Harry Beck may not have a London Underground line named after him as Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth have, but there is a plaque on a platform at Finchley Central, once his local stop, that marks his legacy: the design of the tube map.
And this autumn, as a new play about him called The Truth about Harry Beck entertains London audiences, an exhibition will allow the public to see some rare and valuable original examples of his work.
Curators at The Map House in Kensington will mount the largest ever display of Beck’s manuscripts and draft designs, including a rare early proof of his first pocket map of the tube system. The drawing is annotated with his own edits and suggestions, including the tricky matter of whether or not to use the name Willesden Green (New Station), or the simplified Willesden Junction.
“Beck’s design totally changed the way people thought about making maps,” said Charles Roberts, curator of the show, Mapping the Tube: 1863-2023, which opens on 25 October. “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.”
The map immediately inspired other transport system plans, including the Sydney Suburban and City Underground Railway Map of 1939 in Australia, as well as many subsequent spoofs, including a popular one sold in Stratford-upon-Avon that features Shakeaspearean characters.
In the last few weeks a new circular update of the design has been attracting attention on social media. Based on the idea of the spokes of a wheel, it also features the Thames as a central blue band. It was drawn up by an Essex University psychology lecturer, Maxwell Roberts, who has reposted his new version of a design he first made in 2013.
There are now plans to include the recent circular version of the tube map in the new exhibition, to illustrate the way that possible improvements and updates to the design can still grip the imagination, just as they did for the map’s originator.
Beck, who grew up in Leyton in east London and then moved north to Highgate, later worked for London Transport and the first of his maps was issued in 1933. Seventy-five years later there were still 15 million of them being printed and distributed, largely unaltered. He had based his design on the circuit diagrams he was employed to draw up to explain the complexity of the cabling and wiring on the tube network. His clear and comprehensible chart became an instant hit with visitors, despite the fact London Transport had been initially reluctant to adopt it because it so radically dropped the geographical conventions of mapmaking.
Another highlight of the exhibition – aside from the proof annotated by both Beck and his predecessor, Frederick Stingemore – is a rare first edition of his 1933 Underground map poster. Only five copies of the original 2,000 are known to exist.
All of the exhibits in the new show are up for sale, with prices that range from £40 to £55,000. “The most valuable item, of course, is his original drawing for the map, with amendments and edits in his own handwriting,” said Roberts. “We think it is the only one and something not offered for sale before.”
Also on display will be drawings made after Beck had been fired by London Transport. “He still wanted them to look at his design for adding the Victoria line,” said Roberts. “It is something that is covered in the new play and it really shows how he was quite obsessive about it and continued to regard the map as his own. He wanted London Transport to allow him to be lead designer again. He really cared.” Several of the items were originally given by Beck to his friend and biographer Ken Garland.
Beck was paid five pounds and five shillings for his design and not credited during his lifetime. Since 2001, however, an acknowledgment has been added to the map. In 2006 it was voted the second-best British design of the 20th century, as part of a BBC competition called The Great British Design Quest. It was beaten only by Concorde.
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