Harry Beck
Encyclopedia
Henry Charles Beck known as Harry Beck, was an English engineering draftsman
best known for creating the present London Underground
Tube map
in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office. London Underground was initially sceptical of Beck's radical proposal — it was an uncommissioned spare-time project, and it was tentatively introduced to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. It immediately became popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since.
. This had the feature that the centrally located stations were very close together and the out-of-town stations were spaced apart. From around 1908 a new type of 'map' appeared inside the train cars; it was a non-geographic linear
diagram
, in most cases a simple straight horizontal line, which equalized the distances between stations. By the late 1920s most Underground lines and some mainline (especially LNER
) services displayed these, many of which had been drawn by George Dow
. Some writers have postulated that these in part inspired Beck.
than a true map, on which all the stations were more or less equally spaced. Beck first submitted his idea to Frank Pick
of London Underground in 1931, but it was considered too radical as it did not show distances relative from any one station to the others. After a successful trial production of 500 copies of Beck's map in 1932, the map was given its first full publication in 1933 (700,000 copies) and the reaction of the travelling customers proved it to be sound design; it immediately required a large reprint after only one month.
actually passes to the west of Mornington Crescent
on the West End Branch; Beck's original map showed this correctly, but later versions show the City Branch to the east of Mornington Crescent.
was added in 1960 by the Publicity Officer, Harold Hutchison. Many other changes were also introduced to the map without Beck's approval.
Beck struggled furiously to regain control of the map, but responsibility for the map was eventually given to a third designer, Paul Garbutt. Garbutt changed the style of the map to look more like Beck's maps of the 1930s, and also introduced the "vacuum flask
" shape for the Circle Line. Although Beck preferred this version to Hutchison's, he wasn't completely satisfied. He started to make a new map, based on both his earlier works and Garbutt's ideas. When this version too was rejected, despite its simplicity and ease of reading, Beck realized London Transport would never publish any map in his hand. Nevertheless he continued to make sketches and drawings for the map until his death.
) he began teaching typographics and colour design at the London School of Printing and Kindred Trades
.
After long failing to acknowledge Beck's importance as the original designer of the Tube map, London Regional Transport
finally created the Beck gallery at the London Transport Museum in the early 1990s, where his works can be seen. A commemorative plaque was put up at Finchley Central tube station
. Beck's home at 60 Courthouse Road, Finchley was marked with a plaque by the Finchley Society in 2003. Since 2001, Transport for London
has also started to credit Beck for the original idea on the modern Tube maps.
In March 2006, viewers of BBC2
's The Culture Show
and visitors to London's Design Museum
voted Harry Beck's Tube map as their second-favourite British design
of the 20th century in the Great British Design Quest. The winner was Concorde
.
In January 2009, the Royal Mail
issued a set of postage stamp
s celebrating British
design classics, among them was the contemporary version of the London Underground diagram.
GB Railfreight named locomotive 66721 after Beck.
in 2004.
in the north, Ongar
in the north east, Romford
in the east, Bromley
in the south east, Mitcham
in the south, Hinchley Wood
in the south west, Ashford
in the west, and Tring
in the north west). It included both the Underground and mainlines. It was not published at the time but was seen in Ken Garland
's book, first published in 1994, and it took until 1973 until any official attempt was made to replicate a rail diagram for the entire London region.
Beck produced at least two versions of a diagram for the Paris Métro
. The project, which Beck was never commissioned to do, may have been begun, according to Ken Garland, as early as before the start of World War II
. A version dating from approximately 1946 is published in Garland's book. His second version is published for the first time in Mark Ovenden
's book about the Paris Métro and is on display at the London Transport Museum.
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
best known for creating the present London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
Tube map
Tube map
The Tube map is a schematic transit map representing the lines and stations of London's rapid transit railway systems, namely the London Underground , the Docklands Light Railway and London Overground....
in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office. London Underground was initially sceptical of Beck's radical proposal — it was an uncommissioned spare-time project, and it was tentatively introduced to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. It immediately became popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since.
London Underground map
Before Beck
Prior to the Beck diagram, the various underground lines had been laid out geographically, often superimposed over the roadway of a city mapCity map
A city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduced to generally understood symbology.Depending upon its target group or...
