London's Underground: The Story of the Tube

Product Information

I first took an interest in history of the London Underground map and typeface as a design student and have a small amount of knowledge about the topic already, so I was thrilled that this book covered so much I didn't know. It is a pretty dense read. I actually loved this and came away having learned a lot. It is clearly extremely well researched and the author's passion for the topic is evident throughout. The result is a wonderfully insightful and comprehensive guide to the history of the London Underground network. The History of the London Underground Map takes you through a very accessible history of the London Underground, in addition to the development of its iconic map. This book is an essential addition to anyone interested in the development of London's Underground system and its famous map. NetGalley, David Styles A book Londoners and anyone interested in design should read." The Society of Model and Experimental Engineers - York Model Engineers Newsletter, March 2023 Nearly all are still in some sort of use, even if temporary in many cases - for ventilation, storage, as film sets or as service corridors. Others really are ghosts to which access is difficult - in the case of Highgate banned in part not because of the military-industrial complex but to protect rare bats.

One could be forgiven for wondering if there was anything new to be said about the London Underground map. However, this excellent and entertaining book takes the whole story of the creation and expansion of the Underground network and shows how maps of the system have had to develop and change as the network became more complex and difficult to understand. If you're unable to release the books in accordance to Section 38(1)(b) of Freedom of Information Act 2000. Would you be able to release the remaining information from the Rule Books by redacting sensitive information in accordance to the FOI Act and GDPR/Data Protection Act?”.If you read the book through, you will be able to put the bits of a puzzle into a jigsaw and have a better of idea of London's development than you might from other more plodding and academic chronological surveys. There are ten primary locations and themes covered. The history of the London underground is only a part of the history of London - a history that started only with the world's first underground railway in 1863 (the Metropolitan line) - but it is an important part. The very existence of the London Transport Museum is testament to that. This is a very special book which not only looks at the history of the London Underground Map but also gives much more interesting details of the London Underground in general. Written in a very easy readable style, Caroline Roope leaves no stone unturned in her research which looks at the notorious rivalry between Sir Edward Watkin (Chairman of the Metropolitan Railway) and James Staats Forbes (Chairman of the Metropolitan District Railway) amongst many other notable personalities of the day. I was expecting the book's focus to be solely on the history of the map; however, this book actually looks at the entire history of the network, spanning its inception, construction. I think it's a richer read for exploring the wider history to understand and explain decisions. The method is to take an Underground location as the type of a theme, tell its tale and add details and material from other similar locations. It is definitely not a narrative history of the London Underground but rather a series of localised narratives that give us a rounded picture of the whole.

The notorious Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling also plays a central role in the story. So too, though he never appears in person, does surgeon and biologist Dr. Alexis Carrel, a Nobel Prize-winner for pioneering vascular suturing techniques. Later in life, he gained prominence collaborating with Charles Lindbergh in the eugenics movement.

There is the worthy public service corporatism of the interwar period, the first inklings of the military-industrial complex, the introduction of rational planning, paternalism and modernisation but always with an eye to the welfare of workers and people - and budgetary responsibility. In their earliest diagrams the companies that became London Underground imposed their lines on a “base map” showing the local streets. But realistic geography faded away as the lines promoted their own concept of themselves. For example, on maps of Metroland, the suburb created by the Metropolitan Railway, golf clubs loomed disproportionately.

A man named Sherwood enters the underground tube: “Riding London’s tube lifts always felt like a thirty-second fall from grace. The ancient machines issued forth a continuous series of ominous sounds, inevitably coming to a halt with a loud clank, as though Lucifer himself were rattling his chains in anticipation of their arrival.” This is the setting for what is to follow. An exploration of the abandoned tributaries of London’s vast and vital transportation network through breathtaking images and unexpected stories Carmen Kingsley, an archaeologist with the British Museum. A specialist in the Tudor era, she is in charge of all the archaeological digs in the city. Carmen is on the Asperger’s spectrum but is high-functioning. Throughout, the illustrations are a pleasure in themselves, whether pictures of decay that evoke the world of the horror film 'Death Line', photographs, charts, posters or plans. Abandoned tunnels litter the London beneath its inhabitants, some I have walked in abandoned within my memory.Now add to these human actors a population of thousands and thousands of rats . . . and an untold number of other animals living underground. And if you can imagine how all these people and animals will interact without reading the novel, your imagination is far greater than mine.