Single to Totenschinken Hofstrasse, bitte

Click on the map for a larger image

I’m grateful to Ross Lydall of the London Evening Standard for the heads up on what the London Underground map may have looked like if Germany had won WWII. Never mind the map of Europe, this is how the map of the London Underground could have been redrawn if the Germans had won, or would it? An Austrian university librarian has imagined how the Tube network would look if we all spoke German, renaming the capital's 270 stations from Heidenreihe (Heathrow) to Hahnenzuchter (Cockfosters).



Horst Prillinger has used a mixture of wit and linguistic dexterity - Heidenreihe most accurately translates as "heathen row" while Hahnenzuchter could be read as "chicken farmer" - in adapting the station names. Mr Prillinger said the map had translations that preserved the meaning of the English words, such as Burnt Oak becoming Verbrannte Eiche, and "deliberate misunderstandings".

While the suffix "ham" means "home", he translated it as the meat, so West Ham becomes Westschinken. Here is Horst’s website;

http://homepage.univie.ac.at/horst.prillinger/metro/english/network_maps.html



For the history of Mr. Beck’s iconic London Underground Map see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/11/mapping-world.html

Der Untergrund

Die Linien, Bahnhöfe und Zonen von London Underground, London Overground und Docklands Light Railway (DLR). Als Klassiker des Designs macht die U-Bahn-Karte das Fahren im Londoner U-Bahn-Netz denkbar einfach. Diese übersichtliche Karte enthält einen Schlüssel zu allen eingezeichneten Stationen sowie die 6 Gebührenzonen.


Click on the map for a larger image

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Blitz on the Underground

On the 70th anniversary of the Blitz on London survivors stepped back in time when they relived their experiences sheltering from Nazi bombs in London Underground stations during the Second World War. Providing a refuge from waves of attack bombers, Tube stations across London became impromptu shelters, saving thousands of lives in the process.


Aldwych Tube Station with the tiling showing the original name "Strand"

Aldwych, one of the first to be used as an air raid shelter, is being reopened to mark the anniversary. The station has been closed for 16 years, but it has reopened for tours to commemorate the Battle of Britain. An original 1938 train and a vintage bus parked outside the station - which was taken out of use in 1994 - enhanced the wartime atmosphere. The shelters saw crowds of people attempt to sleep on cramped, smelly platforms. Blitz survivors were invited to the station to relive their experiences ahead of its opening to the public.



The appearance of German bombers in the skies over London during the afternoon of September 7, 1940 heralded a tactical shift in Hitler's attempt to subdue Great Britain. This was the beginning of the Blitz - a period of intense bombing of London and other cities that continued until the following May. For the next consecutive 57 days, London was bombed either during the day or night. Fires consumed many portions of the city. Residents sought shelter wherever they could find it - many fleeing to the Underground stations that sheltered as many as 177,000 people during the night. In the worst single incident, 450 were killed when a bomb destroyed a school being used as an air raid shelter. Londoners and the world were introduced to a new weapon of terror and destruction in the arsenal of twentieth century warfare. The Blitz ended on May 11, 1941 when Hitler called off the raids in order to move his bombers east in preparation for Germany's invasion of Russia.


Air Raid Warden

People in London also used tube stations during the Blitz. They would buy a platform tickets and camp on the platforms for the night. Sheltering in the tube was popular because it was dry, warm and quiet down there. The government was afraid that the overcrowded platforms would disrupt the movement of troops and tried to stop the public from using the tube stations as shelters. The people refused to give them up and the government was forced to back down. In some cases underground stations were closed down and given over to the public to use during air raids.



