The History of the London Underground Map

242 Pages·2022·5.33 MB·English

by  Caroline Roope

The History of the
London Underground Map
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The History of the
London Underground Map
Caroline Roope
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First published in Great Britain in 2022 by
Pen & Sword Transport
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Yorkshire – Philadelphia
Copyright © Caroline Roope 2022
ISBN 978 1 39900 681 1
The right of Caroline Roope to be identified as Author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Map or Diagram? ivii
Preface ix
Introduction xi
Chapter 1 A Flirtation With the Underworld 1
Chapter 2 An Unlikely Hero 5
Chapter 3 Money Makes the Train Go Round 10
Chapter 4 Things Get Smutty 17
Chapter 5 Mind the Map 22
Chapter 6 The Underground Goes Overground (and Falls Off
the Map) 26
Chapter 7 Notice to Quit 29
Chapter 8 The Twopenny Tube 35
Chapter 9 Concerning Mr C. T. Yerkes 41
Chapter 10 The Monster and the Metropolitan 46
Chapter 11 Bullseyes, Bars and Circles 53
Chapter 12 By Paying Us Your Pennies 59
Chapter 13 A Verdant Realm 63
Chapter 14 Brave New World 70
Chapter 15 All Change (Please) 80
Chapter 16 A New Design for an Old Map 89
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vi The History of the London Underground Map
Chapter 17 Say It With a Poster 95
Chapter 18 Design For Life or Design For Strife? 104
Chapter 19 Blitz 108
Chapter 20 Life After Pick 122
Chapter 21 Harry’s War 136
Chapter 22 A Thermos Flask Reunites ‘Ald’ and ‘Gate’ 140
Chapter 23 Beyond Beck 149
Chapter 24 Fares Fair in Love and War 158
Chapter 25 Out of the Ashes 166
Chapter 26 Breaking Beck’s Rules 177
Notes 184
Bibliography 196
Index 201
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Acknowledgements
would like to thank all the authors whose previous work on this
Is ubject not only sparked my interest in the history of London
Underground and its design heritage but made it possible for me to
write this book. Some of these wonderful writers I have quoted within
the text, and I am grateful to all those who happily granted permission
for me to do so, and in many cases offered words of encouragement and
support as well. Particular thanks must go to Maxwell Roberts who
not only willingly gave permission for me to quote him at length in the
final chapter but was also happy to offer feedback and point me in the
right direction – a true navigational expert. Special thanks also to Mark
Noad, Mark Ovenden and Jug Cerovic who didn’t mind my ‘out of the
blue’ emails requesting information, quotes, or permission to print their
versions of the map – it is much appreciated. Thanks are also due to
London Transport Museum for permission to use several images from
their fabulous archive collection. Without the hard work they have put
in to digitising their collection and publishing it online, this book would
have been impossible to write during the long year of Covid closures and
lockdowns. To London Underground itself – the genius of engineering
beneath our feet – and all those who have worked on or for you, past and
present, you will always have a special place in my heart.
And finally, a heartfelt thanks to all my friends and family who have
supported me throughout the writing of this book – I couldn’t have done
it without you.
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Map or Diagram?
he current London Underground Journey Planner and its
Tpredecessors are overwhelmingly referred to as the ‘Tube Map’ or
‘Underground Map’ by the travelling public and society at large.
Beck’s famous design is a diagram and not, strictly speaking, a map –
this issue is discussed in greater detail in chapter 26 – so, to distinguish
it from its less-famous contemporaries, it is referred to in the text with a
capital D, e.g. ‘the Diagram’.
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Preface
here is something slightly Alice in Wonderland about the London
TUnderground. Perhaps it’s the sense of disappearing into a deep,
dark netherworld and eventually popping up, blinking in the
daylight, somewhere completely different, with no real sense of how
you got there. Or perhaps it’s the distortion of time; the contraction of
a journey length from hours into minutes with little to no idea how fast
you are travelling or the distance that lies in-between. But for all the
discombobulation of the experience – and let us not forget that not all
the underground is actually underground – there is an innate satisfaction
in the successful completion of a journey. It’s a city effectively navigated,
and a destination finally reached. And if you’re travelling to a part of
the capital that you’re unfamiliar with, there’s the anticipation of what
awaits you at street level – a different landscape, new spaces, fresh faces
– a little unexplored corner of the metropolis; individual and unique but
undisputedly part of something far larger … that is, of course, if you can
work out which station exit you need to arrive in the right place.
I spent several years commuting into London from various locations
in the home counties – firstly for university, during which I had the
excitement of a journey on the driverless Docklands Light Railway
(DLR) every week – and later for my career in heritage and museums,
which involved a journey on the altogether less exciting and perpetually
overcrowded Northern and Central lines. Despite my relative ignorance
about the workings of this great leviathan of engineering, I always knew
I was travelling in the midst of something special, and that I had made
it in life. I was a London commuter, and I wore my jaded traveller badge
with pride. I didn’t even need a map. Even in the early days of courting
the underground, my father’s encyclopaedic knowledge of London above
and below ground meant I had access to a living, breathing Tube map at
the end of the telephone. And before long I was on good terms with the
network myself. As I travelled its length and breadth, I got to know its
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