0:00:03 > 0:00:05'They say there's a rule about invitations -
0:00:05 > 0:00:09'the stiffer the card, the bigger the deal.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11'This one's from Art On The Underground,
0:00:11 > 0:00:13'and it's pretty damn stiff.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16'A press conference to announce details of a major
0:00:16 > 0:00:22'international art commission for all 270 stations of the Underground.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26'But they haven't told us the name of the artist.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29'This might seem an unusual way to celebrate
0:00:29 > 0:00:32'the 150th anniversary of the London Underground,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36'but art, architecture, design and even the arts of persuasion
0:00:36 > 0:00:39'and propaganda have played a bigger role in the story of the Tube
0:00:39 > 0:00:41'than many people realise.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46'When Art On The Underground finally revealed that Turner Prize winner
0:00:46 > 0:00:50'Mark Wallinger has produced a piece called Labyrinth for this occasion,
0:00:50 > 0:00:52'it seemed absolutely fitting.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57'Art belongs here on the platform
0:00:57 > 0:00:59'just as much as it does in the boardroom,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02because of a tradition of patronage unique to the network.'
0:01:05 > 0:01:11I suspect you may not recognise this man, but he was a visionary,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14and together with the chap on the wall over there,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16cos these two were said to work together
0:01:16 > 0:01:18like the blades on a pair of scissors,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22he ran a transport network that shaped the greatest city on Earth.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26And he did so not just with feats of engineering, he did so with art.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30These two did it with the poster, they did it with design,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33they did it with the signage of the stations, logos,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35even down to the typeface, the branding.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40And they did so with such detail and diligence that they could
0:01:40 > 0:01:45honestly compare the Underground system to an earthly paradise.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58'In 1863, the world's first underground railway
0:01:58 > 0:02:04'opened in London. It was the only one ever to use steam engines.
0:02:04 > 0:02:05'The Metropolitan Railway
0:02:05 > 0:02:08'ran between Paddington and Farringdon Road.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12'This is Chancellor William Gladstone in a special VIP preview.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17'Almost 40,000 passengers flocked to use it on the first day,
0:02:17 > 0:02:19'and 150 years later,
0:02:19 > 0:02:24'enthusiasts paid up to £180 each to recapture the romance of steam.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29'But back in the Victorian era,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33'when these shafts at Baker Street once vented the smoke and fumes
0:02:33 > 0:02:37'to the streets above, many people saw it as an experience of Hell.'
0:02:40 > 0:02:42Travelling on the Underground in the 19th century,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46the era of smoke and steam, could be satanic and infernal.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50There was an American journalist who in 1887 described it like this,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53"I had my first experience of Hades today, and if the real thing
0:02:53 > 0:02:57"is to be like that, I shall never again do anything wrong.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01"The atmosphere was full of sulphur, coal dust and foul fumes from
0:03:01 > 0:03:04"the oil lamp above, so that by the time we reached Moorgate,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07"I was near dead of asphyxiation and heat."
0:03:11 > 0:03:15'By the end of the century, a new form of power was taking over.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19'This is the Metropolitan Line in 1910,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23'in a film made to show off the new electric trains in action.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26'The landscape around London would be transformed
0:03:26 > 0:03:28'by the coming of the railway.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30'This would become Metro-land.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34'The Underground created the suburbs
0:03:34 > 0:03:37'and became part of the rhythm of daily life.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40'Generations of Londoners have now grown up with the sights
0:03:40 > 0:03:43'and sounds of the railway, Mark Wallinger among them.'
0:03:44 > 0:03:47This is very particular to my childhood.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49I suppose I was brought up in Chigwell...
0:03:49 > 0:03:53- So you grew up just over...?- Yeah, a couple hundred yards away from here,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55so you could say I'm a child of the Tube.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59We used to come here to wait for the trains and wave at the driver...
0:03:59 > 0:04:02- Did you?- Yeah and try and get a wave back.- Did you ever get a wave back?
0:04:02 > 0:04:04Oh, yeah, quite often and that,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08I don't know, as a child that made some connection with this thing
0:04:08 > 0:04:10that was heading off into London.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14'Mark Wallinger has a history with the Tube.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17'There was the escalator at Angel...'