The tube stations were not as safe as people thought. High explosive bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe could penetrate up to fifty feet through solid ground. On 17th September 1940, a bomb killed twenty people sheltering in Marble Arch station. The worst incident took place at Balham in October 1940 when 600 people were killed or injured when bombs burst a water main and the station flooded, an incident depicted in the movie “Atonement.”. The following year 111 people were killed while sheltering at the Bank underground station. One night 178 people suffocated at Bethnal Green station after a panic stampede, the worst civilian disaster of WW11 in Britain.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/02/bethnal-green-tube-disaster.html



Sheltering in Aldwych

A census held in November 1940 discovered that the majority of people in London did not use specially created shelters. The survey revealed that of those interviewed, 27 % used domestic shelters (i.e. Anderson Shelters), and 9 % slept in public shelters (specially built by the local authorities) and 4 % used underground railway stations. The rest of those interviewed were either on duty at night or slept in their own homes.



Because many people preferred to stay in their own homes during the bombing raids the government decided to look for a way of protecting people in their own homes. So in March 1941 the government began issuing Morrison Shelters, basically metal cages with a steel top which you could also use as a kitchen table!



Aldwych station which closed down 16 years ago was a strange station, connected by a shuttle service to Holborn Station which was just 10 minutes walk away. It only makes sense if you realise that the route was meant to connect to the mainline station at Waterloo but the line never made it under the river, the money ran out. It then had a potential new lease of life in the 70’s as it was meant to be a station on the “Fleet Line” which was the planned continuation of the Jubilee Line from it’s original terminus at Charing Cross. In an indication of the ability of Governments to waste money the tunnels were actually built from Charing X to Aldwych but when the Jubilee Line extension was opened to Canary Wharf in 1999 the Charing X Branch was closed.



Aldwych was closed in the 1990s due to lack of use but has often been used as a movie location. To commemorate the Blitz and the resilience of Londoners in the face of bombing it has now been done up as a Second World War tube station, with a series of 1940s carriages decked out with London Transport posters and wartime ads. The station was used as an air raid shelter and it doesn’t take much imagination to go back in time – the surroundings are almost completely unchanged from the 40s.
London Transport Museum, who organised the event, have gone all-out in recreating the look and feel of 1940s London. Visitors descending into the station were guided by staff in period costumes - including one acting as an air-raid warden. An original 1938 train and a vintage bus were parked outside the station enhance the wartime atmosphere.



Contemporary posters adorned the ticket hall, and as you entered the station, an ARP warden is out to tell us what you can expect once you’re below. Suddenly, the air raid siren is sounding, and you are ushered down the steps to platform level. Reaching the bottom, you're given a stiff talking to by a matronly Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) cadet, before being taken onto the platform, where London Underground's 1938-built Northern line train is waiting at the platform. Boarding the train, you encounter and greet a few more characters, before suddenly the tunnel is filled with the deafening sound of the air raid siren and the rumble of bombs falling above.



London Transport Museum has clearly gone to a lot of effort for this event, and they've been rewarded by the popularity - tickets were swiftly snapped up when they went on sale. Hopefully the success will inspire TfL to open up more of London's hidden pieces of transport infrastructure in the future. But it seems a pity to waste Aldwych’s potential and it would be wonderful to see the station reopen, restored and with the lifts working, as a permanent Blitz exhibition as this is a place with real history and character.

In the meantime, we recommend a visit to the Museum's current show. Under Attack: London, Coventry, Dresden, which runs until 31st March 2011. The aerial bombing raids, known in Britain as the Blitz, defined the wartime experience of many European cities. This exhibition tells the story from the perspective of public transport in London, Coventry and Dresden, and illustrates the struggle to keep these cities moving during the Second World War.


1938 Tube Stock

The exhibition has been developed in partnership with Coventry Transport Museum and the Verkehrsmuseum Dresden, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of the Blitz in England and the 65th anniversary of the Dresden bombing.
The exhibition focuses on the role that public transport played in helping to create a sense of identity and normality. In particular, it seeks to explore the areas of commonality, as well as difference, and convey the shared experience of people from all walks of life - irrespective of nationality.



The exhibition explores some of the myths and reality of the wartime experience and reviews the changing nature of popular memory in relation to the Blitz attacks in England and the Firestorm in Dresden. A series of unique displays shows how each city prepared for war and the contrasting role of their transport systems. In London and Coventry, public transport was used to evacuate children and others out of the city, whilst in Dresden; the city itself was regarded as a shelter with transport bringing refugees into the centre. Visitors are encouraged to consider the effect of the bombing campaigns and reflect on the part played by transport in keeping the cities moving and in bolstering public morale in the face of attack.




