| Part of a series of articles on The Tube |
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| Overview History |
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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.
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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 maps 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.[1]
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.[2] 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.
The first diagrammatic map of London's rapid transit network was designed by Harry Beck in 1931.[3] 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 diagrams; 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.[4]
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 diamonds). 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.[5] 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.[6]
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 station); in addition, lines were generally less straight.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]
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,[10][11] and general disapproval from most Londoners as well as from mayor Boris Johnson.[12] Based on this reaction, the following edition of the diagram in December 2009 reinstated both the river and fare zones.
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, which uses perfect circles for the letter 'O'.
The table below shows the changing use of colours since Beck's first map. The current colours are taken from Transport for London's colour standards guide,[13] 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.
| Line | TfL colour name[13] | Shown as[14] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes | ||||||||
| Bakerloo | Corporate Brown Pantone 470 |
brown 1934-present | red 1933–1934 | brown UERL | ||||
| Central | Corporate Red Pantone 485 |
red 1934-present | orange 1933–1934 | blue UERL | ||||
| Circle | Corporate Yellow Pantone 116 |
yellow 1987-present |
yellow (black outline)
1949–1987
|
green (black outline)
1948
|
||||
| originally part of the Metropolitan and District lines; not shown before 1948 | ||||||||
| District | Corporate Green Pantone 356 |
green 1933-present | green UERL | |||||
| East London | Underground Orange Pantone 137 |
orange (double stripe) 2010-present |
orange 1990–2010 | magenta (double stripe) 1970-c.1990 |
magenta 1949–1969 |
green 1937–1948 |
magenta 1934–1937 |
white (red outline)
1933–1934
|
| part of the Metropolitan Line until c.1990; part of London Overground from 2010 | ||||||||
| Hammersmith & City |
Underground Pink Pantone 197 |
pink 1988-present | magenta 1949–1988 | green 1937–1948 | magenta 1934–1937 | |||
| part of the Metropolitan line until given its own identity in 1988 | ||||||||
| Jubilee | Corporate Grey Pantone 430 |
grey 1979-present | ||||||
| opened 1979; Baker Street to Stanmore section previously part of the Bakerloo line | ||||||||
| Metropolitan | Corporate Magenta Pantone 235 |
magenta 1948-present | green 1937–1948 | magenta 1934–1937 | red UERL | |||
| shown combined with the District line 1937–1948 | ||||||||
| Northern | Corporate Black Pantone Black |
black 1933-present | grey (CCE&H) UERL | black (C&SL) UERL | ||||
| Northern City |
|
white (black outline)
c.1990–1998
|
orange (double stripe) 1985-c.1990 |
white (black outline)
1975–1984
|
black (double stripe) 1970–1975 |
black 1937–1969 |
white (black outline)
1934–1937
|
white (magenta outline)
1933–1934
|
| not shown since 1998; now a Network Rail line | orange (black outline) |
UERL
|
||||||
| Piccadilly | Corporate Blue Pantone 072 |
blue 1933-present | yellow (black outline)
UERL
|
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| Victoria | Corporate Light Blue Pantone 299 |
light blue 1968-present | ||||||
| opened 1968 | ||||||||
| Waterloo & City |
Corporate Turquoise Pantone 338 |
turquoise 1994-present |
white (black outline)
1949–1994
|
red (black outline)
1943–1948
|
white (black outline)
1938–1941
|
thin grey (main line) UERL |
||
| not shown before 1938; part of British Rail until 1994 | ||||||||
| Docklands Light Railway |
DLR Turquoise Pantone 326 |
turquoise (double stripe) 1993-present |
blue (double stripe) 1987–1993 |
|||||
| opened 1987 | ||||||||
| Tramlink | Trams Green Pantone 368 |
green (double stripe) |
green (dotted) |
|||||
| not shown on the standard map - see below; both styles used on other maps | ||||||||
| West London | Overground Orange Pantone 158 |
orange (double stripe) 2010-now |
white (black outline)
2007–2010
|
1943–2007 |
white (black outline)
1938–1941
|
thin grey (main line) UERL |
||
| now part of London Overground | ||||||||
| North London | Overground Orange Pantone 158 |
orange (double stripe) 2007-now |
white (black outline)
c.1990–2007
|
1985-c.1990 |
white (black outline)
1977–1984
|
thin grey (main line) UERL |
||
| now part of London Overground | ||||||||
| Watford DC | Overground Orange Pantone 158 |
orange (double stripe) 2007-now |
1985–2007 |
white (black outline)
1984
|
brown (triple stripe)
1975–1983
|
brown/black/brown (triple stripe)
1973–1974
|
thin grey (main line) UERL |
|
| now part of London Overground; only Queen's Park–Watford shown 1973–1984 (Bakerloo peak hours service) | ||||||||
| Gospel Oak– Barking |
Overground Orange Pantone 158 |
orange (double stripe) 2007-now |
thin grey (main line) UERL |
|||||
| not shown before 2007 | ||||||||
| Thameslink |
|
white (black outline)
c.1990–1998
|
orange (double stripe) 1985-c.1990 |
white (black outline)
1977–1984
|
thin grey (main line) UERL |
|||
| a Network Rail line; not shown since 1998 | ||||||||
A dashed line indicates limited service, under construction or closed for renovation.
It has not been announced how the Crossrail service will be depicted on the tube map when the service opens in 2018. It may be a double stripe in purple or in grey.
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). 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 Waterloo International, 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 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 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.
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:
Maps are produced in different sizes, the most common being Quad Royal (40 × 50 inches[18]) 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.
Some non-Underground lines have appeared on the standard tube map:
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,[20] but, as of August 2011, this has not yet happened.
Transport for London publish several bus maps that depict the approximate paths of tube routes relative to major streets and London bus routes.[21] These maps also show locations of certain cultural attractions and geographic landmarks.
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 Buses "spider diagrams" to display at bus stops around the city, conveying bus route information in a schematic style similar to Beck's design,[22] 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.[23] The bus maps were designed for TfL by the cartographic design company T-Kartor group.[24]
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.[25]
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.[26][27] 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).[28]
In June 2011, British Designer Mark Noad unveiled his vision for a more 'geographically accurate' London Underground map.[29] 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.[30]
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.[31] It is widely cited by academics and designers as a 'design classic'[32][33][34][35] 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.[36] This has only been officially sanctioned on a few occasions:
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.
Animals on the Underground is a collection of over 20 animal characters depicted using only lines, stations and interchange symbols on the London Underground map, created by illustrator Paul Middlewick in 1987. In 2003, the concept was used in a poster campaign by advertising agency McCann-Erickson to promote the London Zoo.[39] The pictures have also appeared on London Television and in press articles around the world including The Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Metro. The designs are a registered trademark, and as of 2009 Middlewick has depicted a total of 38 animals.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) ran a fund raising poster campaign on the London Underground in April 2008. The posters used the seal, elephant and whale images to raise awareness of seal hunting in Canada, the ivory trade and whale hunting respectively. The Animals have appeared many times in London's Metro newspaper. Animals on the Underground concept and images are copyright protected and uses the London Underground map, symbol and typeface under license.
In May 2010, a children's storybook was released that used the characters, titled "Lost Property". It is the story of an elephant called "Elephant & Castle" who loses his memory and is helped by Angel the angel fish. The book was illustrated by Middlewick, and written by Jon Sayers, and the official launch took place at the London Transport Museum.
