Since its establishment 150 years ago as the world's first urban subway, the London Underground has continuously set a benchmark for design that many transit systems around the world - from New York to Tokyo to Moscow and beyond - have followed. London Underground by Design is the first meticulous study of every aspect of that feat. Beginning in the pioneering Victorian age, Mark Ovenden charts the evolution of architecture, branding, typeface, map design, interior and textile styles, posters, signage and graphic design and how all these came together to shape not just the identity of the Underground, but the character of London itself. This is the story of some of the most celebrated figures in design history - from Frank Pick, the guru who conceptualised the design of the modern Tube with his idea of 'design fit for purpose', to Harry Beck, the creator of the Tube map, and from Marion Dorn, one of the leading textile designers of the 20th Century, to Edward Johnston, creator of the distinctive font that bears his name. Rich with stunning illustrations, London Underground by Design shows that design is about more than aesthetic pleasure, but is crucial to how we get around.

Curated and designed by the experts at The London Transport Museum, this collection showcases London's 100 greatest transport design icons from the past 150 years. From TfL's exclusive Johnston font; Westminster Station's ground breaking architecture; Paolozzi's Tottenham Court Road Station mosaics; the classic S-Stock Underground train; Henry Beck's original tube map, and even Oxford Circus' 'Scramble Crossing', to the Black Cab, and the Routemaster - old and new - London by Design delivers behind-the-scenes analysis of these iconic designs from industry experts, accompanied throughout by beautiful images, drawings, artwork and photography, from the London Transport Museum's archive. This beautiful book is a ideal for any art, architecture or design lover, as well as any passionate Londoner or tourist to our world-famous capital.

Published in conjunction with TFL, this is a comprehensive guide to the London Underground, combining a historical overview, illustrations and newly commissioned photography.

By documenting and guiding us on the journeys we make every day, maps influence the way we navigate and identify with our surroundings. The Underground, London Transport, and its successor Transport for London, have produced and inspired maps which are navigational, decorative forms of publicity and works of art. This book, which draws on the rich collections of the London Transport Museum, sets out to explore this unique form of visual communication.

With a supporting text detailing the rich architectural and design heritage of the London Underground, this unique photographic collection provides a striking record of the subterranean city before financial pressures, a lack of planning and investment and new safety legislation began to take their toll. Exploring the fascinating history and important nostalgia value of the network--both aspects which are rarely appreciated by the average strap-hanging commuter--the book celebrates what remains a magnificent engineering and aesthetic achievement while providing an affectionate if slightly elegiac portrait of a London which is now gone for good.

transport, history, drawing.

Few transportation maps can boast the pedigree that London’s iconic ‘Tube’ map can. Sported on t-shirts, keyrings, 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 artifact, it has also inspired other culturally important pieces of artwork, and in 2006 was voted second in BBC 2’s Great British Design Test. But it almost didn’t make it out of the notepad it was designed in. The story of how the Underground map evolved is almost as troubled and fraught with complexities as the transport network it represents. 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.