Thread by @mwichary

A few tiny things I learned about London Underground today that delighted me, a small thread:

1. There’s a station called Farrington that was recently massively upgraded, but it’s been done in a way that the new entrance is opposite the preserved old entrance, so the past and the future are literally staring each other in the face:

2. Interestingly (but unsurprisingly) given the “London Underground” name there is a separate map denoting which parts of it are in tunnels, designed to help users with claustrophobia or other anxiety conditions.

content.tfl.gov.uk/tube-map-with-…

(The white-within-orange line is called London Overground, and of course also runs underground at times as seen on the map.)

3. There is a station called Blackfriars that is on the railway bridge crossing Thames, and it’s recently been updated also – making it the longest of the three “solar bridges” in the world.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfria…

4. Harry Beck, the designer of the famous Tube map, lived by Finchley Central Tube station. Today there’s a little plaque inside that station, and also… his early map.

(Must have been weird to use a transit map you yourself designed… unless it’s all in your memory?)

5. When a wife of a late actor who was once the voice of the “Mind the gap” announcements asked for a recording, London Underground temporarily restored it on one station just so she could hear it again.

bbc.com/news/uk-englan…

6. Beck’s diagrammatic map is well known, but apparently there’s also a 1914 map that is credited with saving the entire (then maligned) system. It was fun and very popular, encouraging people to travel more to visit various humorously depicted locations.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wondergro…

There is something enthralling to me about just this *idea,* a map saving a transit system.

That’s it! (For now…?)