The Open Guide to London: the free London guide - Differences between Version 3 and Version 2 of Tube Map

The Tube map is considered to be a classic of design: in 1933 its designer, Harry Beck, realised that because the railway ran mostly underground, the actual physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another. To this end, Beck devised a vastly simplified map, based on the circuit diagrams he drew for his day job, consisting of only named stations, and straight line segments connecting them; lines ran only vertically, horizontally or at 45 degrees. Originally designed as a spare-time project, the map was so successful that it was officially adopted by London Underground, and the basic design concepts have been widely adopted for other route maps around the world.

• /The Tube map (GIF image, 2906 x 1291 pixels)
• /The Tube map with disabled access information (JPG image, 1965 x 1221 pixels)
• /London Connections the Tube with mainline connections. (JPG image, 2689 x 2091 pixels)
• /Geographically accurate Tube map

The Tube map may be downloaded in several different formats from the official site.

Please note: the map is copyright (c) Transport for London.

Other interesting Tube maps

• Historical Tube maps dating back to 1905
• Tube frequencies from Quickmap. Requires Flash.
• Way Out Tube Map: an alternative tube map, showing the real arrangement of the stations, and indicating which direction the trains travel and what carriage to get into to get out next to the exit at each station.
• Mathematical Map: A topologically correct, but not hugely useful, representation of the Circle line and some other bits, along with some accessible mathematical discussion.
• Spoof Tube map from the 1997 Have I Got News For You annual