The History of the London Underground Map

Few transportation maps can boast the pedigree that London’s iconic ‘Tube’ map can. Sported on t-shirts, duvet covers, and most recently, downloaded an astonishing twenty million times in app form, the map remains a long-standing icon of British design and ingenuity. Hailed by the art and design community as a cultural artefact, it has also inspired other culturally important pieces of artwork, and in 2006 was voted second in BBC 2’s Great British Design Test.

Mapping the Underground was not for the faint-hearted – it rapidly became a source of frustration, and in some cases obsession – often driving its custodians to the point of distraction. The solution, when eventually found, would not only revolutionise the movement of people around the city but change the way we visualise London forever.

Caroline Roope’s wonderfully researched book casts the Underground in a new light, placing the world’s most famous transit network and its even more famous map in its wider historical and cultural context, revealing the people not just behind the iconic map, but behind the Underground’s artistic and architectural heritage. From pioneers to visionaries, disruptors to dissenters – the Underground has had them all – as well as a constant stream of (often disgruntled) passengers. It is thanks to the legacy of a host of reformers that the Tube and the diagram that finally provided the key to understanding it, have endured as masterpieces of both engineering and design.

We currently deliver within the UK only, but we're working to expand internationally.

General stocked items shipped from our Online Warehouse (Elovate)

UK standard | £5 | 3 - 5 Working Days

UK Express 0 - 30kg (Signature required) | £8 | 1 -2 Working Days

Vintage shop (signs) - decommissioned, recommissioned and replica items, limited edition prints, moquette by the metre & delicate models.

UK Standard | £5 | Up to 15 working days

Made to order furniture and 75cm moquette cushions

UK Standard | Free | Up to 10 Weeks

Art on the Underground

UK Standard | £20 | Up to 2 weeks

The below delivery information is for our general stocked products.

To make a return, please follow our instructions below:

1. Send an email to [email protected] within 14 days of receiving your goods to notify us of the return.
2. Return the item(s) to the address below within 28 days of receiving the item/s. Please make sure to include your order number. Clothing items which are being returned due to incorrect sizing can be returned opened as long they are unworn, and the tags are attached.
3. The return shipment cost must be paid by you and will not be covered by the London Transport Museum, unless the item is faulty. We would recommend that you use recorded delivery.
4. Once the returned item/s has been received and processed by our warehouse, we will issue you a refund within 14 working days.

Please send your order to (returns address for print to order prints and made to order furniture outlined further below):

London Transport Museum
PO Box 621
York House, Wetherby Road
York,
YO26 7NH

Faulty items

If you have received a faulty, damaged or incorrect item, please contact [email protected] with details and an image of the fault and we will advise you further.