. This had the feature that the centrally located stations were very close together and the out-of-town stations were spaced apart. From around 1908 a new type of 'map' appeared inside the train cars; it was a non-geographic linear
Linear
In mathematics, a linear map or function f is a function which satisfies the following two properties:* Additivity : f = f + f...
diagram
Diagram
A diagram is a two-dimensional geometric symbolic representation of information according to some visualization technique. Sometimes, the technique uses a three-dimensional visualization which is then projected onto the two-dimensional surface...
, in most cases a simple straight horizontal line, which equalized the distances between stations. By the late 1920s most Underground lines and some mainline (especially LNER
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
) services displayed these, many of which had been drawn by George Dow
George Dow
George Dow joined London and North Eastern Railway as a grade five clerk at Kings Cross railway station in London, England...
. Some writers have postulated that these in part inspired Beck.
Beck's concept
But it was clearly Beck who had the idea of creating a full system map in colour. He believed that passengers riding the trains were not too bothered about the geographical accuracy, but were more interested in how to get from one station to another, and where to change. Thus he drew his famous diagram, looking more like an electrical schematicCircuit diagram
A circuit diagram is a simplified conventional graphical representation of an electrical circuit...
than a true map, on which all the stations were more or less equally spaced. Beck first submitted his idea to Frank Pick
Frank Pick
Frank Pick LLB Hon. RIBA was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway, before moving to the Underground Electric Railways Company of London in 1906...
of London Underground in 1931, but it was considered too radical as it did not show distances relative from any one station to the others. After a successful trial production of 500 copies of Beck's map in 1932, the map was given its first full publication in 1933 (700,000 copies) and the reaction of the travelling customers proved it to be sound design; it immediately required a large reprint after only one month.
Anomalies
A physical anomaly is that the City Branch of the Northern LineNorthern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
actually passes to the west of Mornington Crescent
Mornington Crescent tube station
Mornington Crescent is a London Underground station in Camden Town in north west London, named after the nearby street. The station is on the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line, between and...
on the West End Branch; Beck's original map showed this correctly, but later versions show the City Branch to the east of Mornington Crescent.
The map after Beck
Beck continued to update the Tube map on a freelance basis, but the future Victoria LineVictoria Line
The Victoria line is a deep-level London Underground line running from the south to the north-east of London. It is coloured light blue on the Tube map...
was added in 1960 by the Publicity Officer, Harold Hutchison. Many other changes were also introduced to the map without Beck's approval.
Beck struggled furiously to regain control of the map, but responsibility for the map was eventually given to a third designer, Paul Garbutt. Garbutt changed the style of the map to look more like Beck's maps of the 1930s, and also introduced the "vacuum flask
Büchner flask
A Büchner flask, also known as a vacuum flask, filter flask, side-arm flask or Kitasato flask, is a thick-walled Erlenmeyer flask with a short glass tube and hose barb protruding about an inch from its neck. The short tube and hose barb effectively acts as an adapter over which the end of a...
" shape for the Circle Line. Although Beck preferred this version to Hutchison's, he wasn't completely satisfied. He started to make a new map, based on both his earlier works and Garbutt's ideas. When this version too was rejected, despite its simplicity and ease of reading, Beck realized London Transport would never publish any map in his hand. Nevertheless he continued to make sketches and drawings for the map until his death.
Recognition
In 1947, when he was not fully employed (having left London TransportLondon Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
) he began teaching typographics and colour design at the London School of Printing and Kindred Trades
London School of Printing and Kindred Trades
London School of Printing and Kindred Trades is now the London College of Communication.In 1922 the St Bride Printing School moved to 61 Stamford Street and was renamed the London School of Printing and Kindred Trades. At that point it came under the control of London County Council.It was known as...
.
After long failing to acknowledge Beck's importance as the original designer of the Tube map, London Regional Transport
London Regional Transport
London Regional Transport was the organisation responsible for the public transport network in Greater London, UK from 1984-2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of the organisation was London Transport.The organisation was...
finally created the Beck gallery at the London Transport Museum in the early 1990s, where his works can be seen. A commemorative plaque was put up at Finchley Central tube station
Finchley Central tube station
Finchley Central tube station is a London Underground station in the Church End area of Finchley, North London.The station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line, between West Finchley and East Finchley stations and is the junction for the short branch to Mill Hill East station...
