By chance, I recently came across an excellent archive of historic London Underground maps. This archive has (geographically accurate) maps dating from 1908 and contains all of the major updates made to the London Underground map — including some disastrous changes made throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
I have long been fascinated by the London Underground map, though for no reason that I can particularly identify. At a base level, the map is so simple and elegant that it, importantly, serves brilliantly the function it is supposed to serve — perhaps it is this that makes it so attractive. As Harry Beck, the creator of the topological London Underground map, said:
If you're going underground, why do you need bother about geography? It's not so important. Connections are the thing.A brief history of the tube map can be found on the Transport for London website (where all current versions of the map can also be found), whilst a reasonable biography of Harry Beck can be found at Wikipedia.
