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The tube map is the schematic diagram that represents the lines, stations, and zones of London's rapid transit rail system, the London Underground.

A schematic diagram rather than a map, it represents not geography but relations. It considerably distorts the actual relative positions of stations, but accurately represents their sequential and connective relations with each other along the lines and their placement within fare zones. The basic design concepts, especially that of mapping topologically rather than geographically, have been widely adopted for other network maps around the world.

History

Early maps

The first underground line in London, the Metropolitan Railway opened in 1863. However, as different lines on the Underground were controlled by different companies, no official unified map was produced until 1906, when Charles Tyson Yerkes unified the railways and operated them under a combined "Underground" brand.

Early Underground maps were laid out on a geographically-correct basis, and indeed at first had maps of the streets and other local features laid on top of them.^[1] In addition, there was no consistent colour scheme — for example, the Central Line was blue in 1908,^[2] yellow in 1926,^[3] and orange by 1932,^[4] by which time details such as streets had been removed.

The 1932 edition was the last geographically-based map to be published, before the much more familiar style of map took its place. However, the actual routes are shown as blue lines on the Transport for London bus maps.

Beck's maps

The first diagrammatic map of the Underground was designed by Harry Beck in 1933.^[5] Beck was an 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 diagram, 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 "Bakerloo".^{[citation needed]} In fact, Beck based his diagram on a similar mapping system for underground sewage systems.^{[citation needed]}

To this end, he devised a vastly simplified map, consisting of stations, straight line segments connecting them, and the Thames; lines ran only vertically, horizontally, or at 45 degrees. To make the map clearer and to emphasise connections, Beck differentiated between ordinary stations (marked with tick marks) and interchanges (marked with diamonds). The Underground was initially sceptical of his proposal — it was an uncommissioned spare-time project, and it tentatively introduced it to the public in a small pamphlet. It was immediately popular, and ever since the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network.

Despite the complexity of making the map Beck was paid just five Guineas for the work.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[6] During this time, as well as accommodating new lines and stations, Beck continually altered the design, for example changing interchange symbol from diamonds to circles, 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 modern-day maps.^[7]

After Beck

Beck had by 1960 fallen out with the Underground's publicity officer, Harold Hutchinson. Hutchinson, though not a designer himself, drafted his own version of the Tube map in 1960; it removed the smoothed corners of Beck's design, lines were less straight and created some highly cramped areas (most notably, around Liverpool Street).^[8] However, Hutchinson also introduced interchange symbols (circles for Underground-only, squares for interchanges 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 current 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 20 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.^[9]

Today

Alterations have been made to the map over the years. Recent designs have incorporated changes to the network, such as the Docklands Light Railway and the Jubilee Line Extension. In addition, since 2002 the Underground ticket 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, undoubtedly inspired by Beck. A facsimile of Beck's original design is on display on the southbound platform at his local station, Finchley Central. The map is currently maintained and updated by Alan Foale, of The LS Company.

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.^[10] It widely cited by academics and designers as a 'design classic'^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14] 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:

* In 1987, Paul Middlewick 'discovered' that Animals could be found in the Tube map by linking the lines, stations and interchanges in the famous Harry Beck tube map. These Animals on the Underground now have their own web site [1] and are widely supported by fans across the world.

In Tate Modern hangs The Great Bear by Simon Patterson, a subtle parody of Beck's original design, first published in 1986, in which the station names on the tube map have been replaced by those of famous historical figures.
In 2006, The Guardian^[15] published a design based on the tube map, purporting to show the relationships between musicians and musical genres in the 20th century. The map is discussed by its creator, Dorian Lynskey, on the Guardian's Culture vulture blog.
On January 11 2007 Lord Adonis unveiled a depiction of the Tube Map featuring the names of successful schools and students at GCSE level, as part of the London Student Awards 2007.
David Booth's The Tate 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 2003, to coincide with the publication of a book, the London Transport Museum released a "World Metro Map" strongly based on the London diagram and approved by TfL.

File:WORLD-METRO-MAP-2005.gif

World Metro Map poster sold by London Transport Museum for launch of a book on subway maps

Aspects of the London diagram (the line colours and styles, the station ticks or interchange symbols) are often used in advertising. 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.^[16]^[17] 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^[18]) and indeed some other playful references^[specify] have been permitted.^{[citation needed]}

There are also many unofficial maps which have utilised the Beck style for their own purposes - road networks^[19]^[20] and waterways^[21]^[22] appear popular, though others appear as purely comedic^[23] or for wordplay.^[24] There are now even websites and software where diagrams can be computer generated using the 'rules' of the London Underground map^[25]

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.