0:04:17 > 0:04:22In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was...
0:04:22 > 0:04:24BACKWARDS GIBBERISH
0:04:24 > 0:04:27'..and an experiment with the vanishing point,
0:04:27 > 0:04:29'shot on the Circle Line.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31'Then in 2010, this installation.'
0:04:31 > 0:04:34I made a piece called The Unconscious, which was
0:04:34 > 0:04:38large photographs, but sourced from the Net,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42of people who'd had their photographs taken asleep
0:04:42 > 0:04:46by other passengers, friends or whatever and posted, and...
0:04:46 > 0:04:49yeah, I think there's something rather lovely
0:04:49 > 0:04:53about how one feels safe and secure within this kind of institution.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58I like transport and I like the idea of being transported as well.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00We're living through a kind of tracking shot, if you like,
0:05:00 > 0:05:04or you kind of lose yourself in different possibilities
0:05:04 > 0:05:06of time and space, really,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09from our normal pedestrian way of seeing things.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19'The Tube lines went deeper at the end of the 19th century.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21'For the Victorians it was a novelty,
0:05:21 > 0:05:25'but what do modern writers make of the experience down the rabbit hole?
0:05:25 > 0:05:30'It's a psychological journey too into the unconscious of the city.'
0:05:30 > 0:05:33We are a bit reluctant to think about the fact that we're in a tunnel.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37The deep tubes are only 11 feet across.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41It's quite uncomfortable, that is not big, that's a narrow space
0:05:41 > 0:05:43and the Underground bit of the Northern Line
0:05:43 > 0:05:45is something like 17 miles long,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48and you know, you don't necessarily want that in your head.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51So I think we're in a curious sort of balance
0:05:51 > 0:05:54between the metaphorical thing and actually
0:05:54 > 0:05:57the slightly, "I'd prefer not to think about it" reality.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00You have to almost distract yourself slightly.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03You have to become very focused but also slightly distracted,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05and you have to deal with people in a different way
0:06:05 > 0:06:07because you're always with strangers,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09and you're never going to speak to these strangers,
0:06:09 > 0:06:11and you really are, if you think about it,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14you're a long way under the ground and you're surrounded by dirt
0:06:14 > 0:06:16and the earth that could collapse in on you...
0:06:16 > 0:06:18it doesn't seem as dangerous as flying
0:06:18 > 0:06:20but in a funny sort of way it kind of is, if not more,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24because you are literally locked in a metal tube with strangers.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29When this carriage first came into use
0:06:29 > 0:06:30on the City and South London Railway,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34it quickly earned a nickname as "The Padded Cell,"
0:06:34 > 0:06:37and you get a sense why. It's very claustrophobic.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40For the first time, people were travelling by Tube,
0:06:40 > 0:06:42deep underground.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46In fact, The Times described it as "Like being in a gigantic
0:06:46 > 0:06:51"iron drainpipe thrust by main force through solid London clay, much as
0:06:51 > 0:06:55"a cheesemonger might thrust a scoop into his cheddar or Gloucester."
0:06:56 > 0:07:01'With absolutely no strategic planning, the tubes ploughed on.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05'The Central London Railway, known as the Twopenny Tube,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09'was a popular success, thanks in part to its clever advertising
0:07:09 > 0:07:11'designed to assuage anxieties.'
0:07:12 > 0:07:15It's like a step-by-step guide
0:07:15 > 0:07:18about how to avoid all anxiety of using the Tube.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22So it suggests that that was a great problem at the beginning, was it?
0:07:22 > 0:07:25- The Tube had to change people's perceptions.- Absolutely.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Some people were genuinely terrified of going underground because,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32you know, you had to go in an electric lift and then travel
0:07:32 > 0:07:35on an electric train and this is when people might not have had electricity
0:07:35 > 0:07:38in their own homes and so all this new technology was quite
0:07:38 > 0:07:41frightening, and also in the deep level tubes,
0:07:41 > 0:07:43the carriages weren't divided by class,
0:07:43 > 0:07:48so, you know, for a respectable, well-to-do lady, it might be
0:07:48 > 0:07:51quite frightening, the idea of travelling underground unchaperoned.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54It's a good point about the technology because actually,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57in the middle, you've got this huge lift and it does say,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59"Safe and commodious lifts," that's what it's advertising,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02as opposed to your dangerous and cramped lifts.
0:08:02 > 0:08:03But lifts were new technology,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06had to persuade people to actually get in them.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14'The best known labyrinth comes from a Greek myth.
0:08:14 > 0:08:15'The hero, Theseus,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18'had to venture into its dark tunnels to kill a monster,
0:08:18 > 0:08:19'the Minotaur.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23'He could only find his way back with the use of a thread.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26'It's a long way from the Central Line.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30'The Labyrinth is actually a simple journey which looks complicated.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32'It's not to be confused with a maze,
0:08:32 > 0:08:34'in which it's easy to lose your way.'
0:08:36 > 0:08:39The thing about The Labyrinth is, erm,
0:08:39 > 0:08:44there's only one route in and one route out,
0:08:44 > 0:08:50which makes the story of Theseus and the Minotaur kind of intriguing
0:08:50 > 0:08:54because clearly it was very hard to find your way out of that one.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59'You can't get lost in a labyrinth.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03'It's one path that always leads to the centre.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06'Homer referred to it as "a single dancing path."
0:09:07 > 0:09:11'But it might equally apply to your daily commute.'
0:09:19 > 0:09:22'The tube lines were expensive to build and the only way to
0:09:22 > 0:09:26'make them pay was to get more people to use them more often.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30'This was the mission of Albert Stanley, later Lord Ashfield,
0:09:30 > 0:09:31'and Frank Pick.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34'The latter, a draper's son trained as a lawyer,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38'fresh down to London from York, commissioned this poster.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41'He was appalled by the lack of clear information
0:09:41 > 0:09:44'available to strangers trying to find their way around the city.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47'For the next 30 years, he tried to bring clarity
0:09:47 > 0:09:49'and identity to the network.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53'All the elements which make the Underground a globally
0:09:53 > 0:09:57'recognisable brand were put in place on Pick's watch.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59'The roundel had a clear purpose,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02'to stand out in the alphabet soup of Edwardian platforms.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07'And he commissioned calligrapher Edward Johnston to produce
0:10:07 > 0:10:12'a new typeface that was both classical and indisputably modern.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21'The whole notion of "underground" was in a state of flux.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23'The generating station at Lots Road,
0:10:23 > 0:10:25'known as the "Chelsea Monster,"
0:10:25 > 0:10:28'which provided power to the network, was a symbol of the age.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32'Anthony Asquith's film Underground
0:10:32 > 0:10:35'staged a dramatic murder there at its climax.'
0:10:39 > 0:10:42'HG Wells wrote a story called Lord of the Dynamo.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44'In his science-fiction,
0:10:44 > 0:10:48'he'd already imagined a number of sinister or alien underworlds.'
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Wells is afraid of those kind of underworlds.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54He's afraid of what they represent,
0:10:54 > 0:10:58but around 1900, Wells begins to change his mind.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01He writes in a book called Anticipations
0:11:01 > 0:11:04about an underground that is completely the opposite.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08It's one for the future, it's almost like an underground city
0:11:08 > 0:11:11in which people will enjoy travelling on the Underground.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15- It's a utopia.- It's a utopian underground, very much so.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18And in a sense, Frank Pick is the heir to that.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22He wants, in his notion of fitness for purpose, he wants
0:11:22 > 0:11:27the Underground to be the essential foundation for London, for the city.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33So he wants all that Victorian inferno to be wiped away,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36to be washed away and replaced with a dynamic, fast-moving,
0:11:36 > 0:11:43uncluttered world with beautiful posters, uncluttered stations.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45He wants order! Order from the chaos!
0:11:45 > 0:11:49He wants order, regimentation. He wants control.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55'Part of that control was training the passengers in the finer points
0:11:55 > 0:11:59'of Tube etiquette, and by the time of Asquith's film,
0:11:59 > 0:12:02'Londoners had mostly got the hang of it.
0:12:04 > 0:12:05'Mostly.'
0:12:09 > 0:12:11'Though he had no training in art himself,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14'Frank Pick's most potent weapon in the battle for the hearts
0:12:14 > 0:12:18'and minds of the travelling public was the poster.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21'Once he'd drawn people into the system,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23'he wanted them to come back for more.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26'He did it by nudging, not nagging,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29'gently pointing out the benefits of Underground travel,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32'persuading people to take journeys they might not otherwise have taken,
0:12:32 > 0:12:37'to the sales, to the boat race, to the countryside,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40'not just to put bums on seats but to make them aware
0:12:40 > 0:12:42'of everything the city had to offer.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47'Some are humourous, some are beautiful, some were bold,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49'enigmatic and challengingly modern
0:12:49 > 0:12:52'to a nation not known for its visual sophistication.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55'But that was OK - Pick was intent on building the most
0:12:55 > 0:12:58'modern transport system in the world, and he built up
0:12:58 > 0:13:02'its reputation by introducing the public to modern art.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10'When he organised an exhibition of posters, Pick boasted,
0:13:10 > 0:13:11"There is no catalogue.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14"A good poster explains itself."
0:13:14 > 0:13:18'The Tube system became the longest art gallery in the country.'
0:13:18 > 0:13:21How would you describe his attitude towards art?
0:13:21 > 0:13:22I like the quote where he says,
0:13:22 > 0:13:26"Art has to come down off its pedestal and earn its living,"
0:13:26 > 0:13:32and I think it's always as that consummate transport operator
0:13:32 > 0:13:36that he thinks about art. It has to serve his purpose.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40It's not just there to prettify things, it has to be
0:13:40 > 0:13:44fit for that purpose, and the purpose is moving people about.
0:13:47 > 0:13:52'Pick's enthusiasm for a modern style didn't end with posters.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56'He commissioned the architect Charles Holden, a fellow believer in
0:13:56 > 0:13:58'fitness for purpose, to design the stations
0:13:58 > 0:14:01'for the Morden extension to the Northern Line.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03'We take them for granted now,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06'but they were greeted in the press as a new type of building
0:14:06 > 0:14:09'which improves the face of London.'
0:14:11 > 0:14:13'As usual, God, or Pick,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16'is in the details.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19'The famous logo has become three dimensional.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22'And the white Portland stone facades
0:14:22 > 0:14:24'were designed to show off posters.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29'On the 10th of December 1928,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32'a new Piccadilly Circus station was opened,
0:14:32 > 0:14:36'with an Art Deco ticket hall and concourse by Charles Holden.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39'It became one of the wonders of London.'
0:14:40 > 0:14:44'Soviet engineers were sent to consult with London Underground
0:14:44 > 0:14:47'and when the Moscow Metro was built a few years later,
0:14:47 > 0:14:49'Frank Pick and his colleagues were awarded
0:14:49 > 0:14:55'the honorary badge of the Moscow Soviet of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies.'
0:14:57 > 0:15:01I'm getting a sense that he did seem to be driven by this desire to
0:15:01 > 0:15:06bring modernism to the masses. Do you think that that's correct?
0:15:06 > 0:15:10I think he had a view that the work that
0:15:10 > 0:15:14the Underground Electric Railway of London and London Transport later did
0:15:14 > 0:15:18was a significant part of civilising the city.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23That comes out of that Arts and Crafts notion that
0:15:23 > 0:15:27if things are well-designed, people will feel happier and more engaged with them.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32'Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Frank Pick era is
0:15:32 > 0:15:36'the headquarters, built in 1928.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39'Designed by Holden on a cruciform plan,
0:15:39 > 0:15:43'the Observer described it as "a cathedral of modernity".
0:15:43 > 0:15:45'It had impeccable modern art credentials
0:15:45 > 0:15:50'with statues by Eric Gill, Henry Moore and Jacob Epstein on the exterior.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54'It's sited above St James's Park station,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58'where the first of Mark Wallinger's labyrinths was unveiled,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02'so it feels plugged into the underground network it controls.'
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Now, if I'm going to find the minotaur anywhere
0:16:09 > 0:16:12at the heart of the labyrinth, it's got to be here -
0:16:12 > 0:16:15the headquarters of London Underground, 55 Broadway.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18Because this is a remarkable building,
0:16:18 > 0:16:21which Frank Pick commissioned, Charles Holden built.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24From the outside it's very imposing, it's full of Portland stone,
0:16:24 > 0:16:2678,000 cubic feet of this grand material
0:16:26 > 0:16:30but on the inside as well, there are so many wonderful details.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35Walnut woodwork, bronze fittings, this gizmo.
0:16:35 > 0:16:36This is amazing, look at this -
0:16:36 > 0:16:40this is train intervals in an era before CCTV,
0:16:40 > 0:16:42this was a device with a small needle that marked
0:16:42 > 0:16:46every time various trains on the different lines passed a particular point.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49This is like the whirrings of the minotaur's brain, if you like.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56'It's another rational detail, courtesy of Frank Pick.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59'It does a practical job and it's beautiful,
0:16:59 > 0:17:01'absolutely fit for purpose.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07'Among the boxes of papers at the London Transport Museum
0:17:07 > 0:17:10'they have Pick's personal scrapbooks.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14'They're unexpectedly revealing - eclectic, to say the least.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17'And certainly not above the celebrity culture of the day.'
0:17:17 > 0:17:22When you flick through, what do you feel this tells us about the man?
0:17:22 > 0:17:24Quite a lot of it is wryly humourous,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28or it's an interesting juxtaposition.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31At the National Maritime Museum, this must be the Queen Mother,
0:17:31 > 0:17:36staring vacantly into the distance. The Queen looks slightly bored.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40"Evidently a trying occasion," he's written underneath.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43So he always writes in green, does he?
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Yes, green ink is one of his characteristics.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48Like the head of MI6?
0:17:48 > 0:17:51He once wrote on one of Charles Holden's drawings,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54"approved under duress", in green ink.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59There's some humour there in the green ink which is worth hanging on to.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10'The programme of station-building that really made Pick and Holden's reputation
0:18:10 > 0:18:14'was the extension to the Piccadilly Line in 1932-3.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19'It still has its enthusiastic advocates today.'
0:18:19 > 0:18:22I've written about the Piccadilly Line, which is the line of luxury,
0:18:22 > 0:18:24the lovely line, which goes to all
0:18:24 > 0:18:29the loveliest places in London in its central stretch.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34In its outer reaches, it goes to some quite unlovely places,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37but what it does there is bring a mission of civilisation
0:18:37 > 0:18:41because it brings lovely 1930s modernist stations.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Why do you think Charles Holden's stations were so successful?
0:18:45 > 0:18:49First, they glorified the suburbs they were in.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53- So, if you've been to Arnos Grove - have you been?- I haven't.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57- I've seen pictures! - Well, I've been to Arnos Grove. I've done Arnos Grove,
0:18:57 > 0:19:01it's immensely glorified by its beautiful station, or Southgate.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05In the centre of Southgate is a flying saucer.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09So it glorifies the place it's in,
0:19:09 > 0:19:14and it also says, "Come in here - this is your escape route"
0:19:14 > 0:19:20and it's marvellous. You can go to the magic of uptown top ranking.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34'But I think the greatest monument to this period is not in stone,
0:19:34 > 0:19:36'but in two dimensions.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40'Consistently voted one of the design classics of the century -
0:19:40 > 0:19:42'Harry Beck's map of the Underground.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44'It was a labour of love.
0:19:44 > 0:19:49'Beck was an engineering draughtsman not actually employed by London Transport at the time.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52'Strictly, it's a diagram rather than a map.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54'If you're going underground,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57'you don't need to know the geography - connections are the thing.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00'It was an obsession for its creator
0:20:00 > 0:20:04'and has inspired countless variations on its colour-coded theme.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08'But it's now a fixture of the Underground
0:20:08 > 0:20:11'and the underground of our imagination.'
0:20:12 > 0:20:16If you've ever wondered which is the most popular Tube poster ever,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20in all of the 150 years of London Underground's existence,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23then the answer is this.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26The Tate Gallery by tube. Get it?
0:20:26 > 0:20:28I thought I'd have a go at recreating it
0:20:28 > 0:20:31but it's much harder to do than it looks.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34It was created in 1987 by an artist called David Booth
0:20:34 > 0:20:39and in the end he had to use toothpaste and moulded plastic to create the finished poster.
0:20:39 > 0:20:44I think the fact that this is the most popular poster in the Tube's history says it all.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49Art has always been an essential element in London Underground's identity.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51The people have spoken.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59'One of the things I like about Wallinger's piece is that it seems
0:20:59 > 0:21:02'to play off the crystal clarity of Harry Beck's map.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04'It deliberately withholds its meaning.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07'First you have to find them. It's a shaggy dog story,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11'a treasure hunt or a sinister corporate logo sprouting all over the Tube.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15'It could almost be street art, yet it looks official.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20'That's because Wallinger's 270 labyrinths are being made
0:21:20 > 0:21:23'using the same process as the other Underground signs,
0:21:23 > 0:21:25'in vitreous enamel on metal.'
0:21:27 > 0:21:33'I wanted it to kind of fit in with the furniture, to an extent.'
0:21:33 > 0:21:37I hope it is a little bit understated, perhaps, yeah.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45'Despite this apparent modesty, the labyrinths are built to last.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49'They'll mark their individual stations for as long as the stations survive.'
0:21:59 > 0:22:01When the Blitz began in the summer of 1940,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04the first instinct of London's traumatised population
0:22:04 > 0:22:07was to head deep beneath the city streets
0:22:07 > 0:22:09to find shelter in the Underground.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Which was against the will of the network's managers.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Before long, though, simply because of the sheer numbers of people
0:22:15 > 0:22:18who kept on flouting the rules and hunkering down here during air raids,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22the network's bosses were forced to change their position.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26But they managed to turn a potentially embarrassing U-turn
0:22:26 > 0:22:29into a PR triumph and soon, sheltering on the Underground
0:22:29 > 0:22:33which came to typify doughty Blitz spirit, was a point of corporate pride.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36They installed bunk beds on the platforms.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38More than 22,000 by the end of the war.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40And it wasn't just people who found shelter here.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43The Elgin Marbles were crated up and carted off
0:22:43 > 0:22:44from the British Museum
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and ended up here in Aldwych, safe from the bombs.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54'In the film Out Of Chaos,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58'art was once again part of the benign propaganda of the Tube.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02'Sculptor Henry Moore, an official war artist,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05'is seen to find inspiration among the shelterers.'
0:23:06 > 0:23:08'On almost any night during a raid,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11'this figure might have been seen wandering about.
0:23:13 > 0:23:14'Henry Moore the sculptor.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19'Here perhaps was the one artist most capable of immortalising
0:23:19 > 0:23:22'the stoic endurance and suffering of these people.'
0:23:30 > 0:23:34'The Underground had done its bit. Taken its blows.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36'And by and large, kept on running.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42'But after the war, it was a different story. It paid the price.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46'Nationalised in 1948, it was starved of funds.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50'There was a lowering of status, a darkening of mood.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55'As if in denial,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58'in the 1950s, London Transport commissioned documentaries
0:23:58 > 0:24:01'which were either recollections of the golden age of the '30s
0:24:01 > 0:24:04'or reminders of the benevolent secret army
0:24:04 > 0:24:07'working for us all behind the scenes.'
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Morning, Charlie. Looking for someone, mate?
0:24:11 > 0:24:15He ain't come this way. He must have turned off down a rabbit hole.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19- It's the gaffer again.- Morning. - Morning, inspector.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23'The relentlessly chipper Cockney commentary
0:24:23 > 0:24:25'introduced us to the fluffers.'
0:24:25 > 0:24:27'He's always got a witty back answer -
0:24:27 > 0:24:32'trouble is he never thinks of it till he's left these fluffers miles behind.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35'That's what they're called - fluffers.'
0:24:35 > 0:24:36'In the '70s and '80s,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40'observational documentaries showed that just maintaining the status quo
0:24:40 > 0:24:44'of the ageing system was a never-ending task.'
0:24:44 > 0:24:45See the hair?
0:24:48 > 0:24:52'By now, the family that is the network seems to have become
0:24:52 > 0:24:56'slightly more eccentric and borderline dysfunctional.'
0:24:56 > 0:24:58Who's in charge here?
0:24:58 > 0:25:03They should put something downstairs to save me from walking all the bloody way up these steps!
0:25:06 > 0:25:08'But it wasn't all bad.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12'1986 brought us a real treat. Poems on the Underground.'
0:25:12 > 0:25:14I think it's a very good idea.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19It's better than a good many of the advertisements I see on the Underground.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22"I have eaten the plums that were in the ice box
0:25:22 > 0:25:24"which you were probably saving for breakfast.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27"Forgive me, they were delicious, so sweet and so cold."
0:25:27 > 0:25:29LAUGHTER
0:25:34 > 0:25:38'Everyone loves the Tube. Everyone hates the Tube.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40'You always remember your first time.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44'And people develop sometimes passionate allegiances to their lines.'
0:25:48 > 0:25:52If you had to describe the Bakerloo line in a single word,
0:25:52 > 0:25:54what would that be?
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Well, it's its colour, brown.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59And everything that refers to, in a way,
0:25:59 > 0:26:04the brown-ness of it does suggest its slightly dowdy reputation.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Although I've always adored it, possibly because it was my first.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11The Piccadilly Line experience is very good,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13I know other experiences aren't quite so good,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16but then there are experiences which are hyper -
0:26:16 > 0:26:20the glass and steel cathedrals of the Jubilee Line
0:26:20 > 0:26:22are completely fantastic.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27The thing I have noticed about the Underground
0:26:27 > 0:26:30is that people's attention turns inwards to a remarkable extent.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Londoners, city dwellers in general, are often showing off,
0:26:34 > 0:26:40they're acting versions of themselves. On the Underground, it's as if they go into themselves.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Somehow, underground it takes an almost dreamlike quality.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49It can be grubby and packed and difficult sometimes,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53but I do love that idea that it's this phantom representation
0:26:53 > 0:26:55of the city on the surface
0:26:55 > 0:26:58and it's both as old as it is, 150 years old,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01but also about the future, it's constantly moving us into the future.
0:27:01 > 0:27:02Even the dear old Bakerloo!
0:27:07 > 0:27:12'Mark Wallinger's labyrinths lend a mythic dimension to our daily lives,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14'but in a contemporary, tongue-in-cheek way.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17'We're not really Theseus
0:27:17 > 0:27:19'and the closest we come to the minotaur
0:27:19 > 0:27:21'is an encounter with the boss.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24'But we are all heroes in our own knotted stories.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28'The red cross is his mark, but it means "you are here".
0:27:31 > 0:27:34One of the other things that's quite striking about the image
0:27:34 > 0:27:38is that it actually resembles a cross-section of a human brain,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41with the various lobes in all these swirls.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43And I quite like that - I'm not sure it's deliberate,
0:27:43 > 0:27:47but it seems to hint at the underlying meaning of the piece,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51which is that this isn't a sign directing us very simply
0:27:51 > 0:27:55to go this way to the Victoria Line, go to the way out,
0:27:55 > 0:27:59instead it's a sign that's inviting us to go to a much murkier space,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03our own imaginations inside our heads.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07And who knows what we're going to find in the centre!
0:28:12 > 0:28:14'Open-endedness is what makes it art
0:28:14 > 0:28:17'and I love the fact it's on the Underground.'
0:28:21 > 0:28:24'Wallinger's works are designed to be there in perpetuity.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28'Station to station.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30'270 dancing paths.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37'From the roof of his studio, he can see the vertiginous pit
0:28:37 > 0:28:40'that is the new CrossRail station at the centre of the city.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44'The next age of the Underground is taking shape.'
0:29:00 > 0:29:03'If you want to find out more about Mark Wallinger's labyrinth,
0:29:03 > 0:29:04'visit the Culture Show online.'
0:29:12 > 0:29:14Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd