This is an early draft of the Beck map, designed in 1931. He was a London Underground employee who realised that because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations were largely irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get from one station to another; only the topology of the route mattered. London Underground was initially sceptical of his proposal since it was an uncommissioned spare-time project and was tentatively introduced to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. However, it immediately became popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since. Beck's final design, in 1960, bears a strong resemblance to the current map. Beck lived in Finchley, North London, and one of his maps is still preserved on the southbound platform at Finchley Central station, on the Northern line. In 1997, Beck's importance was posthumously recognised, and as of 2013, this statement is printed on every Tube map: "This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck". (previous | next | back to album | 2020:02:12 15:14:19 | 60% of an album)