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Harry Beck and the London Tube Map

an exhibition at Church Farmhouse Museum

The familiar London tube map, which is 80 years old this year, was the creation of Harry Beck (1902- 1974), who lived in Finchley, (there is a Blue Plaque in his memory at Finchley central station).

There were, of course, maps of the London underground system available before Beck’s, but these were geographical: in other words they attempted to reflect the actual distances between stations, so that the stations of central London were bunched up close together, and their names hard to decipher. As the tube system expanded these problems became more acute. Beck’s genius was in simplification: his design, reputedly based on an electrical wiring diagram, dispensed with realism in favour of readability.

Beck’s first 1931 map was not universally liked by his bosses at London Underground but in its trial run it proved an immediate success, and although Beck’s design has been emended and altered over the years- much to Beck’s displeasure- the fundamental concept remains. Moreover, Beck’s creation has influenced the maps of underground railways in cities across the world.

In 2006, visitors to the Design Museum chose Beck’s map as their second favourite British design of the 20^th century (first was Concorde). The word ‘iconic’ is much overused, but Beck’s map is just that, ‘iconic’: recognized and revered by all.

The exhibition is based on a local, private collection and traces the development of the London Underground map from the early 20^th Century to the present day.

Since 1955 Church Farm has striven to present exhibitions which are ‘local, but not parochial’. Harry Beck and the London Tube Map is a good example: it uses a local collection to tell the story of someone who had local connexions, but one who also had national- even international- significance and influence.

The exhibition, which begins on 29 January 2011, was intended to run until early May. However, as Barnet Council proposes to withdraw funding from Church Farm from the beginning of next financial year, Harry Beck and the London Tube Map will now close on 31 March 2011. Other exhibitions planned for later in 2011 were:

Word Made Beautiful: Calligraphy with the North London Lettering Association

50 Years of Hendon & District Archaeological Society (with an accompanying dig in the Museum garden and access to the WWII air-raid shelters in Sunny Hill Park)

Paper Gadgets of the Past (from the collection of Morris Collins, local author of  two best-selling books on extraordinary inventions and who recently appeared on TV in The Edwardian Farm)

Puffin Picture Books 1939- 1965 (from an important local, private collection)
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