ABSTRACT
A brief visual comparison between Henry Beck’s map of the London Underground that was published in 1933 and its modern successor, issued by Transport for London (TfL) in 2022, reveals a loss of simplicity and clarity. Hence, it is important to question whether the map’s current custodian is maintaining design efficacy and preserving Henry Beck’s legacy. In this brief paper, I discuss how some aspects of the current design could result in usability issues, outline how I approached a re-design of the Tube map, and present a new version.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 ‘The Tube’ is a generic term for the London Underground network, although Tube lines are actually the deep-level parts of the network, whereas much of it is shallower ‘cut & cover’ and most of it is above ground. In this paper, ‘Tube map’ refers to the map of the London Underground, which currently integrates other networks.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
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Doug Rose
Doug Rose trained as a cartographer at Hunting Surveys from 1966. He left to join public transport information specialists FWT in 1979 and started his own company in 2017. He has designed over a thousand maps and diagrams and was commissioned by TfL to design a bespoke range of four Johnston typefaces for about 8,000 bus destination displays, taking two years. He is also a London historian on other subjects.