0:00:03 > 0:00:10Question - if you're designing a map of the London Underground, do you need to show what's above ground?
0:00:10 > 0:00:15Answer - no. At least, that's the view taken by a man called Harry Beck
0:00:15 > 0:00:19when he produced his world famous Tube map in 1933.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26Along here is Harry Beck's amazing design.
0:00:26 > 0:00:32Over 1 billion people use the Tube every year. This map is known all over the world.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37It's London made simple. There are no streets, no landmarks.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41It's been called the most successful practical map of all time.
0:00:41 > 0:00:48What I'd like to know is why it's been such a success, and whether it's the ultimate subway guide.
0:01:24 > 0:01:30Beck was an electrical draughtsman working in London during the 1930s.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35He can't have imagined that one day his map would turn into this.
0:01:35 > 0:01:41For souvenir shops on London's Oxford Street, Harry Beck's map is a big seller.
0:01:41 > 0:01:47It's on absolutely everything - tea cosies, thongs, aprons.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52More than any other map I know, this one has transcended it's original purpose.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Before Beck, Tube travellers made do with this -
0:01:59 > 0:02:04meandering underground lines laid over a confusing sprawl of surface geography.
0:02:04 > 0:02:10In contrast, Beck's schematic diagram emphasises simplicity and order.
0:02:10 > 0:02:15He uses the old orange Central line as his horizontal axis,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18and diamonds to show interchange stations.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21Lines don't crash into each other - they intersect,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24and stations stand at equal distances apart.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28Travel in London, it says, is easy, wherever you're going.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Living in London, you take the Tube for granted,
0:02:38 > 0:02:46but I remember the thrill I felt when I came as a child - the long descent into the underworld,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50the roar of the wind being pushed ahead of the train as it arrived,
0:02:50 > 0:02:57then that short, careering ride through dark tunnels - every Tube ride was a journey into the unknown.
0:03:02 > 0:03:09Harry Beck had worked for the underground as a freelance. When he made his map, he was unemployed.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Mulling it over at home, he'd got it into his head that the old Tube map was hopeless.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19It showed too much of what was above ground and was difficult to use.
0:03:19 > 0:03:26What he had in mind was simpler, based on the wiring diagrams he was drawing for his day job.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Instead of wires, Beck drew Tube lines,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33and instead of electrical components, he drew stations.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36It was a revolutionary idea.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40A map without measurements? Wiring diagram? Shocking thought!
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Beck's map was rejected for being too revolutionary in 1931.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08The following year, he submitted it again,
0:04:08 > 0:04:13but it wasn't until 1933 that his Underground bosses gave it a trial run.
0:04:14 > 0:04:21Even then, they continued to issue the old-style maps with street names and surface geography,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24so they weren't sure Beck's would be a success.
0:04:26 > 0:04:32We don't know much about how this extraordinary commuter made mapmaking history,
0:04:32 > 0:04:37but I'm hoping the privilege of seeing his original Tube map
0:04:37 > 0:04:40will gain me an insight into the real Harry Beck.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45This is the hand-drawn presentation sketch that Harry Beck
0:04:45 > 0:04:50came up with in 1931 and presented to the Underground as his big new idea.
0:04:50 > 0:04:56This is the only example of a really key design coming up from the ranks, if you like.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00This was a lowly employee who came up with a brilliant idea,
0:05:00 > 0:05:06which initially those in a higher position were not very keen to accept.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10He made a decision of genius about the Circle line.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14Yes, which in those days, right back from its origination,
0:05:14 > 0:05:21had been called the Inner Circle in those days, was jointly worked by the Metropolitan and the District.
0:05:21 > 0:05:27It's shown here as the lower bit is District in green, and the upper bit is Metropolitan.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33It wasn't until after the war that they changed that into its own line,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37which is the ring around Central London.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42I notice that there are quite a few places on this map where names have been changed.
0:05:42 > 0:05:48Yes, especially on the Piccadilly line, where they've closed some of the stations
0:05:48 > 0:05:51in order to speed up journey time from the outside.
0:05:51 > 0:05:57That's why Beck's already begun to make some adaptations of his sketch here.
0:05:57 > 0:06:04He's already had to rename what was Dover Street Station, what became Green Park,
0:06:04 > 0:06:10and Down Street Station, which was between them there, has disappeared completely.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14That's the reason this particular section looks a bit messy.
0:06:14 > 0:06:20Perhaps the best way to understand the design of a great map is to try to recreate it.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23That's the challenge today's designers face
0:06:23 > 0:06:27every time there's a new line or a station changes its name.