In all well worth catching and let’s hope in the future Aldwych Station will have a starring role as the unique setting for its own expedition.




Exhibition at London’s Transport Museum

http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/events/exhibitions

London’s Transport Museum

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/londons-transport-museum.html

The effect of the Blitz on the historic City of Coventry

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/moonlight-sonata_14.html



For more see TUBE BLOGS and TRANSPORT BLOGS in the Blog sidebar >>>>>

A Night at the Museum

Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman

Covent Garden Piazza is always a lively and dynamic part of London with a permanent throng of natives and visitors drawn to the spectacle of street entertainers, the wonderfully restored produce market and the glitz of the Royal Opera House, all under the imperturbable gaze of Inigo Jones St. Paul's Church, commonly known as the Actors' Church. For all around you is the Theatre land of London from Richard D'Oyly Carte’s Savoy Theatre with a small hotel attached to the Lyceum, The Strand , The Garrick and the Adelphi to name a few. Tonight I was going to a performance which would bring together three of my favourite things; London’s Underground which is the lifeblood of the City, The Transport Museum which gives a fascinating insight into the growth of London and the unique and indomitable figure of the Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, who died in 1984 but who is still remembered with great affection, having championed Victorian Architecture and Railways but not in a tedious way but as in his poetry and writing with an impish wit which belied the depths of his undoubted insight. Oh, and there is the slight complicating factor that I actually live and commute in Metroland in a part which is still rural!


Entrance to the Museum

John Betjeman described himself as a "poet and a hack", a sentiment typical of the wry self-deprecating wit that has earned him an indelible place in the affections of the British public. By his death in 1984, he was probably the 20th century's most popular Poet Laureate.

Born in 1906, Betjeman grew up in the suburbs of north London. At school his German name marked him out for the attention of bullies. He arrived at Oxford University with a teddy bear which gave his contemporary Evelyn Waugh the idea for Aloysius, Sebastian's teddy, in Brideshead Revisited. Betjeman was more concerned with his social life and writing for university magazines than his academic studies and failed to complete his degree.





Betjeman spent the Second World War working for the Ministry of Information and as a cultural attaché in Ireland (but by all accounts as a spy), where the IRA considered his assassination but decided against it as "a man who could give so much pleasure with his pen couldn't be much of a secret agent". Work for the Architectural Review fuelled a lifelong passion for unloved Victorian buildings, which Betjeman campaigned tirelessly to save, in later life becoming known as much for his architectural programmes; recognisable by his large waist and avuncular style. A statue of Betjeman stands at London's St Pancras station, which he fought to save. He developed an affection for the Irish people and the country which is reflected in his poetry;

“Stony seaboard, far and foreign,
Stony hills poured over space,
Stony outcrop of the Burren,
Stones in every fertile place,
Little fields with boulders dotted,
Grey-stone shoulders saffron-spotted,
Stone-walled cabins thatched with reeds,
Where a Stone Age people breeds
The last of Europe's Stone Age race,"

IRELAND WITH EMILY

Betjeman campaigned strongly against the architectural vandalism of the 1960’s where disastrous architectural, town planning and transport mistakes were made, none more so than the destruction of the Euston Arch. Its demolition, with the rest of Euston Station was regarded as one of the greatest acts of Post-War architectural vandalism in Britain, the campaign to save it lead to the foundation of the Victorian Society and involved the indomitable Sir John Betjeman.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/09/euston-arch.html

Whilst that battle was lost up the road the campaign to save St. Pancras Station was a turning point. The greatest threat to the station came in 1966 with plans to amalgamate King's Cross and St Pancras. However public opinion had been sharpened by the appalling demolition of Euston in 1962. John Betjeman took up the cause to protect the station and in 1967 the Government listed the station and hotel as Grade 1.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-pancras-reborn.html




Tonight we are going to a presentation in my favourite London Museum, The Transport Museum at Covent Garden (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/londons-transport-museum.html ) on Betjeman and Metro-Land co hosted by the Museum and the Betjeman Society in the Cubic Theatre under the Museum whose construction was somewhat delayed when they discovered a Saxon graveyard during the excavations. These are the perils of digging in this ancient city!


