The Map House, a wonderful gallery in Knightsbridge in central London which is itself over 100 years old, has just launched a month-long exhibition specifically on maps of the London Underground across 160 years – Mapping the Tube. Most of the gallery has been turned into a ode to the city’s most iconic map, in all its forms. From the digital Traintrackr map in the front room, to the centerpiece of the exhibition, an extremely rare final draft version of Harry Beck’s map from 1932, penned just before the release of his (in)famous drawing of the map as a set of straight lines the following year, and yours for a cool £75,000 – the price reflecting its rarity but also just how important the work was in creating a whole genre of mapping that is now played across metro systems (and other places) across the world. The gallery’s front window is adorned with an eye-catching gold version of the “circuit board” style map.
One highlight is a wall covered in framed versions of the many pocket-sized tube maps that the (now) Transport for London has produced over the years. You may be very familiar with the more recent ones as they are readily available in folded form from most tube stations. But seeing all the designs, framed in a grid and in one place, is very striking. Obviously, the further back in time you go, the rarer and more fragile you are, and so more expensive the price (almost all the work in the gallery is, of course, for sale).
Some of the biggest suprises in the exhibition were “mash-ups”, for example a Beck tube map but with MacDonald Gill-style patterned borders, or a bus map which somehow combines the central-zone enlargement, suburbs inclusion trick of the Beck map while retaining the correct geographical street network. Max Roberts’ latest tube map, where the lines are around around and within a roundel shape, was also present, including the as-yet-unlaunched new Overground line names and colours. There were some other noteable maps on display too, some of which will hopefully feature here on Mapping London soon.
We recommend you get down to Knightsbridge as soon as possible, and take a look at this amazing exhibition before it closes at the end of November.