0:06:29 > 0:06:35In Underground circles, Tim Demuth is famous for kinking the Central line down to Bank.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39and for removing the escalator graphic back in 1988.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45And Alan Foale is the current designer of the map.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51I've asked them to help me create my own underground line.
0:06:51 > 0:06:57I'd like to create a new route that links two parts of London that are not connected by the Tube.
0:06:57 > 0:07:03Muswell Hill up here, I'd like to run it down here through Chalk Farm, so I can get on the New line, too,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07then down here towards Hyde Park
0:07:07 > 0:07:13to the Royal Geographical Society on Kensington Gore, because they have no Tube station,
0:07:13 > 0:07:20and then down over the river to Battersea, because there's no Tube connection to Battersea here.
0:07:20 > 0:07:26There used to be a line going from Highgate up to Alexandra Palace,
0:07:26 > 0:07:32- which went through Muswell Hill. - Did there? - Let's do the top bit first.- Right.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37Finchley Road, because that's already an interchange station.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42- Just rotate that.- Yes.- So you're moving the Finchley Road label.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44Yes. We've so little room
0:07:44 > 0:07:49to generate a line through there, we have to make space for it,
0:07:49 > 0:07:55so we'll move Swiss Cottage and St John's Wood southwards.
0:07:55 > 0:08:02Are you aware of how much power you're wielding? No other mapmakers can shift things all over the place.
0:08:02 > 0:08:09We are aware. It's an iconic map and it's an honour to draw such a thing, and you do it the right way.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12You're very mellow for masters of the universe!
0:08:12 > 0:08:16- How do we get to Royal Geographical Society?- That's where it gets hard.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21- We could run it straight down. - Yes. There you can see the problems.
0:08:21 > 0:08:27- We're running through Lancaster Gate.- We've had a major collision with the Circle.- Yes.
0:08:27 > 0:08:34- And with the Piccadilly line... - Why don't we shove South Kensington Station further along
0:08:34 > 0:08:37- towards Sloane Square. - We've a space here.
0:08:37 > 0:08:43We're going to have to move the diagonal bit of the Piccadilly line to the right.
0:08:43 > 0:08:49- They've all got to be diagonals, verticals or horizontals.- Yes. - Can we not make an exception?
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Some people do, and it looks awful.
0:08:51 > 0:08:58- We have to stick to these rules, which we've concocted for ourselves. - Why? Rules are for breaking.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Just for my line, do a 30 degree just to get around.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03- Not on this map.- No.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07If someone goes up to an Underground poster map,
0:09:07 > 0:09:14they're more likely to read it if they can see it as a friendly image, and that is a balanced design.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Symmetry.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19Yes, and the relationship of lines to each other.
0:09:19 > 0:09:27- What shall we call the Royal Geographical Society? - Kensington Gore.- Kensington Gore.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32Let's put the rest of the line down from Chelsea over the river,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35then we need a fork, maybe north of the river,
0:09:35 > 0:09:42so one arm goes down to Wimbledon and the other goes to Balham. Always wanted a line ending in Balham.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47Lovely. Look at that. Magnificent.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53Can we not get rid of the Thames, cos it's doing nothing on the map?
0:09:53 > 0:09:59It's giving a lot of help - people know if they're north or south of the Thames...
0:09:59 > 0:10:05You've just removed it. What an amazing improvement. No Thames!
0:10:05 > 0:10:12Now everybody in South London is connected, because the dividing line is the Central line. Please keep it.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14No.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18- Oh!- Lastly, we need to give the line a name.
0:10:18 > 0:10:25Shall we go down to the key? We've already put this new shade of green in. What's your surname?
0:10:25 > 0:10:31- Crane - C-R-A-N-E.- Let's call it the Crane line.- What an immense honour.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34I hope it doesn't break down too often.
0:10:38 > 0:10:44Beck's map, with its electrical diagram design, is not about geography, but geometry.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46It seems to be infinitely flexible.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51New lines appear, stations come and go, but the map remains the same.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56'Mind the gap.'
0:10:56 > 0:11:00Did Harry Beck have a deep understanding of geometry
0:11:00 > 0:11:06or did his day-to-day commuting make him realise what it was passengers wanted?
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Beck knew that Tube travellers didn't need geography, but clarity -
0:11:11 > 0:11:14what he called "heightened common sense".
0:11:14 > 0:11:20You needed to be able to check your interchanges quickly, often in dim light and make instant decisions.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23That's why he rejected the existing Tube map.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28It looks like a spilt bowl of spaghetti. Which would you rather use?
