A rare map shows how the London Underground used to look over 90 years ago
The first edition draft copy of Harry Beck’s design of the underground system
A rare map drawn up in 1933 shows how different the London Underground used to look.
An event later this month in Knightsbridge, West London, will see historic maps of London’s tube system displayed including original copies of those drawn up by iconic designer Harry Beck.
On the 50th anniversary of Beck’s death, the Mapping The Tube: 1863-2023 exhibition will take place at The Map House between October 25 and November 30.
It will showcase some of the most significant collections of the famous Beck manuscripts.
Beck is credited with having changed the face of transport in London. Before his diagrams, it was thought that Londoners stuck too closely to geographical accuracy, leaving commuters unaware that they could change tube lines.
All of the items at the show will be up for sale, with prices ranging from £40 to £55,000.
Arguably the most prized diagram to be displayed at the exhibition will be an astoundingly rare first-edition map of Beck’s original design of the underground system.
The one-of-a-kind draft copy, annotated by Beck and his predecessor Fred Stingemore, offers a unique insight into the designer’s thoughts when drawing up the underground lines.
The draft highlights some of the dilemmas that Beck had to overcome during the design process, one of which was whether to use the official name of ‘Willesden Green (New Station)’ or stick with ‘Willesden Junction.’
Out of that draft copy came the resulting exceedingly rare 1st Edition Underground poster map (1933) which will also be showcased at the Knightsbridge event.
Only five copies still exist
It is thought only five still exist of the original 2,000 copies that were printed.
A unique, but incomplete, sketch from 1950 drawn in coloured pencil of a proposed new District Line branch to Richmond will too be displayed.
The new exhibition comes 50 years after Harry Beck’s death in 1974
Harry Beck never received credit for his work during his lifetime (Provider: The Map House)
Charles Roberts, the curator of the event, said: ‘Beck’s design totally changed the way people thought about making maps.
‘Others had similar ideas, but he was the one who did it. The tube map really is something that deserves to be called iconic.
‘It is even an international icon really because so many people have used it as the basis of their own network designs.’
Beck’s maps went onto influence other transport systems across the world including the Sydney Suburban and the City Underground Railway Map of 1939 in Australia.
Despite their influence, Beck was paid a mere five pounds and five shillings for his designs and never received any credit during his lifetime.
An acknowledgment was added to the map in 2001 and it was voted the second-best British design of the twentieth century as part of a BBC competition called the British Grand Design Quiz. It lost out to the Concorde.
The exhibition comes at the same time as a new play centered around Beck’s life and designs hits theatres entitled The Truth about Harry Beck.
