Curvy Tube Map

A guest post from map man Maxwell Roberts who wonders whether the "rules" behind Harry Beck's London Underground map are past their sell by date:


"A lot of people take the Underground map and play about with the names. Anyone can do it (unless the TfL copyright lawyers get them), and awarding a Turner Prize for this seems to be going a bit far to me. Quite a lot of people have got in touch with me, who like me are not happy with the current Underground map design, too many zig-zagging kinks rather than the elegant straight lines of times long ago. Several people have had a go at redoing the Underground map themselves to get rid of the worst of them, and generally they seem to do a better job than the 'experts' at TfL.

Myself, I have been wondering whether Henry Beck's rules are past their sell-by date (he was wondering this himself towards the end of his life). Once a metro system gets complicated, it's virtually impossible to show it well by using them, so I've been having a go at throwing the rules in the dustbin instead.


The all-curves map is completely new, you won't have seen it before. (I'd seen Max's previous map at a London Underground Railway Society lecture) I've got rid of the kinks by having smooth gentle curves all the way, in theory easier for the eye to follow because a lot of the jerkiness has gone. I would be interested in people's responses to this map. A lot of people (not particularly map geeks) say that it is inviting and fun to look at."

I like it, although it does remind me of a wasp or some strange insect with a long proboscis forming the eastern end of the Central Line. If you can get out of the habit of seeing Beck's as the norm, although it's a bit disturbing at first, I think the kinkless ones make more sense.

But as Max says he'd be interested in hearing your thoughts and if you want to see the whole map click from here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, June 21, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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