern line, nor with the North London Line...
appeared on the original 1908 map as the Great Northern and City Railway. It later appeared as the Great Northern and City section of the Metropolitan Railway and then, from the late 1930s as part of the Northern Line. The service was transferred to British RailBritish RailBritish Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
in 1976 and continued to appear until recently. - ThameslinkThameslinkThameslink is a fifty-station main-line route in the British railway system running north to south through London from Bedford to Brighton, serving both London Gatwick Airport and London Luton Airport. It opened as a through service in 1988 and by 1998 was severely overcrowded, carrying more than...
reopened in 1988, the line having been closed for many years. It offers some relief to the Northern Line as it connects King's Cross St Pancras to London Bridge. Only the central sections between Kentish Town and London Bridge/Elephant & Castle were shown. Its appearance on Tube maps has been intermittent, having being omitted from some map editions over the years. - The Docklands Light RailwayDocklands Light RailwayThe Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
, the automatic light-rail system in the London Docklands area.
Currently the only non-Underground lines shown are the Docklands Light Railway and the London Overground.
When Transport for London expanded its London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...
service to include the East London Line
East London Line
The East London Line is a London Overground line which runs north to south through the East End, Docklands and South areas of London.Built in 1869 by the East London Railway Company, which reused the Thames Tunnel, originally intended for horse-drawn carriages, the line became part of the London...
in 2010, the East London line (extended to Croydon) changed from a solid orange line to a double orange stripe. According to 2007 proposals, the addition of the South London Line to London Overground was due to add the southern loop onto future tube maps in late 2010, but, as of August 2011, this has not yet happened.
Underground lines on geographically accurate maps
Transport for London publish several bus maps that depict the approximate paths of tube routes relative to major streets and London bus routesLondon Buses
London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London that manages bus services within Greater London, UK. Buses are required to carry similar red colour schemes and conform to the same fare scheme...
. These maps also show locations of certain cultural attractions and geographic landmarks.
Spin-offs and imitations
The success of the tube map as a piece of information design has led to many imitations of its format. In 2002 Transport for London launched a series of London BusesLondon Buses
London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London that manages bus services within Greater London, UK. Buses are required to carry similar red colour schemes and conform to the same fare scheme...
"spider diagrams" to display at bus stops around the city, conveying bus route information in a schematic style similar to Beck's design, with straight lines and 45° angles depicting geographically distorted bus routes, coloured lines and numbers to differentiate services, and graphical markers to show bus stops. Tube and rail lines are not included, but interchanges are denoted with appropriate symbols by bus stop names, such as the Tube roundel. Unlike the traditional Tube map, the bus maps display services appropriate to specific transport hubs rather than a full network. Each map also contains a central rectangle of a simple, geographically accurate street map to display the positions of bus stops; outside this rectangle, the only geographic feature to appear on the bus maps is the River Thames. These maps are also available for electronic download, with map collections ordered by London borough. The bus maps were designed for TfL by the cartographic design company T-Kartor group.
In 2009, British Waterways
British Waterways
British Waterways is a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom, serving as the navigation authority in England, Scotland and Wales for the vast majority of the canals as well as a number of rivers and docks...
produced their own map of London's waterways in a Tube-style diagrammatic map, depicting the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, the various canals and subterranean rivers
Subterranean rivers of London
The subterranean or underground rivers of London are the tributaries of the River Thames and River Lea that were built over during the growth of the metropolis of London...
in the city.
The 'look' of the London Underground map (including 45 degree angles, evenly spaced 'stations', and some geographic distortion) has been emulated by many other subway systems around the world. While London Underground have been protective of their copyright they have also allowed their concepts to be shared with other transport operators (Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
's GVB
Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf
The Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf is the municipal transport company of Amsterdam. As of 2007, the GVB is an independent corporation wholly owned by the city of Amsterdam.-History:...
even pays tribute to them on their map).
In June 2011, British Designer Mark Noad unveiled his vision for a more 'geographically accurate' London Underground map. The map is an attempt to see if it is possible to create a geographically-accurate representation of the underground system while still retaining some of the clarity of Beck's original diagram. It uses similar principles, fixed line angles – in this case 30 and 60 degrees instead of 45 – and shortens the extremities of the lines to make it more compact.