Line colours

The table below shows the changing use of colours since the first Beck map. The current colours are taken from the TfL Colour Standards guide,^[26] which defines the precise colours and also a colour naming scheme which 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	Current Colour (TfL name)	History
Bakerloo	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Brown
Central	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Red
Circle	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:black; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Yellow	Originally part of the Metropolitan and District Lines, green (black outline) from 1948, yellow (black outline) 1951-1987
District	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Green
East London	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:black; text-align:center;"\|Underground Orange	Originally white (thick red outline), part of the Metropolitan Line (green, then purple) until 1970, white (thick purple outline) until 1990
Hammersmith & City	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:black; text-align:center;"\|Underground Pink	Part of the Metropolitan Line until 1990
Jubilee	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Grey	The northern end was part of the Bakerloo line until 1979
Metropolitan	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Magenta	In the 1930s and 1940s the District and Metropolitan Lines were shown combined, in green
Northern	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Black
Piccadilly	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Blue
Victoria	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Light Blue
Waterloo & City	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:black; text-align:center;"\|Corporate Turquoise	Part of British Rail until 1994, white (black outline)
Tramlink (not shown on the standard map - see below)	style="background:#Template:Tramlink colour; color:white; text-align:center;"\|Trams Green (beaded line)
Docklands Light Railway	style="background:white; color:black; text-align:center; border-style: double; border-width: 0px 0px 6px 0px; border-color: #Template:Docklands Light Railway colour;"\|DLR Turquoise (double stripe)	White (thick dark blue outline) until 1994
London Overground (expected from 2007)	style="background:white; color:black; text-align:center; border-style: double; border-width: 0px 0px 6px 0px; border-color: #Template:London Overground colour;"\|Orange (double stripe)	Various components currently shown in Network Rail colours, East London Line colours or not at all.
Network Rail (selected lines only - see below)	Black (double stripe)	Orange from 1985, white (orange outline) 1987-1990
Northern City	Now a Network Rail line	Originally white (thick purple outline), black as part of the Northern Line, white (thick black outline) from 1970

Service information is indicated by the format:

Solid colour – normal service
Outline colour – limited service
Alternating solid and outline colour – under construction or closed for renovation

Station marks

An important symbol that Beck introduced was the 'tick' to indicate stations. This allowed stations to be placed closer together while retaining 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 changed over the years. In addition, from 1960, marks were used to identify stations that offered convenient interchange with British Railways (now National Rail). The following shapes have been used:

Empty circle (one for each line or station, where convenient) - standard default mark
Empty circle (one for each station) - 1938 experimental map
Empty diamond (one for each line) - early 1930s
Empty square - interchange with British Railways, 1960-1964
Circle with dot inside - interchange with British Rail, 1964-1970

Since 1970 the map has used the British Rail 'double arrow' beside the station name to indicate main-line interchanges. Where the main-line station has a different name from the Underground station that it connects with, since 1977 this has been shown in a box.

In recent years, some maps have marked stations offering step-free access suitable for wheelchair users with a blue circle containing a wheelchair symbol in white.

Some interchanges are more convenient than others and the map designers have repeatedly rearranged the layout of the map to try to indicate where the interchanges are more complex, such as by making the interchange circles more distant 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 very convenient and passengers would 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.

Lines or services

The 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 the 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 Olympia shuttle service. For most of its history the map has not distinguished these services, which could be misleading to an unfamiliar user. 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 (see above), 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, and remaining ones are now mainly indicated in the accompanying text rather than by special line markings.

Official variations on the tube map

The tube map exists to help people navigate the Underground, 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 main-line 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:

Standard tube map. Underground, DLR, zone boundaries and a few National Rail lines.
Central London map. A cropped and enlarged version of the standard map showing only the central area. Some versions show Thameslink and Northern City Line services.
Travelcard Zones map. Underground, DLR, National Rail, Tramlink and zone boundraries.
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.
London Connections map. Produced by the Association of Train Operating Companies, this provides the same information as TfL's Travelcard Zones map but extends a little further beyond zone 6. The National Rail lines are emphasised by thicker lines and coloured according to their Train Operating Company.
Tube Access Guide. Indicates stations with full or partial step-free access suitable for wheelchair users.
Bicycle map. Underground and DLR only. Shows in green sections of the network where bicycles are permitted.
Real Time Disruption map. Underground and DLR only. Interactive web-based map with disrupted lines and stations highlighted, others in light grey.
Interactive journey map. Underground and DLR only. Interactive web-based map that can be used to access information about each station (e.g. bus connections and disabled access).

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. This makes them harder to read, even when A3 size.

Non-Underground lines on the standard tube map

Some non-Underground lines have appeared on the standard tube map:

North London Line, from Richmond to Stratford (originally to Broad Street, then North Woolwich), is a semi-orbital route offering useful connections that avoid central London. The service frequency is less than the Underground and many of the stations do not connect directly with the Underground.
Northern City Line, originally part of the Underground but transferred to British Rail in the late 1970s for use by inner-suburban electric trains that previously ran to King's Cross.
Thameslink, opened 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.
Waterloo and City Line, while run by British Rail and its predecessors. The line has appeared on most tube maps, except the earliest Beck examples. In 1994 it was taken over by the Underground and given its own line colour (see above).
Docklands Light Railway, the automatic light-rail system in the London Docklands area.

