In message , Paul Corfield
writes
I acknowledged this point but if you have any memory of the Tube prior
to zonal fares and I just about do then the old set up had arrays of
free standing single fare machine with huge signs above them saying
which stations for that fare.

Are there really no pictures of the old machines anywhere on the web?
A Google and a look at http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk didn't turn up any.

IIRC, they had the fare in huge print and the stations served by that
fare on the sloping glass top.

I did catch a few seconds of an old film, Seven Days to Noon, I think,
the other day. The hero chases the villain into the underground but has
to pause to buy a 1 1/2 d ticket!

--
Michael Parry
'The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret'
(Terry Pratchett, The Truth)