Cultural references
The design has become so widely known that it is now instantly recognisable as representing London. It has been featured on T-shirts, postcards, and other memorabilia. In 2006, the design came second in a televised search for the most well known British design icon. It is widely cited by academics and designers as a 'design classic' and it is due to these cultural associations that London Underground does not usually permit the design to be used or altered for any other purpose. This has only been officially sanctioned on a few occasions:- David Booth's The TateTate GalleryThe Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
Gallery by Tube 1986 is one of a series of publicity posters for the Underground. His work showed the lines of the map squeezed out of tubes of paint and has since been used on the cover of the map itself. - In 1987, Paul Middlewick 'discovered' that Animals could be created in the Tube map by linking the lines, stations and interchanges. These Animals on the UndergroundAnimals on the UndergroundAnimals on the Underground is a collection of over 20 animal characters made using only lines, stations and interchange symbols on the London Underground map, created by illustrator in 1987. In 2003, the concept was used in a poster campaign by advertising agency McCann-Erickson to promote the...
now feature on their own web site. - In Tate ModernTate ModernTate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
hangs The Great BearThe Great BearThe Great Bear is a 1992 lithograph by Simon Patterson. At first glance the work looks like the London Underground Tube map, but Patterson uses each line to represent groups of people, including scientists, saints, philosophers, comedians, explorers and footballers.The copyright of the work is...
by Simon Patterson, a subtle parody of the contemporary map design, first displayed in 1992, in which the station names on the tube map have been replaced by those of famous figures. - In 2003, to coincide with the publication of a book about tube maps from all over the world, the London Transport Museum released a "World Metro Map" poster strongly based on the London diagram and approved by TfLTFLTFL may refer to:* Tasmanian Football League, an Australian rules football competition* Tensor fasciae latae muscle, a thigh/hip muscle* Transport for London, a public transport organisation in the London area* The Flaming Lips, an American rock band...
. - Albus DumbledoreAlbus DumbledoreProfessor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a major character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. For most of the series, he is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts...
, a central character in the Harry Potter series has a scar just above his left knee that is in the shape of a Tube Map. - In 2006, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
published a design based on the tube map, purporting to show the relationships between musicians and musical genres in the 20th century. - On 11 January 2007, Lord Adonis unveiled a depiction of the map featuring the names of successful schools and students at GCSE level as part of the London Student Awards 2007.
- The Royal Shakespeare CompanyRoyal Shakespeare CompanyThe Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
produced a map in 2007 linking Shakespearean characters according to their traits in a diagram which resembles the map for complexity.
Stylistic aspects of the London diagram, such as the line colours and styles, the station ticks or interchange symbols, are also frequently used in advertising.
Further reading
- Dow, Andrew, Telling the Passenger where to get off (Capital Transport, London, 2005): ISBN 1-85414-291-7
- Garland, KenKen GarlandKen Garland is notable as a British graphic designer, author and game designer. Garland established Ken Garland Associates in 1962.Garland studied design at London's Central School of Arts and Crafts in the early 1950s...
, Mr Beck's Underground Map (Capital Transport, London, 1994): ISBN 1-85414-168-6 - Leboff, David and Demuth, Tim, No Need to Ask! (Capital Transport, London, 1999): ISBN 1-85414-215-1
- Ovenden, MarkMark OvendenMark Ovenden F.R.G.S. is a broadcaster and author who specialises in the subjects of graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport, with an emphasis on underground rapid transit....
, Metro Maps Of The World (Capital Transport, London, 2005): ISBN 1-85414-288-7 - Ovenden, Mark, Transit Maps of the World (Penguin BooksPenguin BooksPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
, New York, 2007): ISBN 0-14311-265-1 - Roberts, Maxwell, Underground Maps After Beck (Capital Transport, London, 2003): ISBN 1-85414-286-0
- Rose, Douglas, The London Underground: A Diagrammatic History (Capital Transport, London, 2005): ISBN 1-85414-219-4
External links
- Tube maps from TfL
- National Rail maps including London Connections
- Geographically Accurate Tube Map
- Trivia, history and facts on the London Underground Tube map contains more history on the tube map plus alternative designs of the map from Dr Who Conventions, and Simon Patterson's The Great BearThe Great BearThe Great Bear is a 1992 lithograph by Simon Patterson. At first glance the work looks like the London Underground Tube map, but Patterson uses each line to represent groups of people, including scientists, saints, philosophers, comedians, explorers and footballers.The copyright of the work is...
- Interactive animated journey time map
- www.mylookout.net/maps/londonTube/ - Satellite Image Tube Map uses Google maps to find tube stations by zone and/or lines
- London quickmap mapmovies - all kinds of variations on tube maps
- A history of the London Tube Maps - complete history of the evolution of the map
- London Transport Underground Maps - illustrations of almost every tube map issued
- The London Tube Map Archive has a collection of tube maps, showing the growth of the system and the changes in the style of the map
- Robert Reynolds Subway Page - links and photos of most world subway system maps, many of which use Beck-inspired design principles
- Zoomable Tube and Rail Map
- H2G2 article on the tube map
- Animation showing how today's map morphs into a geographical map and Beck's original map
- Mark Noad's Underground diagram