Map of Metroland

The talk is part of the Museum’s Suburbia exhibition and season which explores how public transport helped to create the myths and identity of suburbia and how it has featured in the cultural fabric of London and Britain over the last 100 years. The exhibition looks at how transport has shaped the suburbs and celebrates suburban lifestyle, architecture, design and popular culture through a series of unique displays. Mixing fun, fact and a little bit of fantasy to rejoice in a place that we collectively continue to love and hate.




Metroland Magazine for the 1924 Empire Exhibition at Wembley

The talk on Betjeman and Metro-land was co-hosted by David Bownes, Head Curator of the London Transport Museum John Heald, Vice-Chairman of the Betjeman Society. It was trailed as an exploration of the suburban ideal, through the words of Britain's best loved poet, including rare archival footage, poetry readings and vintage promotional material celebrating Betjeman's beloved Metro-land.



Of all the works of Sir John Betjeman none has caught the public imagination more than Metro-Land, the BBC documentary which he made in 1973. It was Sir John's gift to romanticise the mundane: in this case a tube ride from Baker Street to Amersham, celebrating the north-west London suburbs created by the Metropolitan Railway between 1910 and 1933.


Metroland DVD

"Metro-Land" was the advertising slogan developed to entice workers from cramped homes in Central London out into the rural paradise of Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It was invented in 1915 by the Metropolitan Railway's in-house copywriter James Garland, who according to legend was ill with influenza and sprang out of bed when he thought of the term. In the company's advertising material, Metro-Land was certainly not a place where you were expected to go down with flu: posters and a magazine which carried the name Metro-Land depicted a sylvan landscape where ladies in hats picked flowers and drifted through sun-speckled meadows.


Baker Street


Harrow on the Hill

It was, of course, largely a con. The creation of Metro-Land destroyed the very thing - open countryside - which was used to advertise it. The speculative homes thrown up around the new stations bore few resemblances to the Tudor cottages depicted in the advertising materials: most were dreary semis, constructed at great haste and sold for as little as £400 each. Modern first-time buyers can only dream: that is equivalent to just £20,000 in today's money.



No developer would be allowed such free rein today. Indeed, the suburban sprawl created by the Metropolitan Railway did much to influence the creation of the post-war town and country planning system. A dozen years after the railway was subsumed into the newly-formed London Transport in 1933, the growth of Metro-Land was finally halted by the instigation of London's green belt.

See; http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/01/northern-heights.html

Metro-land may have lost its official standing only eighteen years after its invention, but the name had already entered the language as an almost generic expression of suburban life. A popular song called My Little Metro-land Home had been published in 1920. The word had even, through Evelyn Waugh's fictional character Margot Metro-land, appeared for the first time in the pages of a novel (Decline and Fall, published in 1928). Metro-land's characteristics were later to be affectionately evoked in the poems of John Betjeman such as The Metropolitan Railway (1954) and in his nostalgic BBC television programme Metro-land, made in 1973. Yet another perspective appears in Julian Barnes' first novel, Metroland (1980) where the writer draws on memories of his own suburban upbringing in the area in the 1960s. For Barnes 'Metro-land is a country with elastic borders which every visitor can draw for himself, as Stevenson drew his map of Treasure Island'.



In little more than half a century, Metro-land grew from being an ad man's creative invention into a more prosaic reality in the 1920s and 30s, a wistful post-war recollection from the 1950s onwards and finally a new land of personal imagination by 1980.

Metroland

The Song!