Currently the only non-Underground lines shown are the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line.

When Transport for London takes over Silverlink Metro services under the London Overground banner, they will be shown on the map in white with an orange outline. This will include the North London Line, the Watford DC Line to Watford Junction, the West London Line, the Gospel Oak-Barking line, and eventually the extended East London Line.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ 1908 Underground map
^ Cite error: The named reference 1908map was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ 1926 Underground map
^ 1932 Underground map
^ 1933 map
^ 1939 Underground map
^ 1960 Underground map
^ 1963 Underground map
^ 1986 Underground map
^ http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-tube-map
^ http://diagrams.org/fig-pages/f00022.html
^ http://www.designmuseum.org/design/london-transport
^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A673517
^ http://www.design-technology.info/designers/page35.htm
^ http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2006/02/02/underground5.pdf map
^ http://www.ursasoft.com/maps/index.htm
^ http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/referenceandlanguages/0,,1101403,00.html
^ http://www.gvb.nl/english/travellers/maps/metromap.html
^ http://www.btinternet.com/~roads/map.png
^ http://www.motorwaymap.co.uk/pdf/Web%20v1%20custom%20614x460%20v13%20Dec%20update%20print%20only.pdf
^ http://www.systemed.net/carto/underground_map1024.jpg
^ http://www.systemed.net/carto/londonwaterways.gif
^ http://www.craphound.com/images/tubemap.jpg
^ Anagram Tube Map
^ http://i11www.iti.uni-karlsruhe.de/research/geonet/projects.php?project=MM&lang=en
^ "TfL Colour Standards" (PDF). TfL. 2007-01-14. Retrieved 2007-01-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

Official maps

Unofficial maps

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 Bear
Interactive animated journey time map
Mapper's Delight - all kinds of variations and further information on tube maps
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

History of the map

A history of the London Tube Maps - complete history of the evolution of the map.
H2G2 article on the tube map
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

Other maps worldwide

Robert Reynolds Subway Page - links and photos of most world subway system maps, many of which use Beck-inspired design principles

[1908_map-1] 1908 Underground map

[1908map-2] Cite error: The named reference 1908map was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1926map-3] 1926 Underground map

[4] 1932 Underground map

[1933map-5] 1933 map

[6] 1939 Underground map

[7] 1960 Underground map

[8] 1963 Underground map

[9] 1986 Underground map

[10] ttp://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-tube-map

[11] ttp://diagrams.org/fig-pages/f00022.html

[12] ttp://www.designmuseum.org/design/london-transport

[13] ttp://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A673517

[14] ttp://www.design-technology.info/designers/page35.htm

[15] ttp://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2006/02/02/underground5.pdf map

[16] ttp://www.ursasoft.com/maps/index.htm

[17] ttp://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/referenceandlanguages/0,,1101403,00.html

[18] ttp://www.gvb.nl/english/travellers/maps/metromap.html

[19] ttp://www.btinternet.com/~roads/map.png

[20] ttp://www.motorwaymap.co.uk/pdf/Web%20v1%20custom%20614x460%20v13%20Dec%20update%20print%20only.pdf

[21] ttp://www.systemed.net/carto/underground_map1024.jpg

[22] ttp://www.systemed.net/carto/londonwaterways.gif

[23] ttp://www.craphound.com/images/tubemap.jpg

[24] Anagram Tube Map

[25] ttp://i11www.iti.uni-karlsruhe.de/research/geonet/projects.php?project=MM&lang=en

[26] "TfL Colour Standards" (PDF). TfL. 2007-01-14. Retrieved 2007-01-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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 ==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]].<ref>http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-tube-map</ref> It widely cited by academics and designers as a 'design classic'<ref>http://diagrams.org/fig-pages/f00022.html</ref><ref>http://www.designmuseum.org/design/london-transport</ref><ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A673517</ref><ref>http://www.design-technology.info/designers/page35.htm</ref> 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:
+<br /><br />* In 1987, Paul Middlewick 'discovered' that Animals could be found in the Tube map by linking the lines, stations and interchanges in the famous Harry Beck tube map. These [[Animals on the Underground]] now have their own web site [http://www.animalsontheunderground.com] and are widely supported by fans across the world.<br />
 * In [[Tate Modern]] hangs ''[[The Great Bear]]'' by [[Simon Patterson (artist)|Simon Patterson]], a subtle parody of Beck's original design, first published in [[1986]], in which the station names on the tube map have been replaced by those of famous historical figures.
 * In 2006, [[The Guardian]]<ref>http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2006/02/02/underground5.pdf map</ref> published a design based on the tube map, purporting to show the relationships between musicians and musical genres in the 20th century. The map is [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2006/02/03/going_underground.html discussed] by its creator, Dorian Lynskey, on the Guardian's Culture vulture blog.