Single to Totenschinken Hofstrasse, bitte

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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.


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

Ghost Tubes

A constant source of fascination and speculation to Londoners is the “Ghost Tube.” This is not the tube system at weekends but the unused stations and tunnels under London’s streets. There are 40 disused or abandoned Tube stations out there and some have found alternative uses – South Kentish Town is a massage parlour, Marlborough Road was a Chinese restaurant and Aldwych is often used for movies and has hosted a recent exhibition on the 70th Anniversary of the London Blitz during which it gave distinguished service.





Click on maps for larger image

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/blitz-on-underground.html

The system has many former stations, while others were planned but not opened. Services to some former stations ended when they were closed because they had too few passengers to make their retention worthwhile; some stations became redundant after lines were rerouted or replacements were constructed; others are no longer served by the Underground, but remain open to National Rail main line services. Many stations were planned as parts of new lines or extensions to existing ones, but were later abandoned without having been opened.



Some closed stations retain their original station building, converted for other uses or abandoned, while others have been demolished and their sites redeveloped. A number of stations, while still open, have closed platforms or sections, such as the Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross. The interiors and platforms of closed stations are among parts of the London Underground available for filming purposes.





The retro website Retronaut has picked up on Penney Design’s modified Tube art, which has redrawn old transport maps with new “ghost” symbols for long lost stations like North Weald and Ongar.

“Ghost-stations are those which are closed and disused. Many remain fairly intact and some even feature time capsule-like qualities, such as WWII propaganda posters hanging from the platform walls.”

- Penney Design

All map images (c) Penney Design.

Have a look at their site;

http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/07/ghost-station-tube-maps/

An invaluable source of information on London’s abandoned Underground stations is Hywel Williams Underground History site;

http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php

For info on a whole underground railway abandoned under London see my Blog on London’s Other Underground;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/londons-other-underground.html

For details and a rather amusing video of an abandoned extension to the Northern Line see;

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

As part of BBC Radio 4's "London: Another Country?" season, London Underground's David Leboff offers a guided tour round St Mary's in East London, one of the tube network's least well-known or visited disused stations.



This video takes you on a visual journey through Aldwych, a closed station on a now defunct branch of the Piccadilly Line.

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.

Der Untergrund

Click on map for a larger view

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 MAP TO ENLARGE

Walking the Tube

Britain is in the grips of an obesity epidemic with health care professionals predicting life expectancy could even begin to fall particularly as a result of childhood obesity. One response is an anti-obesity pill will soon be available to buy at chemists without prescription. But is this the right way to deal with Britain's weight problem? An anti-obesity drug will soon be available without prescription over the counter – but only if the phar­macist thinks you are fat enough.

Orlistat, which is marketed under the name alli, will cost about £1.45 when it goes on sale after it was given final clearance by European regulators on Wednesday. The drug will be placed behind the counter in pharmacies so staff can question patients to make sure they are sufficiently overweight.

However there is a growing concern that the Drugs Industry is trying to create a drug dependency amongst people medicating for lifestyle issues (smoking, weight loss, type 2 diabetes) which would be better dealt with by changing lifestyles. In this vein health campaigners have urged commuters to walk between Underground stations instead of using them. Ministers and doctors trying to combat obesity are backing the drive.

A new map has been released detailing the number of steps that an adult walking at medium pace would take to travel between each central London station. It shows, for example, how alighting at St Paul's and walking 947 steps to Bank would burn almost 30 calories - equivalent of a double vodka.

The shortest walk is between Cannon Street and Monument, which takes 99 steps, while the longest is King's Cross to Farringdon, which takes 2,438 steps. People in search of a real workout could attempt the entire Circle line at 31,536 steps.

The map, compiled by insurance firm PruHealth, was calculated by volunteers using pedometers. Chief executive Shaun Matisonn said: "Taking 10,000 steps a day can help protect you against a wide range of diseases including strokes, diabetes and some types of cancer.


KEY: Numbers show how many steps were taken by PruHealth volunteers to walk between each Tube station. Walking 1,000 steps at a medium pace burned off about 30 calories. Walking 1,000 steps at a medium pace took about 7.5 minutes

Judy O'Sullivan, a cardiac nurse for the British Heart Foundation, said: "If you work near Covent Garden and catch the Piccadilly line then get off at Green Park and walk briskly for 15 minutes each way then that's half your daily physical activity requirement."

Walking up escalators is also important and Ms O'Sullivan said the health benefits of walking outweighed the risks of air pollution. Researchers calculated it took about 4.5 seconds to walk 10 steps at a rate of four miles per hour, while 1,000 steps took 7.5 minutes. At this rate, walkers burned about three calories per 100 steps, or one calorie every 15 seconds.

This would see travellers use nearly 100 calories by walking from Green Park to Covent Garden and back again, a journey which would take about 25 minutes. A Department of Health spokesman said: "In London we tend to rely on Tubes and buses to get around these days when we could be using our feet.

"Think about walking. If the journey is too far, you could always stop [your Tube or bus trip] a bit earlier, and walk the rest of the journey." Government figures show more than 21 per cent of London's 10- to 11-year-olds are obese, three per cent more than the national average. Almost 10 per cent of the adult population are obese in parts of the capital, including Barking and Dagenham and Bexley. In Enfield, Newham and Greenwich, eight per cent of adults are so overweight that their health is in danger.



And here are the calories to be burned off by walking;

Marble Arch to Chancery Lane (Central Line)
Quickest walk taking in all stations: 4,927 steps
Burns: up to 147 calories
Equivalent to: one doughnut.

Route: From Marble Arch walk straight along Oxford Street, past Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road Tube stations, down New Oxford Street taking in Holborn Tube and then walk along High Holborn.

Monument to King's Cross (Circle Line)
Quickest walk: 7,888 steps
Burns: up to 236 calories
Equivalent to: one chicken tikka masala.

Route: From Monument walk along Eastcheap and Byward Street to Tower Hill, up Minories to Aldgate, along Houndsditch and Bishopsgate to Liverpool Street station, cut through Finsbury Circus to Moorgate. Walk through the Barbican estate to Barbican Tube, down Charterhouse Street for Farringdon, then Farringdon Road, King's Cross Road, Acton Street and Gray's Inn Road to King's Cross station.

South Kensington to Bayswater (Circle Line)
Quickest walk: 5,833 steps
Burns up to: 174 calories
Equivalent to: one Cadbury's Crème Egg.

Route: from South Kensington tube walk along Thurloe Street and Stanhope Gardens to Gloucester Road, then along Cromwell Road and Marloes Road to High Street Kensington station, along Kensington High Street, up Kensington Church Street, then Bayswater Road and Queensway to Bayswater.


Walk the Network

If after you try Tube Walking and find it is addictive how about emulating Neil Johan and walking 378 miles between ALL Tube stations!

http://www.londonphotoproject.co.uk/blog/

'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



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