Here’s a map that’s been doing the rounds over the last few days, and has now been sent my way by many, many readers (Thanks to all of you!). Compared to the familiar standard Tube map, It’s a more geographically accurate map of rail services in and around London (as of late 2014), and opinions on it seem to be quite divided. Some people think it’s more useful than the normal Tube map, some think it beautiful, while others think it’s a horrendous tangle of spaghetti.
It’s kind of all those things at once for me: it’s very cool to see how all these routes actually look in real life (spaghetti certainly springs to mind!), and the map is very well drawn with a nicely subdued supporting colour palette underneath the bright hues of all the rail lines. It’s especially interesting to see how the lines relate to the built-up urban areas, as shown in beige on the map. The map also makes far more sense of the tangle of Northern Line tracks between Euston and Camden Town than the Tube Map ever has – Mornington Crescent is finally in the right place! However, the curve of the westernmost branch of the Northern Line as it heads north is greatly exaggerated for clarity. The map is more geographically accurate, but not totally so!
However, if I just wanted to catch the Tube from Point A to Point B, I’d still greatly prefer the diagrammatic simplicity of the real Tube Map. The very fact that this map needs an enlarged inset for central London shows the main weakness of a geographical map like this for transit wayfinding. There’s simply too many stations in the middle of the map for them to be shown clearly and effectively. I’d argue that this map is even less useful than its nearest direct analogue, the New York subway map, as the area covered is just so vast. On the NY map, you can see how each stop relates to its immediate neighbourhood, but that’s much more difficult with this map’s scale.
Our rating: This map is fantastic for detailed examination, but for quickly navigating the network, give me a diagram every time! Looks great though, and I’ve definitely pored over its details for quite a while. Three-and-a-half stars.
I disagree. The Beck map distorts geography and when you are in an area and need to find the nearest station that has a direct line to wherever you are going, it is terribly misleading. The London Connections map is geographically accurate yet readable, and shows competing services like ThamesLink that TfL would rather you not know about even though it is often much more convenient.
Im actually pleased to say that I drew this particular map in conjunction with my boss Doug Rose. We worked for a London Mapping company called FWT – no longer in business. I seem to remember that it was for Tfls internal use as a number of other geographical maps to show potential flood threats and location of depots and other facilities. I do not think it was ever meant for public use.
Bonkers not to update and publish it! It’s certainly not the right map for visitors to central London but it you need to get to to somewhere a bit out of the centre or, say, drop someone off by car into the network it the best.