The London Underground (BBC)

The London Underground map is a classic 20th Century design and has a great history of its own. It was devised in the 1930s and yet is still used today with few modifications. Harry Beck, the designer of the map in 1933, was only paid five guineas for his original job. The only official acknowledgment he received is a plaque at Finchley Station. The poor man worked on it throughout his life, trying to improve and modify it, and that's all the thanks he got... a plaque at Finchley Central Station.

His map was originally rejected by the powers that be at London Transport¹, mainly because it was not geographical. Indeed he enlarged the central areas and compressed the outer areas to make the whole complex map clearer. The map proved to be a great hit with the public and most other major cities (including New York, St Petersburg and Sydney) used his map as the basis for their own underground maps.

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