by 14 August 2024, 12:00
New subway map design by Maxwell Roberts.
Image: Maxwell Roberts
A redesigned version of the London Underground map has gone viral, with the creator calling the current version “deplorable.”
In Maxwell Roberts’ design of the iconic map, the subway lines are represented by circles and spokes, rather than the largely straight lines in the original and current versions.
Mr Roberts, a psychology lecturer at the University of Essex, said the current subway plan was ineffective.
He posted his new design on social media, where one million people saw it within 24 hours.
Mr Roberts said: “The current state of the London Underground Official Plan is regrettable for many reasons. It lacks balance, simplicity, coherence and topographical accuracy.
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New subway map design by Maxwell Roberts.
Image: Maxwell Roberts
“It fails to meet any conceivable criterion of effectiveness and has been in a neglected state of decline for years,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“I caused a stir a few years ago when I called it a ‘piece of lame design’ and nothing has happened since to change my mind.”
Maxwell Roberts.
Image: LinkedIn
Mr Roberts first redesigned the tube map in 2013, placing Tottenham Court Road station at the centre and building the map around it.
He was prompted to revise his circular tube plan this year after Transport for London (TfL) released its own circular version.
Original design by Harry Beck.
Image: Alamy
Mr Roberts explained the differences in his new design as follows: “This time I tried Oxford Circus as a geometric centre to achieve a nice symmetry within the Circle Line…”
“Overall, I’m very happy with the result. I think I achieved my goals and compared to my original map, the previous map looks a bit clunky and naive.”
He said he viewed his map as more of an “exploration” and not necessarily “the correct way to map a city,” adding that this was “impossible.”
“I have mapped London in so many different ways over the years and my designs cannot all be right,” he said.
The current subway map.
Image: TfL
“Instead, I view my work as exploration and publish the results so that people can see what I’ve tried and evaluate the results for themselves.”
The current subway map is an evolution of Harry Beck’s 1933 design. Before Mr. Beck’s design, the subway map attempted to show the route of lines geographically accurately, which could be confusing for passengers.
Mr Beck understood that passengers were more interested in where stations were in relation to each other than in strict geographical accuracy. His simpler, schematic redesign was inspired by diagrams of electrical circuits.
TfL’s latest circular economy initiative.
Image: TfL
TfL said the tube plan was “an iconic piece of world-renowned design” and that there were no plans to change it.
They added: “Although there have been some previous ‘circular’ designs of a map of the London Underground over the decades, created by fans and other designers, [the new] The design was created in-house by our design team specifically for this campaign and features only the London Underground lines.”
