Harry Beck and the tube map

Carrying on my tube theme from yesterday. How do you get around the labyrinth officially known as the London Underground? Well that's also an interesting story. I remember learning about the London Underground map at university in one of my Visual Design History lectures. The map we all know and love today was originally designed by an Underground electrical draughtsman, Harry Beck.

The original map that his replaced was geographically correct but becoming harder and harder to read as more lines were introduced to the Underground. Beck based the map on electrical circuit diagrams and stripped the map back to its fundamental elements. Beck's map is not too different from the map we have today.