. Beck's home at 60 Courthouse Road, Finchley was marked with a plaque by the Finchley Society in 2003. Since 2001, Transport for London
Transport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
has also started to credit Beck for the original idea on the modern Tube maps.
In March 2006, viewers of BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
's The Culture Show
The Culture Show
The Culture Show is a weekly BBC Two Arts magazine programme. It is broadcast in the UK on Thursday nights at 7pm, focusing on the best of the week's arts and culture news, covering books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts...
and visitors to London's Design Museum
Design Museum
Design Museum is a museum by the River Thames near Tower Bridge in central London, England. The museum covers product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design. It was founded in 1989 and claims to be the first museum of modern design...
voted Harry Beck's Tube map as their second-favourite British design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
of the 20th century in the Great British Design Quest. The winner was Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
.
In January 2009, the Royal Mail
Royal Mail
Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...
issued a set of postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
s celebrating British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
design classics, among them was the contemporary version of the London Underground diagram.
GB Railfreight named locomotive 66721 after Beck.
Influence
Beck's idea has been emulated by subway, bus and transit companies around the world and many urban rail and metro maps use his principles. His creative genius was featured on a BBC2 series called Map ManMap Man
Map Man is a BBC documentary series first broadcast on BBC Two in 2004. Each episode recounts a particular tale in the history of British cartography, with a particular emphasis on the individuals whose dedication and ingenuity led to the production of some of history's most ground-breaking...
in 2004.
Other works
In 1938 he produced a diagram of the entire rail system of the London region (as far as St AlbansSt Albans
St Albans is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans. It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt...
in the north, Ongar
Chipping Ongar
Chipping Ongar is a small market town, and a civil parish called Ongar, in the Epping Forest district of the county of Essex, England. It is located East of Epping, South-East of Harlow and North-West of Brentwood.-Geography:...
in the north east, Romford
Romford
Romford is a large suburban town in north east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
in the east, Bromley
Bromley
Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...
in the south east, Mitcham
Mitcham
Mitcham is a district in the south west area of London, in the London Borough of Merton. A suburban area, Mitcham is located on the border of Inner London and Outer London. It is both residentially and financially developed, well served by Transport for London, and home to Mitcham Town Centre,...
in the south, Hinchley Wood
Hinchley Wood
Hinchley Wood is a residential community approximately south-west of London, England. At the 2001 census it consisted of 1,429 households with a population of 3,674. It developed largely because of the railway line which passes through the area, and many of its residents are commuters to London. ...
in the south west, Ashford
Ashford, Surrey
Ashford is a town almost entirely in the Surrey borough of Spelthorne in England, with a small part falling within Greater London. It is a suburban development situated 15 miles west south-west of Charing Cross in London and forms part of the London commuter belt...
in the west, and Tring
Tring
Tring is a small market town and also a civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, England. Situated north-west of London and linked to London by the old Roman road of Akeman Street, by the modern A41, by the Grand Union Canal and by rail lines to Euston Station, Tring is now largely a...
in the north west). It included both the Underground and mainlines. It was not published at the time but was seen in Ken Garland
Ken Garland
Ken Garland is notable as a British graphic designer, author and game designer. Garland established Ken Garland Associates in 1962.Garland studied design at London's Central School of Arts and Crafts in the early 1950s...
's book, first published in 1994, and it took until 1973 until any official attempt was made to replicate a rail diagram for the entire London region.
Beck produced at least two versions of a diagram for the Paris Métro
Paris Métro
The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...
. The project, which Beck was never commissioned to do, may have been begun, according to Ken Garland, as early as before the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. A version dating from approximately 1946 is published in Garland's book. His second version is published for the first time in Mark Ovenden
Mark Ovenden
Mark Ovenden F.R.G.S. is a broadcaster and author who specialises in the subjects of graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport, with an emphasis on underground rapid transit....
's book about the Paris Métro and is on display at the London Transport Museum.
Further reading
- Max Roberts. Underground maps after Beck. Harrow Weald, MiddlesexMiddlesexMiddlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
: Capital Transport, 2005. ISBN 1-85414-286-0
