🚀 go-pugleaf

BK> I have never made any secret of the fact that my boyhood fascination
BK> with the underground railway has continued and even deepened into
BK> something resembling love.

BK> Indissolubly linked with the Tube is the justly famous Underground
BK> Map.

BK> The original map was produced in 1931 by one Henry C. Beck, a
BK> temporary draughtsman employed by London Underground. Beck's map
BK> was revolutionary.

BK> Many other map makers have tried to emulate Beck's success by
BK> adapting his style to the particular rail or road system they are
BK> working with. These have been successful to a greater or lesser
BK> extent but none is quite as attractive--and, yes, beautiful--as
BK> Beck's Tube map.

BK> Wandering through the labyrinth of subterranean passageways,
BK> tunnels, escalators and graffiti covered walls, shaken and deafened
BK> in rattling trains still in use many years beyond their intended
BK> lifespan, I feel at home in this eerie world of artificial light,
BK> peeling paint and mouldering tiles but every once in a while a
BK> splash of colour or a familiar shape momentarily revives childhood
BK> memories. One of these is the original creation of a 29 year old
BK> draughtsman whose map smiles from the wall like the face of a
BK> friend.

<much snipping above>

Well told, sir!

Beck may well have been the first cartographer to fully understand that
"the map is not the territory". Not terribly surprising that this should
first come from an underground map, as there is very little territory to
see out the windows indeed. Still, what Beck achieved is probably of the
greatest importance to the communicative value of maps than anything
since the invention of the symbolic key.
---
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Internet: bruce.metcalf@toadhall.com (Bruce Metcalf)
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