0:11:28 > 0:11:33This mess, or Beck's brilliant, simplified map?
0:11:36 > 0:11:42To reinforce his simple message, Beck gave each line its own bold colour.
0:11:42 > 0:11:48Did he know anything about colour or was he simply an intuitive genius?
0:11:48 > 0:11:54The map's ablaze with colour - the full spectrum, like balloons at a children's party.
0:11:54 > 0:12:00I wonder if he realised the colours would sink into our minds, like vivid dreams.
0:12:00 > 0:12:06Red for the Central line, blue for the Piccadilly. Could they be any different?
0:12:06 > 0:12:11There's a lady in Chelsea who knows all about how we react to colours.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19What a wonderful idea it was to colour code it -
0:12:19 > 0:12:24it's such a speedy form of communication, colour.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27Imagine the map in black and white.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30It would take hours to figure it out.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35Beck made a number of important changes to the colours of the lines.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40One of the earliest was to switch the orange Central line into red.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44- What do you think of that? - That was a very good move.
0:12:44 > 0:12:50Red is the colour that grabs the attention first. It has this property of appearing closer than it is.
0:12:50 > 0:12:57We see it first, and since the Central line is just that - it runs right through the centre -
0:12:57 > 0:13:01it kind of defines and orients us immediately.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06There was one other focal line on the map, that's the Circle line,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10and Beck chose in 1949 to colour that yellow.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12Was that a smart move?
0:13:12 > 0:13:17I think it was a smart move. Yellow is the most visible colour.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21Psychologically, yellow is quite an emotive sort of colour.
0:13:21 > 0:13:28It acts on our emotions, lifts the spirits, creates a sense of optimism and cheerfulness,
0:13:28 > 0:13:35which, of course, is a very good colour to enclose the centre of this vibrant city of ours.
0:13:35 > 0:13:42The green of the District line he inherited from existing Tube maps, and he kept that green.
0:13:42 > 0:13:48Yes, well, green is complimentary to red, and it therefore shows up very well in contrast,
0:13:48 > 0:13:55Green is a reassuring colour, and if you're going on the Underground, it can be a little nerve-wracking,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58so it's very nice to be reassured by that green.
0:13:58 > 0:14:04- I'm glad to hear it, because I've got a map to show you - a new Tube map with a new line.- Oh.
0:14:04 > 0:14:10It's called the Crane line, and it runs across London.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15The colour I chose for my line is green, the reassuring colour.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20- I'd like to think of it as apple green. What do you think?- It's wonderful.
0:14:20 > 0:14:28Green, as I said, is a reassuring colour. The only problem I have is green is also a recessive colour -
0:14:28 > 0:14:34- it doesn't stand out.- Oh, dear! - That's a little bit light. - Should it be hardened up?
0:14:34 > 0:14:41Yes, you could sharpen it, make it into a lime green as opposed to apple green.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46- I love the route, though. Brilliant. - Thank you. I'm not bad at routes.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51Beck as a whole, marks out of ten for the colours he chose on his Tube map?
0:14:51 > 0:14:56Oh, I think 12 out of 10. He was brilliant. He did it all by instinct.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09I'm going to come clean. I've got a problem with Beck's map.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13When I'm in the mountains, I have a watch, a compass, and a map.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18I know exactly when I'm going to arrive, even in mist or darkness.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23The trouble is, Beck's map has no scale, no measurements.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29Once you're underground, you've no idea if you're journey's going to take two minutes or ten minutes.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34For people like me, used to using real maps, that's unnerving, a bit like getting lost.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41I sometimes suspect it's not worth taking the Tube.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46I'm going to conduct an experiment to see how far apart stations really are,
0:15:46 > 0:15:48and how long the Tube rides take.
0:15:48 > 0:15:54Transport For London have kindly let me sit in the cab of a Piccadilly line train.
0:15:54 > 0:16:01I'm going to compare the distances between two stations in Central London and two in the suburbs.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05'Mind the gap.'
0:16:05 > 0:16:11My first journey was Leicester Square to Covent Garden - 1 minute 40 seconds.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14It cost me £1.60.
0:16:14 > 0:16:20It's 25 to. I'm going to time how many minutes it takes me to walk back to Leicester Square.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35Got there.
0:16:35 > 0:16:393 minutes 10 seconds - pointless taking the Tube.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47Now for journey two - Arnos Grove to Southgate.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58Three minutes.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02The gap between Arnos Grove and Southgate
0:17:02 > 0:17:08looks the same as the distance between Covent Garden and Leicester Square, but it isn't.