The houses

David Bownes and John Heald explored Betjeman’s fascination with Metro-Land with authority and affection and it is indicative of the respect with which Betjeman is held to this day, 25 years after his death, that there was not a spare seat in the Cubic Theatre. John Heald recited from Betjeman’s works with charm and affection at times looking and sounding uncannily like his hero. He also made a pitch for people to join the Society as it is “great fun” and indeed watching rare archive footage of Betjeman none present doubted the statement.

As for the late, great and much loved Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, he loved wild Cornwall and was buried there; he loved suburban Harrow. The two come together in his poem "Harrow-on-the-Hill", when dusk over the Metropolitan Line makes suburbs look like Cornish seas:

"There's a storm cloud to the westward over Kenton, / There's a line of harbour lights at Perivale."

For the story of the world’s first Underground Railway and a Great Railway Journey see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html


Live in Metroland - The door catches on Metropolitan Railway carriages

Mapping the World

Harry Beck's original 1933 Underground Map Click on maps for a larger image



It is acknowledged that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so by any standards the world’s most flattered mapmaker must be Harry Beck who devised the famous diagrammatic London Underground Tube Map. By the early 1930s, the London Underground network had expanded so considerably that it was difficult to squeeze all the new lines and stations into a geographical map. Passengers complained that the existing map was crowded, confusing and hard to read. It was decided that the network was too big to be represented geographically and the Underground commissioned one of its draughtsmen Harry Beck (1903-1974) to devise a more efficient method.





Harry Beck and his map



Basing his map on an electrical circuit, Beck represented each line in a different colour and interchange stations as diamonds. The crowded central area was enlarged and the course of each route simplified into the form of a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line. The diagrammatic map was produced on a trial basis as a leaflet in 1933 and Beck continued to refine it until 1959. For the full story see;



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/01/great-british-design-quest.html



London Transport has contributed a great deal to modern British Design largely through the influence of Frank Pick. The obsession with clear design and image was continued through to Harry Beck’s famous schematic map, commissioning its own “machine typeface” to make its posters, signage and publications clearer, building instantly recognisable branded station buildings and station fittings and using engaging and innovative advertising in the 30’s. Today London Underground’s trademark roundel is the second most recognised brand worldwide. The Directors in the 20s and 30s saw good design as good for business. By the example it set under Frank Pick the Underground was gradually able to change the public’s attitude to railway stations which had been seen as shabby and inhospitable places. Sir Nicholas Pevsner wrote that Pick saw in every detail a “visual propaganda” and he used this not only to improve the Underground but the environment as a whole. Charles Holden brought the Underground station to the forefront of modern architecture: This achievement is unequalled by any other transport company before or since. See about Charles Holden’s influence and his design for the Underground’s iconic headquarters here;



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/give-my-regards-to-55-broadway.html





Eisenhower Interstate Highway SystemClick on maps for a larger image



The map above translates Harry Beck’s Map to add clarity to the United States Interstate Highway Network. Its creator Senex Prime http://www.flickr.com/photos/senexprime/ set out to simplify America's Interstate system & thought London's Tube map was the best way to present a lot of information very concisely and clearly. In his own description;



“I have rendered the Interstate system in a much simpler form. I have made the "major" highways (those divisible by 5) the framework of the map, with the "minor" highways reduced in importance and rendered as thinner grey lines. Even with these highways, a difference in the greys indicates whether they are even-numbered (west-east) or odd-numbered (north-south). Dots on the highways indicate interchanges: large dots where major highways meet other major highways, smaller dots where major meets minor and tiny dots where minor highways begin or end. A full key at the bottom indicates clearly where each highway begins and ends.”



One of my own favourites is the Webzine b3ta http://www.b3ta.com/ which had a map challenge where people were challenged to create a map that told the truth. Not surprisingly there are many re-creations based on the London Underground Map including this one which portrays London as seen by tourists, poor things.





London for tourists?Click on maps for a larger image



Mark Ovenden 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. His interest in transport maps stems from his belief that they echo the prevailing social and political trends of the societies they emanate from. His Urban World Metro Map is a "playful diagram" showing "all the cities which have, are building or are planning to construct an urban rail system."





World's Urban Rail SystemsClick on maps for a larger image



Like with Harry Beck’s Map there can only ever be one which was “The First” and for the story of the first Underground railway in the world which opened to passengers from Paddington to Farringdon on 10 January 1863 take a look at this post covering one of the world’s Great Railway Journey;



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html



As for Mr. Beck and his map? Well, as these examples show the map devised and then lovingly nurtured (by hand before the days of computers) in his spare time for over 30 years has made this simple draughtsman in London Underground’s Signals Department one of the world’s most influential and most imitated cartographers.



Click on maps for a larger image

Anagram map of the Underground by http://home.greywulf.net/



For more on Architecture and Design see ArchiBlogs in the Blog sidebar.

'Real' Tube map goes on Net

Google "Tube" Map

Google continues its march towards World Domination by putting one of the first "real" London Tube maps online. The internet firm has mapped the location of the main Tube lines and added it to its Google Maps website.

Visitors can see the lines by clicking the "transit" button of the site. "If you want to book a hotel or make a restaurant reservation, you can switch on the Transit Layer and look for the public transport line nearest to the location," said Raphael Leiteritz of Google.


Harry Beck and his map

Londoners are used to the Tube map designed by Harry Beck in 1931. His simplified map consists of stations, straight lines connecting them and the Thames. Critics say it gives visitors an unrealistic view of London's layout. However, Harry Beck's map has created such a powerful impression that it dominates our perceptions of London's geography. A variation of his original design is still used by London Underground today, and Beck's concept of a diagrammatic map has been imitated all over the world.

Great British Design Quest

A new set of postage stamps celebrates a century of British design icons — from the Mini car to the miniskirt. The Royal Mail stamps feature 10 different 20th-century design classics. They include the red double-decker bus, the Concorde supersonic jet, the orange-and-white Penguin paperback and the compact Mini car.





Another shows the miniskirt designed by Mary Quant that revolutionised fashion in the 1960s. Quant says she was "bowled over with delight" at the honour. The Royal Mail said the original idea had been to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Mini, but that this was expanded to include other 20th-century icons. The stamps released Tuesday can all be used for first-class postage within Britain. They will be available for a year.





Is there anything more British than a red telephone box? Like giant red soldiers, they have been a landmark for a lifetime. The shape of architect’s Sir John Soane’s mausoleum in St. Pancras Old Churchyard in London provided the inspiration for the design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott of the iconic red telephone boxes.





K6 phonebox - They were painted red to make them easy to spot.


Designed at the request of the Post Office in 1926 the K2 was the first production cast iron kiosk. Too expensive for national use, the K2 was produced exclusively for the London area. All K2 kiosks now on the street are preserved as listed buildings. Designed to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George the Fifth in 1935 the K6 kiosk was the first to be installed across the country and is what the World knows of as the red telephone box.

It is gratifying that two designs from London Transport have made it to the “Top 10”, Harry Beck’s Tube Map at No. 2 and the iconic Routemaster Bus at No. 6. For London Transport has contributed a great deal to modern British Design largely through the influence of Frank Pick. The obsession with clear design and image was continued through to Harry Beck’s famous schematic map, commissioning its own “machine typeface” to make its posters, signage and publications clearer, building instantly recognisable branded station buildings and station fittings and using engaging and innovative advertising in the 30’s. Today London Underground’s trademark roundel is the second most recognised brand worldwide. The Directors in the 20s and 30s saw good design as good for business. By the example it set under Frank Pick the Underground was gradually able to change the public’s attitude to railway stations which had been seen as shabby and inhospitable places. Sir Nicholas Pevsner wrote that Pick saw in every detail a “visual propaganda” and he used this not only to improve the Underground but the environment as a whole. Charles Holden brought the Underground station to the forefront of modern architecture: This achievement is unequalled by any other transport company before or since.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/give-my-regards-to-55-broadway.html

The London Underground map has been selected by the Design Museum and BBC Two's The Culture Show to appear in a shortlist of 25 items for the Great British Design Quest, a nationwide vote to find the public's favourite example of design in Britain since 1900.




Harry Beck's Map

By the early 1930s, the London Underground network had expanded so considerably that it was difficult to squeeze all the new lines and stations into a geographical map. Passengers complained that the existing map was crowded, confusing and hard to read. It was decided that the network was too big to be represented geographically and the Underground commissioned one of its draughtsmen Harry Beck (1903-1974) to devise a more efficient method.


Mr. Beck and his map

Basing his map on an electrical circuit, Beck represented each line in a different colour and interchange stations as diamonds. The crowded central area was enlarged and the course of each route simplified into the form of a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line. The diagrammatic map was produced on a trial basis as a leaflet in 1933 and Beck continued to refine it until 1959.

As the tube system grew during the early 1900's maps showed the layout as it related to communities and streets that lay above it. This would be a perfectly predictable and acceptable “design answer'” in the early days of the system since the early users would need to relate the comparatively new system to the streets and areas they already knew. These early maps were not Beck's and as the tube layout became more complex he realised that a major simplification was necessary. The use of lines drawn only in multiples of 45 degree angles allowed him to begin his simplification.

His task covered more than 30 years of development and in a time when cartographic changes were not achieved by “dragging and dropping” or simply “clicking a button” on the computer, this represented an astonishing degree of dedication. His early maps and lettering were all drawn by hand.



Harry Beck was an electrical draughtsman and produced drawings of electrical circuits; circuits used in the running of the Underground itself but his training had given him knowledge of the symbols and techniques used to depict wiring, diodes, resistors, junctions and valves. He obviously knew of the colour coding used on resistors and capacitors and had the considerable draughting skills to produce concise drawings ~ this was after all his job with London Underground, and as he lived and worked in London he had experience of the tube system itself. Familiarity with a design 'need' is usually a tremendous help when it comes to finding solutions to a problem and Beck's home in the north London suburb of Finchley was far enough away from the city that he would have frequently used the underground-rail system.

Beck first submitted his idea to Frank Pick of London Underground in 1931 but it was considered too radical as it did not show distances relative from any one station to the others. During 1933 the map was given its first publication (700,000 copies) and the reaction of the travelling customers proved it to be sound design; it immediately required a large reprint after only one month. Beck was paid the equivalent of £5.25 or his "Design Classic"! It should be said that Beck continued working on the map as the system changed, until his death in 1964 and this work has continued - more recently by Tim Demuth (and early on with Paul Garbutt - 1964), of London Transport's Publicity Department. The “simple coloured lines on white” are now used on so many other products the map is symbolic of London's tourist industry itself.


A commemorative plaque near Beck's home in Finchley


Harry Beck's map has created such a powerful impression that it dominates our perceptions of London's geography. A variation of his original design is still used by London Underground today, and Beck's concept of a diagrammatic map has been imitated all over the world.


Routemaster Bus

One of the most famous symbols of Britain is the double-decker bus, which was first introduced in 1925 when the London General Omnibus Company secured official approval to use buses with covered top decks. The first double-decker was the NS-type, but the most popular - and memorable - emerged thirty years later when the Routemaster took to the road.



Developed over nine years from 1947 to 1956 by a team led by Douglas Scott (1913-1990), the Routemaster was designed for efficient mass-production. By constructing a bus from the maximum number of interchangeable parts, Scott reduced the cost of the initial tooling and manufacturing and of repairs and maintenance too. He equipped the Routemaster with the latest innovations such as power steering, an automatic gearbox, hydraulic brakes, independent springs and heating controls.



Passengers loved the Routemaster for its distinctive 'brick' silhouette, with a flatter front and less prominent engine than its predecessors, and for endearing interior features such as the 'lovers' seat' at the back, wind-down windows and soft lighting. The Routemaster remained in active service for nearly fifty years. After several reprieves, it was finally withdrawn in 2005 except for token use on two heritage routes. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has pledged to bring back the Routemaster as a redesigned modern bus but there are doubts as to whether this is possible or practicable.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/12/routemaster-to-perdition.html



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