In case you're not already aware of this ...

BBC2 TV, Thursday 30 September 2004, 7.30 pm (30 minutes)

Map Man: Beck

"Modern explorer Nicholas Crane deciphers Harry Beck's revolutionary
Underground Map of London, and explains why it changed the face of
underground mapping, and travel, forever.

It's an icon of London, a design classic printed on everything from tee
shirts to baseball caps, but the Underground Map started with one man
working in his bedroom.

Harry Beck was an electrical engineer. In 1931 he had a fit of genius
when he realised that his circuit diagrams were a perfect model for a
new map of the underground network. Nicholas Crane travels across London
on the tube to discover how he did it.

Why did he exclude everything at street level? What dictated his choice
of colour for each line? Is it the world's favourite subway guide?"

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

Richard J. wrote:
In case you're not already aware of this ...

BBC2 TV, Thursday 30 September 2004, 7.30 pm (30 minutes)

Map Man: Beck

"Modern explorer Nicholas Crane deciphers Harry Beck's revolutionary
Underground Map of London, and explains why it changed the face of
underground mapping, and travel, forever.

....and a perfect time to recommend Ken Garland's book, "Mr Beck's
Underground Map". A fine and fascinating tome

Richard J. wrote:
In case you're not already aware of this ...

BBC2 TV, Thursday 30 September 2004, 7.30 pm (30 minutes)

Map Man: Beck

"Modern explorer Nicholas Crane deciphers Harry Beck's revolutionary
Underground Map of London, and explains why it changed the face of
underground mapping, and travel, forever.

It's an icon of London, a design classic printed on everything from tee
shirts to baseball caps, but the Underground Map started with one man
working in his bedroom.

Harry Beck was an electrical engineer. In 1931 he had a fit of genius
when he realised that his circuit diagrams were a perfect model for a
new map of the underground network. Nicholas Crane travels across London
on the tube to discover how he did it.

Why did he exclude everything at street level? What dictated his choice
of colour for each line? Is it the world's favourite subway guide?"


Watching now :-)

--
Robert Gordon
http://m33p.be

In message , Richard J.
writes
In case you're not already aware of this ...

BBC2 TV, Thursday 30 September 2004, 7.30 pm (30 minutes)

Map Man: Beck

Seemed like a generally good program. Couple of things seemed a bit daft
though. Firstly having the 'colour consultant' spouting on about how
Beck was a genius for his choice of colours whereas I suspect that he
used yellow for the Circle line because it was the only major colour he
had left.

Also they rather overdramatised Aldwych station, but I guess they need
that sort of thing to keep the interest of the general public.
--
Spyke
Address is valid, but messages are treated as junk. The opinions I express do
not necessarily reflect those of the educational institution from which I post.

In article ,
Spyke wrote:
Seemed like a generally good program. Couple of things seemed a bit daft
though. Firstly having the 'colour consultant' spouting on about how
Beck was a genius for his choice of colours whereas I suspect that he
used yellow for the Circle line because it was the only major colour he
had left.

Did I see an *old* map (with Aldwych on) that also had dashed Crossrail
and Chelsea-Hackney lines marked on?

Dave
--
Email: MSN Messenger:

David Marshall wrote:
In article ,
Spyke wrote:
Seemed like a generally good program. Couple of things seemed a
bit daft though. Firstly having the 'colour consultant' spouting
on about how Beck was a genius for his choice of colours whereas I
suspect that he used yellow for the Circle line because it was the
only major colour he had left.

Also, he didn't choose the colours on the 1933 original. They were the
same as on the existing geographic maps of the network.


Did I see an *old* map (with Aldwych on) that also had dashed
Crossrail and Chelsea-Hackney lines marked on?

Yes! There's one in Ken Garland's book* based on the 1994 diagram, but
including all the then known projected extensions and new lines,
including Crossrail as then planned (Amersham/Ealing to Stratford),
Chelsea-Hackney (Wimbledon to Hainault), ELL to Highbury & Islington and
East Dulwich, Met from Croxley to Watford Junction. It was produced for
internal LU use.

*Mr Beck's Underground Map by Ken Garland (Capital Transport, £12.95,
ISBN 1854141686)

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

In message , Richard J.
writes

Also, he didn't choose the colours on the 1933 original. They were the
same as on the existing geographic maps of the network.

Not entirely. Stingemore, who designed the Underground's maps in the
years immediately before Beck, used orange for the Central Line, red for
the Bakerloo, brown for the Met and a sort of greyish aquamarine for the
Piccadilly. Only the Northern (black) and District (green) were the same
as Beck. Shades also varied quite a lot. Beck chose stronger tones and
insisted on much better colour control in the print process.

--
Paul Terry

"Paul Terry" wrote in message
...
In message , Richard J.
writes

Also, he didn't choose the colours on the 1933 original. They were the
same as on the existing geographic maps of the network.

Not entirely. Stingemore, who designed the Underground's maps in the
years immediately before Beck, used orange for the Central Line, red for
the Bakerloo, brown for the Met and a sort of greyish aquamarine for the
Piccadilly. Only the Northern (black) and District (green) were the same
as Beck. Shades also varied quite a lot. Beck chose stronger tones and
insisted on much better colour control in the print process.

--
Paul Terry

Beck's 1933, as shown on the TfL site at
http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/history/beckmap1.jpg
has those colours for Central and Bakerloo as well

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 22:52:11 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

David Marshall wrote:
In article ,
Spyke wrote:

snip

Did I see an *old* map (with Aldwych on) that also had dashed
Crossrail and Chelsea-Hackney lines marked on?

Yes! There's one in Ken Garland's book* based on the 1994 diagram, but
including all the then known projected extensions and new lines,
including Crossrail as then planned (Amersham/Ealing to Stratford),
Chelsea-Hackney (Wimbledon to Hainault), ELL to Highbury & Islington and
East Dulwich, Met from Croxley to Watford Junction. It was produced for
internal LU use.


Curiously, that diagram is missing the station formerly known as
Aldersgate...

*Mr Beck's Underground Map by Ken Garland (Capital Transport, £12.95,
ISBN 1854141686)

Rupert (trainspotting is one thing, but train station spotting?
Nurse...)

"Richard J." wrote in message . ..
David Marshall wrote:

Did I see an *old* map (with Aldwych on) that also had dashed
Crossrail and Chelsea-Hackney lines marked on?

Yes! There's one in Ken Garland's book* based on the 1994 diagram, but
including all the then known projected extensions and new lines,
including Crossrail as then planned (Amersham/Ealing to Stratford),
Chelsea-Hackney (Wimbledon to Hainault), ELL to Highbury & Islington and
East Dulwich, Met from Croxley to Watford Junction. It was produced for
internal LU use.


I've only just picked up on this thread, but watched Map Man and found
it a fascinating programme. Interesting to note that, on Harry Beck's
last draft map for LT, including the still-to-be-finished Victoria
Line (the map was rejected in favour of Paul Garbutt's design), he
shows the Great Northern & City branch to Moorgate as having Finsbury
Park as its northern terminus - in reality it was cut back to Drayton
Park in 1964 to ease problems during construction of the Victoria Line
(the latter using at least one of the GN&C platform tunnels, I
believe)!

David E. Belcher