Iconic London Underground map is redesigned by college lecturer

On Aug 15, 2024

Published: 18:38, 14 August 2024 | Updated: 07:34, 15 August 2024

A new version of the iconic London Underground map has been redesigned by a university lecturer, who said it is better ‘in every way’.

Maxwell Roberts, who has lectured in psychology at the University of Essex for 30 years, created his own version of Harry Beck’s 1933 Tube map in 2013.

Mr Beck’s map, which is used by Transport for London (TfL), uses straight lines to represent the various different Tube lines.

But Dr Roberts, from Walton-on-the-Naze, opted for a different approach – using circles instead.

Sharing an updated version of his 2013 creation, his map has gone viral on social media – gaining one million engagements within a day.

Maxwell Roberts has created a new version of Harry Beck’s 1933 London Underground map

A shocked Dr Roberts said: ‘I wasn’t expecting it to go that crazy. That is the most crazy map I have ever released on social media.’

Maxwell Roberts has lectured in psychology at the University of Essex for 30 years

Discussing the 90-year-old Tube map which is still in use in an updated form, he wrote on LinkedIn saying: ‘The current state of the official London Underground map is lamentable for all sorts of reasons.

‘It has poor balance, simplicity, coherence and topographical accuracy. It fails by any criterion of effectiveness you can imagine and has been in a neglected state of decline for years.

‘I caused a stir a few years ago calling it a garbage piece of lazy design and nothing has happened since to change my mind.’

Commenting on his creation, Dr Roberts said: ‘Let’s go back to my original circles map and let’s make it better this time.

‘I also thought, “Let’s get the geography as well because, with maps, shapes and geography are important. Let’s try to make my map better than TfL in every way”.’

A Transport for London (TfL) spokesperson reinforced that the original Tube map was ‘an iconic piece of world-renowned design’.

‘While there have been some previous ‘circular’ designs of a London Tube map created by fans and other designers over the decades, [the new] design was specifically created in-house by our design team for this campaign and only shows the London Underground lines, external,’ the spokesperson said.

Maps show how London’s Underground network has expanded and changed over the past century