0:17:08 > 0:17:16The reality is that the distance between Leicester Square and Covent Garden is only a few hundred yards.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Arnos Grove to Southgate is over two miles -
0:17:19 > 0:17:23- even- I- would be pushed to walk that in three minutes,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26so for this journey, the Tube is fantastically quick.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30As for the map, it's obviously deceptive.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38If this was an accurate measured map, the stations would be based proportionately, but they're not.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42In reality, some of the stations are quite a long way apart.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47Beck had to compress his distances in order to fit the stations onto the map.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51But there's another reason for doing that.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57In the 1920s and '30s, there was a concerted effort
0:17:57 > 0:18:04to entice people away from the cramped confines of inner London to the tree-lined suburbs.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09By making people think they were closer to Central London than they were,
0:18:09 > 0:18:14the Beck map helped in the propaganda, and it worked.
0:18:14 > 0:18:22Half a million people moved in those two decades, and new communities grew up around the new stations.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29Much of the appeal lay in the names of these places.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31Turnpike Lane,
0:18:31 > 0:18:33Arnos Grove.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Names are hugely evocative and sometimes puzzling.
0:18:38 > 0:18:45Some of them call up urban squalor. Morden's always sounded the pits to me. Others sound rather idyllic.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Northweald, Golders Green, Chalk Farm, where I live.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52You can almost hear the beech woods and the birds.
0:18:52 > 0:18:58Unfortunately, there's never been a farm at Chalk Farm - they're all urban fantasies.
0:19:06 > 0:19:13To my mind, one of the extraordinary things about Beck's map is it has the power to make names vanish.
0:19:13 > 0:19:20Places where thousands of people caught their trains disappear, as happened to Aldwych in 1992.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24The trains no longer stop and it's become a ghost station.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28So what's left when the name leaves the map?
0:19:32 > 0:19:34Here we are, Aldwych Station.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01If something's missing from the map, it's usually for one of two reasons.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07Either it's a secret and people don't want you to know it's there
0:20:07 > 0:20:13or it's because it's ceased to be important - you simply don't need to know about it.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23This place is a bit eerie.
0:20:27 > 0:20:34The station hasn't been open for ten years. Nowadays they use it for, well, horror movies.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49Question - if all the names on Beck's map were changed,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52would it still look and feel like Beck?
0:20:52 > 0:20:57Simon Patterson's Great Bear did just that.
0:20:57 > 0:21:02Conceived in 1992, this is Beck made into art.
0:21:02 > 0:21:10Look once, and you think, "It's a Tube map." Look again, and you see every station name is different.
0:21:10 > 0:21:16It was about causing people to double-take on something that was very familiar
0:21:16 > 0:21:21and had become, in some respects, commonplace or slightly ignored,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24except by aficionados of Beck's design.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29Did you have a method behind renaming all of these stations?
0:21:29 > 0:21:34I notice that I live in Jane Fonda, which is a nice thought.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39Each line would be categorised - the Bakerloo line would become engineers,
0:21:39 > 0:21:46the Circle line, yellow line, would become philosophers all going round in a circle or having an argument.
0:21:46 > 0:21:51I thought it was easier to not put them in any specific order,
0:21:51 > 0:21:58because that proved to be as impossible as placing the names on the rest of the map in the end.
0:21:58 > 0:22:05- How would you rate Beck's map as a starting point for your own work? - I think it's a masterpiece,
0:22:05 > 0:22:11unsurpassed, really. But when I started making my version,
0:22:11 > 0:22:16as I unpicked the work, I saw how beautifully it had been constructed.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21What were the elements of Beck's map that you found to be so perfect?
0:22:21 > 0:22:25Um, I think it's partly the way that it's infinitely flexible.
0:22:25 > 0:22:30It's something that you can remove lines or add lines, it can be extended,
0:22:30 > 0:22:34but it isn't a true representation of place -
0:22:34 > 0:22:39it's a complete design solution for how to get to A to B,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42and also in the clearest possible way.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54On today's Tube map, there's a line at the bottom that reads,
0:22:54 > 0:23:01"This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck."
0:23:01 > 0:23:06The map had been Beck's brainchild. It had welled up inside him.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11As he continually adapted it, he must've thought of it as his own.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24Beck himself was a perfectionist.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Between 1931 and 1959,
0:23:27 > 0:23:32he spent his evenings making over 19 maps,
0:23:32 > 0:23:39drawn up in this house in West Finchley. His home was littered with sketches and incomplete drafts.
0:23:39 > 0:23:44His long-suffering wife, Laura, used to find drawings in their bedclothes.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48Harry Beck never had a contract with London Underground.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52He'd always believed there'd been a gentleman's agreement
0:23:52 > 0:23:56that any changes to his map would be his responsibility.
0:23:56 > 0:24:02From 1960, however, Beck found himself more and more excluded.
0:24:02 > 0:24:08Out in the cold, he continued to send in refinements to his map, but they weren't welcome.
0:24:08 > 0:24:14Before it opened, he drew the route of the new Victoria line. That was rejected.
0:24:14 > 0:24:20Brilliant ideas are like gold dust. He must've felt cheated.
0:24:21 > 0:24:28He gave his life to the map, never earning more than the five guineas he received for his original sketch.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33When the map was taken away, a little bit of his soul went with it.
0:24:34 > 0:24:40For all his disappointment, though, the current map is clearly a continuation of Beck's work,
0:24:40 > 0:24:46and his design principles have had an international impact.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51The great cities of the world wouldn't be complete without their underground networks,
0:24:51 > 0:24:55and nearly all of their accompanying maps owe something to Beck,
0:24:55 > 0:25:02but have any of these other underground maps got a single feature better than Beck's original?
0:25:04 > 0:25:11I'm off to meet someone who, believe it or not, is an expert on international subway planners.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Almost all of them have tried the diagrammatic format.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Many of those have used the 45 degree angle
0:25:21 > 0:25:26and the perpendicular right angles that Beck brought into use in 1933,
0:25:26 > 0:25:32- so his influence has gone round the world.- What about New York? They had a go, and it didn't work.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37Well, the New Yorkers had a fantastic attempt at this in 1972
0:25:37 > 0:25:44when a guy called Massimo Vignelli came up with this idea, which was to use all the Beck principles -
0:25:44 > 0:25:4945 degree angles, horizontal and vertical lines for every line,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52but, strangely, after a few years, the New Yorkers rejected it.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56New Yorkers couldn't handle Beck. What about the Parisians?
0:25:56 > 0:26:03Paris is a great case - Harry Beck himself came up with his own version of the Metro, and they rejected it.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08The Paris Metro, before that, the map was really quite messy.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12The names were printed over the lines, making it difficult to read.
0:26:12 > 0:26:18In the last couple of years, they've come up with this new version, which has used the Beck principles.
0:26:18 > 0:26:23You have the 45 degree angles, clear markers all the way through.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27None of the station names clash over the top of the lines
0:26:27 > 0:26:33and all the lines are horizontal or vertical, and it is a much more easier map to use.
0:26:33 > 0:26:40The French have finally come round to the Beck template. Is there any way of improving on Beck's map?
0:26:40 > 0:26:47The most interesting one is what they did in Moscow, where they tried to emphasise the central area,
0:26:47 > 0:26:55and, um, on the edges of town, they've used what's been called "beading" of the stations.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59They've replaced the lines between the stations with dots -
0:26:59 > 0:27:04people presumably know where they are if they live in the suburbs,
0:27:04 > 0:27:09but for tourists, this central area has been blown up and it's clearer to use.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13- That is beautiful. It's perfectly balanced.- I love this one.
0:27:13 > 0:27:20It's one of my favourite maps from all over the world. In some ways, it's an improvement on Beck.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29MUSIC: "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" by The Jam
0:27:32 > 0:27:38Overground London is a sprawling mass of streets and buildings.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44But Beck's Underground map has made London look streamlined and elegant.
0:27:44 > 0:27:50It's one of the capital's great images, alongside Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and now the London Eye,
0:27:50 > 0:27:54but more than that, it's made travelling in London easy,
0:27:54 > 0:27:59and in 70 years, no-one has made any serious attempt to replace it.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04For all the carping about distorted geography, no timings or distances,
0:28:04 > 0:28:08everybody seems to want Beck's map to stay.
0:28:08 > 0:28:13The truth, I suspect, is travellers regard the simplicity of the map
0:28:13 > 0:28:18to be a relief from the city's complicated surface geography.
0:28:18 > 0:28:23The Underground is a sanctuary, and Mr Beck's incredible map brings order from chaos.
0:28:23 > 0:28:28Now, I'm going home to Chalk Farm straight up the Northern line.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43Subtitles by Peter Hastie BBC Broadcast 2004
0:28:44 > 0:28:48E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk