Notes on
London Underground Maps pre-1933

Somewhat later, its rival, the similarly entitled Metropolitan District railway Company (usually referred to as the 'District') started building its own underground railway lines in London, and running services on both its own and the Metropolitan's tracks.

The Metropolitan produced very few maps until about 1921, when it started to publish ten regular editions of its map, continuing until about 1932, apparently as part of a promotional drive to attract people to settle in 'Metroland'. The District produced several editions of its map from 1879 until 1908. It would that the District stopped making its own map when the London Underground Group was formed, and it acceded to the LUG's maps; but the Metropolitan produced its own maps despite the LUG. Of course, both companies ceased to exist as independent entities in 1933, when the London Passenger Transport Board (LTPB) was formed.

• Pre-War 1907-1913 The style varied a lot, as the map makers experimented with new designs.
• War-time 1914-1918 Development of the Underground map ceased during the War.
• Post-War, 1919-1924 The artist years: a series of maps drawn by the celebrated graphical artist MacDonald Gill during the early 1920s (at least 1921 - 1923). An elegant and consistent derivation of the LUG's 1913 style. E.G. Perman also produced at least one map in a comparable style in this period. Both of these men used cursive scripts for the station names -- a nice touch, but one that could not work with the much smaller card formats that Stingemore and Beck adopted.
• Stingemore, 1925-1932 Stingemore's maps carried on stylistically from Gill, but his maps were compressed onto small, tri-folded cards. These were published from 1925 to 1932.

The maps listed here belong to the somewhat late series of maps. All but one of them were printed as medium-sized sheets, folded to pocket size. Their cartographic design exhibits a lack of aesthetic sensibility, and little innovation. The one exception to the folded-sheet format is a tiny card map produced for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, but the actual map on that card followed the same design as those on the sheets.

Notes on individual maps

• "METROPOLITAN RAILWAY | MAP OF LONDON"
  "EXTENDING TO DISTRICTS SERVED BY THE METROPOLITAN RLY IN MIDDLESEX, HERTS AND BUCKS", estimated 1921, overprinting estimated 1924.

  Not signed by the designer: the only name on the map is R.H. Selbie, General Manager.

  Dating: The map uses the station name 'Wood Lane (White City)', which was in use from 5th May 1920. And it uses the station name 'Farringdon St', which was in use until 26th January 1922. Those two stations therefore place the date between 1920/05 and 1922/01. Beyond Wood Lane on the Central line, the map has an arrow pointing to "Acton, Ealing Broadway" etc, on a section of the line that opened on 3rd August 1920. Thus suggests that the map was issued before August 1920, before that line was completed. There is doubt about that interpretation, however -- for the same arrow symbol is also used for the line from Acton Town to Hounslow, which in fact opened in 1883.

  The map has overprinted on it, in a darker shade of red, a disk and an arrow labelled "BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION and STADIUM", which was probably added in 1924. Anne Letch dates the map as '1924-1925', presumably referring only to the over-printing.

  It is tempting to think that the reference code "1620" might suggest 1920, but such an interpretation could not be applied to the other maps in this series.

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• Metropolitan Railway Company, "HOW TO GET TO AND FROM THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION, WEMBLEY PARK", estimated 1924.

  This object is extraordinary for its smallness, a fact that can be appreciated only by handling its tiny, stiff card. But the design of the map is, unfortunately, clumsy and ugly -- especially in comparison with the contemporary work of the LUG. It follows the Metropolitan's cartographic convention of minimal line differentiation.

  ---

The District railway started after the Metropolitan, but was prolific in issuing maps. Maps were issued at first in a very large format, and later also in a 'Miniature' edition. The earliest broadsheets, from 1879, were of central London only. In 1904, they also issued maps of Greater London on the same scale. There was also at least one edition of the District Country Map, which covered a large area but on a small scale.

Copies of the District 'Miniature' map were included as glued-in inserts in the London Guidebook published by Ward, Lock, & Co., for at least the years 1907 and 1908. In 1909, Ward Lock switched to inserting the LUG map, which suggests that the District ceased production of its own map. According to Peter Rigarlsford, the last broadsheet edition was the 7th, in 1907.

The broadsheets were issued in three physical formats: loose sheets; sheets bound in card covers; and varnished on rollers.

Notes on individual maps

• "THE 'DISTRICT' RAILWAY MAP OF LONDON", attributed date 1874.

  Leboff & Demuth write, "This is perhaps the first map to be produced on behalf of the railways that were to form London's Underground". But it is known that Stanford did produce a map of the Metropolitan Railways in 1866.

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• "THE IMPROVED 'DISTRICT RAILWAY' MAP OF LONDON", attributed 1879.

  The 'Improved' map was evidently regarded as a new series, with this 1879 edition deemed the 'first' edition.

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• "THE 'DISTRICT RAILWAY' MAP LONDON", estimated 1895.

  This is another variant of the 5th Edition, probably the second printing.

  Changes:

  • The line label "DISTRICT RAILWAY" that used to be printed above the southern half of the Inner Circle has been omitted.
  • The District station labels "WEST BROMPTON" and "EARLS COURT" are each split onto two lines.
  • A District omnibus route has been added from Bank to Bishopsgate via London Wall.
  • On the City & South London Railway, three stations have been renamed: "Gt Dover Street Station" as "Borough Station", "New Station" as "Kennington Station", and "Kennington Oval Station" as "Oval Station";
  • On the title banner, "5th EDITION" is in a slightly smaller font than in the previous printing.
  The specimen that I have is inscribed in hand-writing "Xmas 95", which suggests but does not prove a slightly later date than the 1892 attributed by Leboff & Demuth to the first printing of the 5th edition.

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• "THE 'DISTRICT RAILWAY' MAP LONDON", estimated 1896.

  This is another variant of the 5th Edition, probably the third printing.

  Changes:

  • The broken blue line of the railway from Paddington via Angel Islington to Barbican, and the similar lines from Camden Town and Holloway stations via Angel Islington to the docks, have been removed.
  • "Barnsbury Station" has been renamed "Barnsbury & Caledonian Road Station" (Information provided by Peter Rigarlsford.)

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• "THE 'DISTRICT RAILWAY' MAP LONDON", estimated 1898.

  Dating: I take the date of May 1898 from an advertisment on the District Railway Country Map, which refers to the 6th edition of the main map being issued at this time.

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• "THE 'DISTRICT' MINIATURE MAP OF LONDON & ENVIRONS", estimated 1908.

  (Insert in 1908 Ward Lock guide book.) Although this has the same edition number as the preceding 1908 map, it is different in many ways. The foremost change is that it bears the UndergrounD logo and shows the entire underground network printed in red. The reverse of the map sheet is also completely different, having been laid out in a different format and printed in a different font.

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LUG maps were produced by four different printers -- Waterlow, Johnson & Riddle, George Philip, and David Allen -- who each evolved their own variations on a shared theme. Most of the maps were produced by Johnson & Riddle: they had a first wave from 1908 to 1912, having a somewhat clumsy design (with a green border) in which the Underground lines were shown as thick coloured lines. In 1913, they produced a much finer design (with a blue border), having most of the individual features that are now familiar to us in the London Underground map (namely: the use of moderately thin lines for the Underground lines; the consistent colour-coding of lines; the use of self-coloured open circles for interchange stations and solid self-coloured symbols for other stations; white bridges between the interchange circles; the use of both single-circle and multiple-circle interchange station symbols). One further map in this series was issued after the War, in 1919, which was presumably a commission left over from before the war. The other printers -- Waterlow, David Allen, and George Philip -- had attained a comparable quality of underground mapping earlier, but LUG did not give them so many commissions.

Amongst the first items I have in this series are two small pocket maps (1908 and c. 1912), slightly smaller than the modern London pocket map. Thereafter, the maps were predominantly folded sheets of paper, until the Stingemores started in 1925. The pocket cards are eminently suited to underground travel as the passenger can slip it out of her pocket and flick it open even in a confined space. It is curious that the paper maps persisted for fourteen years.

Four distinct phases can be discerned:

1907-1913	Pre-war Brightly coloured maps showing much experimentation with cartographic styles. This phase established most of the basic symbolism that has subsequently been used in the London underground maps.
1914-1918	War-time During the First World War (1914-1918), the LUG printed its maps on low-quality paper with just three colours (red, green, black), and those that have survived are quite fragile and browned, with faded colours. The maps showed no sign of innovation during these years.
1919-1924	Post-war The return of bright colours printed on paper of high quality. There is some experimentation, but this phase is characterised by stable, aesthetic designs. The most eminent of these maps were the five editions that were issued from March 1921 to November 1923, which were designed and drawn by MacDonald Gill (a.k.a "Max", the younger brother of Eric Gill the artist typographer). There was also a very fine anonymous design issued in this series in 1924. The series concluded with E.G Perman's map (drawn 1927, issued 1928), which is arguably the most beautiful Tube map.
1925-1932	Stingemore F.H. Stingemore introduced a stable, elegant map printed on a tri-fold card that served well with only minor changes for seven years, and was supplanted only by H.C. Beck's revolution in January 1933.

See Leboff & Leboff, pp 66-68, which include photographs of Gill maps dated 1921, 1923, and 1924.

Notes on individual maps

• Liverpool St Hotel map, 1908.

  This was not explicitly issued by LUG, and Leboff & Demuth suggest it was produced by Waterlow printers on their own initiative. But it did use the new "UndergrounD" logo, and it uses the same line colours as later LUG maps, which suggests that it did originate in the LUG office. The postcard was one of at least three variants circulated by the Liverpool Street Hotel on the occasion of the Franco-British Exhibition in 1908. The other two variants had an identical map, but had German and English text on the reverse side

  The reverse side of the postcard has a small plan showing how near the Hotel was to the Bishopsgate station of the Metropolitan Railway. Visitors could take that railway service to Wood Lane, where the Exhibition hall itself was situated. (This might seem somewhat ambitious advertising, as the Bishopsgate and Wood Lane stations are on opposite sides of London, with thirteen other stations between them. Even today, that's a 45-minute journey. To understand why that journey should have been regarded as a selling point, bear in mind that Liverpool Street Station was a terminus for many services from the continent, and many passengers on those services were evidently expected to attend the exhibition. Furthermore, given (a) that the hotels in the neighbourhood of the Exhibition Hall were probably very busy, (b) that the Liverpool Street Hotel was of a high quality, and (c) that driving the same distance through central London's congested streets would be slow and ardous -- it would make perfect sense for attendees to stay at the Liverpool Street Hotel and take the Metropolitan train to the Exhibition. At that time, there were still 1st class and 2nd class compartments, so wealthier attendees could travel in comparative comfort.)

  The map is distinctive as it has a black background, giving greater visibility to the yellow line (Great Northern etc). Its design is quite sophisticated and modern:

  1. The underground lines are colour-coded, giving a vividness and clarity that was lacking in the contemporary maps issued by the District and later Metropolitan companies.
  2. It is completely abstracted from the background: not even the Thames is shown. The only non-railway feature shown is the Franco-British Exhibition itself.
  3. Each of the 14 interchanges between underground lines is shown by a white square with a thin black outline.
  4. Each of the 13 interchanges with overground lines is shown by a white rectangle against the black background, with a stub of the overground line leading out to show the direction of travel.
  5. Dual-use track, operated by the Metropolitan and District railways, is shown with both colours (red and green) split longitudinally.
  6. The map has been flattened in the north-south direction, allowing it to cover stations from Putney Bridge in the south to Golders Green in the north; east-west distortion is less, and the north-west limb of the Metropolitan line curiously gets no further than Cricklewood. One distortion was to show Regents Park station as being south of the Metropolitan line, although physically it is to the north. (Later maps moved it back to its geographic position.)
  7. Finally, it should be noted that the map has the ungainly feaure of writing the station names at different angles.

  One commentator on eBay suggested that the map is mistaken in showing the District line running to Uxbridge road, but in fact the District's own maps of the time show their services going there and beyond, and the later LUG maps agree with this one.

  The 9 lines are coloured thus:

  BAKER ST & WATERLOO	BROWN
  CENTRAL LONDON RY	BLUE
  CHARING+EUSTON & HAMPSTEAD RY	PURPLE
  CITY & SOUTH LONDON RY	GREY
  DISTRICT RY	GREEN
  GT NOR'N, PICCADILLY & BROMPTON RY	YELLOW
  GREAT NORTHERN & CITY	ORANGE
  METROPOLITAN	RED
  WATERLOO & CITY RY	PINK

  ---

• London Underground Group, 1908

  This map returns to the normal white background. The yellow line has a thin black outline to make it clear.

  This is a very similar design to the 1908 Exhibition map. The following differences may be noted:

  1. More background detail has been added (Thames, Regents Park, Hyde Park, Exhibition Halls at Shepherd's Bush, Earls Court, and Olympia, and the Agricultural Hall).
  2. Principal tram lines have been added as broken lines.
  3. Interchanges between underground lines are shown with line-coloured circles (Beck style). The interchange symbolism has become more consistent. (1st example: At Hammersmith, the District and Piccadilly lines are linked with a single open circle, while the Metropolitan line has a separate open circle -- because passengers have to enter and exit it at street level. 2nd example: Following the same logic, Moorgate and Notting Hill Gate have disconnected circles, while Earls Court, Gloucester Rd, and South Kensington are white-bridged. 3rd example: On the other hand, Camden town is no longer denoted an interchange.) The key makes a distinction between 'joint stations', indicated by a single circle, and 'interchange stations', indicated by white-bridged circles.
  4. Interchanges with overground lines are shown as an open rectangle for the overground station joined by a white brige to an open circle for the the underground station, both self-colured. Compound stations (Baker Street, Kings Cross, Euston) use white bridges as connectors between the station symbols. The overground termini have their service names written alongside them (G.W.Ry etc).

  The two panels of the outer surface of the card, other than the front cover, have tables of the times of first and last trains, generaly from just before 6 a.m. to just before midnight.

  Changes: Renamed stations: 'Exhibition' as 'Wood Lane Exhibition Stn'; 'Euston Rd' as 'Warren St'; 'Gower St'as 'Euston Sq'; 'Finchley Rd' as 'Finchley Rd & South Hampstead'. The City & South London line has been recoloured from grey to black; the Waterloo & City line from pink to grey (with thick black outline). The Bakerloo and Hampstead lines are printed much darker than normal, but this could be a printing error. The Central line extension from Bank to Liverpool Street is shown in blue outline. Finsbury Park has become a terminus for the G.N.Ry.

  What was formerly the "Baker Street and Waterloo Railway" is now called simply the "Bakerloo". The short name was in popular use for some time before it was officially adopted, and the later Philips map in 1912 reverts to the long form.

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• London Undergound Group, 1911

  The reverse side of the map has a list of "PLACES OF INTEREST AND AMUSEMENT", cross-referenced to numbered squares on the map.

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• London Underground Group, 1912

  The reverse of the sheet has miscellaneous information about what to do in London.The panels are:

  • Events for July (half of them cricket matches).
  • A street map showing the 37 West End theatres and Music Halls.
  • An indexed list of theatres, giving the nearest Underground station for each.
  • A list of exhibition halls, giving the nearest Underground station.
  • A list of 14 overground termini and their nearest Underground stations.
  • A list of riverside places.
  • A list of holiday destinations that can be reached from the mainline termini.

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• London Underground Group, 1913

  The background consists of a greyed, fairly detailed map of main roads, parks, rivers, lakes. The enlarged paper size and the finer printing give a much clearer and spacious feel to the map.

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• London Underground Group, 1914

  The paper size has increased again, the underground lines are thicker and rougher, and in only two colours (green and red). The overall appearance is inferior to the 1913 map.

  The specimen I have seems to be a special edition for Marylebone. The front cover says "Shewing connections with GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY at MARYLEBONE". The map has the Great Central Railway overprinted with a thick black line, labelled "GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY from MIDLANDS and THE NORTH" and Marylebone station has an overprinted label, "MARYLEBONE Subway Connection with Underground System". There is also a third overprinted panel, "FOR PLACES OF INTEREST & HOW TO REACH THEM SEE BACK". The back of the map has been printed with eight panels in red and black showing sight-seeing destinations in London. They are illustrated with etchings by Mr Ernest Coffin. The remaining three panels list mainline termini and theatres.

  Charing Cross provides some dating. The map applies the same name 'Charing Cross' to adjacent stations on the Hampstead line station: one that had its entrance on the Strand, and another that had its entrance on the Embankment. Before 6th April 1914, the former station was called 'Charing Cross', and the latter had not been opened. After that date, the former station changed its name to 'Charing Cross (Strand)' and the latter station opened as 'Charing Cross (Embankment)'. They retained those names until 9th May 1915, when they became, respectively, 'Strand' and 'Charing Cross'. Thus there was never a time when both bore the simple name 'Charing Cross'. We must assume that the LUG were simply abbreviating the names of the two stations, and that the map belongs to the period 6th April 1914 to 9th May 1915.

  The map shows four Underground sections as being under construction:

  • Bakerloo line from Paddington to Queens Park (the first section of which, to Warwick Avenue, opened on 31st January 1915).
  • An extension of the Central London Railway, from Wood Lane to Ealing Broadway (for which Douglas Rose gives a completion date of 3rd August 1920).
  • An extension of the same line from Shepherd's Bush to Gunnersbury (authorised on 15th August 1913, but never built).
  • An extension of the Hampstead line from Golders Green to Edgware (the first part of which opened on 19th November 1923, according to Douglas Rose).
  Hence we can narrow the date range to: April 1914 to January 1915.

  Since the map is printed on an inferior quality of paper, and a somewhat cruder design, which was used throughout the War, I would assume that it was issued after Britain declared war in August 1914.

  Finally, it seems unlikely that it would have been issued in January 1915, so close to the opening of the Bakerloo extension, which did in fact open later than planned because of the war-time shortage of labour.

  Hence my estimate of the map's date is August to December 1914.

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• London Underground Group, c. March 1915

  The are miscellaneous panels of information on the back, including one entitled "FOOTBALL GROUNDS", which says "Just to remind you pending the termination of the present War.", and lists eight football clubs and the nearest underground stations. I assume the football grounds were commandeered for military use, such as drilling new recruits. The sentence was deleted in subsequent editions. The panel entitled "CRICKET GROUNDS, Etc." says "Mostly in the hands of the Military Authorities".

  The "Directory of Useful Information" has the following panels:

  Advertisements Bicycle stores. Cathedrals. Cheap ticket facilities.	Complaints Cricket grounds. Current. Dogs & folding mailcarts. Extensions (motor bus).	Extensions (motor bus) cont'd. Extensions (tram).	Extensions (tram) cont'd. Football grounds. Guildhall. Hampton Court.
  Lost Property. Luggage. Markets. Moving stairways.	Numbers. Pleasure parties. Season tickets. Shopping stations.	Tate Gallery. Telephones. Theatre Stations. Tickets. Through tickets. Train Services.	Tower of London Ventilation. V&A Museum. Workmen's tickets. Zoo. Luggage. Markets.

  The map can be dated as follows. The Bakerloo line is shown up to Queens Park, which opened on 11th February 1915. (The green coloured line of the Bakerloo is shown as extending beyond Queens Park, but with rectangular, rather than circular, station symbols. This is labelled as the L.&N.W.R.)

  Both Hampstead line stations are called 'Charing Cross', hence the map must be before the name change of 9th May 1915.

  Since there were was at least one other later edition between this one and 9th May 1915, I would estimate this one's date as March 1915.

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• London Underground Group, c. April 1915

  Telephone number ("Victoria 6800") removed from front cover. The back still has miscellaneous panels of information, but reorganised.

  Changes to map: none. (Map still shows three sections under construction: Wood Lane to Ealing Broadway, Uxbridge Road to Gunnersbury, and Golders Green to Edgware.) Changes to Information Directory: Maida Vale added to the list of stations possessing 'moving stairways'. Paragraph added to Through Tickets, covering trams and motor buses. Panel "Motor Bus Extensions" replaced by new section "EXCHANGE POINTS".

  Dating: The map must have been issued before May 1915, as Strand has not yet been renamed as Aldwych. On the other hand, it should be after March 1915, as it postdates the previous map in this list. Therefore I would estimate March or April 1915.

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• London Underground Group, c. May 1915

  Changes to map: none. (Map still shows three sections under construction: Wood Lane to Ealing Broadway, Uxbridge Road to Gunnersbury, and Golders Green to Edgware.) Changes to Information Directory: The panel on the Tate Gallery has been replaced with a new panel in red ink: "STATIONS RENAMED | Since the coloured map was printed, the following alterations have been made in the naming of stations: Strand Station (Piccadilly Line) is now known as Aldwych. Charing Cross (Hampstead Line), the station for S.E. & C.R., has become Strand. It is hoped that these alterations may obviate any confusion as to the exchange points between: (1.) The Hampstead Line and the District Railway. (2.) The Hampstead Line and the S.E. & C.R.". According to Douglas Rose, these two name changes came into effect on 9th May 1915, so we may assume this edition was produced shortly afterwards.

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• London Underground Group, c. 1918

  This is a very different style from the previous four maps. The reverse of the map sheet is blank, hence there is no front cover. The title cartouche on the map has a simpler style. The map is printed in only red and black: the green has gone. And tram lines are now included (as broken lines). The map covers a slightly larger geographical area.

  Dating: The map shows the station Headstone Lane, which opened in April 1917; and it shows the station name 'Notting Hill & Ladbroke Grove', which was renamed as 'Ladbroke Grove & N. Kensington' in June 1919. Note that the new-style post-war maps started being published in June 1919, so it's more likely that this map was produced in 1918, still during the war. Three Northern Line sections -- north of Hendon (Central), from Charing Cross to Kennington, and south of Clapham Common -- are shown as under construction.

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• London Underground Group, 1st January 1923

  The front cover has been redesigned. This sheet is somewhat bigger than Gill's previous maps. There is, however, no obvious advantage arising from that increase in size, as the map was already clear and easy to read. The specimen that I have has over-printed red discs for the British Empire Exhibition.

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• London Underground Group, December 1928

  The cover has an ornamental font. The map is rather more decorative design than Gill's.

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These maps were designed and drawn by Frederick H Stingemore (signed FHS) in eleven editions from 1925 until 1932. They were printed on stiff, linen-backed, tri-folded card (at first 6 x 5 inches, later enlarged to 6.5 x 5.5 inches). The whole of the inner surface is taken up with a colourful map that is still geographic but is nonetheless somewhat abstract. All background detail has been dropped, and the network is shown as colour-coded lines, which have been spatially distorted to fit into the available space. The outer surface is coloured linen, with two panels of text, and the middle panel serving as the front cover.

Some Stingemore maps were printed on thin paper, in the same size as the cards. I have one that was published as a glued-in insert into an Oxo guide to London.

The maps underwent very little stylistic change over the seven years, in marked contrast to the volatile designs of the paper maps from 1908 to 1928. Letch lists a total of eleven Stingemore maps on card. Only the first four were printed with a date or even a datable reference code. Dating of the others must rely on clues in style and content. Fuller details of the changes are given in the notes on individual maps below. Some specific dates are listed here. Note that the edition numbers are my own reference numbers, and never appear on the maps themselves.

See Garland, pp 11 & 12, who has photographs of Stingemore maps dated January 1926, and 1932. Also see Leboff & Demuth, pp 70 & 71, who has photographs of Stingemore maps dated January 1926, and 1931.

1925/05	1st-4th eds	First Stingemore map. (The four dated maps are dated May 1925, January 1926, April 1926, and June 1927.)
1926/04	3rd ed	River Thames added.
1928	5th ed	Size increased from 6 x 5 inches to 6.5 x 5.5 inches.
	6th ed	Station names are line-coloured from here on. (Previously they were printed in black.) Stingemore stayed with this design feature for remainder of his maps, and Harry Beck took it over in 1933.
1930	7th ed	The Piccadilly Railway Extension is marked in as a dotted line, indicating it is under construction. This continued up to and including the 10th edition, and the Extension was shown as completed in the 11th.
1932	8th ed	From here on, the maps are issued by the Publicity Manager's Office (rather than the Commercial Manager's Office). This continued into the Beck era. Also, the printing switches from Waterlow & Sons to David Allen.
1932	11th ed	Last Stingemore map. From clues in the map, a date in the latter half of 1932 is likely. In January 1933, the Publicity Office started issuing Beck's diagrammatic map. (Beck had, in fact, presented his diagrammatic map in 1931, but this was rejected by the manager. There was no visible impact on Stingemore's work at the time. Nevertheless, according to a talk that Ken Garland gave at the British Library (19th February 2002) Stingemore had seen Beck's draft and encouraged him to push it.)

Another significant feature is that, from at least the 4th edition onwards (possibly as early as the 2nd edition), the outside back cover of the map card contained a list of theatres and the nearest Underground station to each theatre. This list was scrupulously updated as new theatres opened (and occasionally theatres closed), and as stations closed for refurbishment. The implication is that one of foremost uses of the map was for the wealthier citizens to find their way to the theatre in the evening. Until the 10th edition, the inner cover panel also had a list of "Places of Interest" but this (rather than the list of theatres) disappeared in the 11th edition when space was needed to announce changes to the network.

In the list of Stingemore maps in the main catalogue, the edition numbers are my own invention for ease of reference.

Notes on individual maps

• 4th Stingemore, 1927

  Changes:

  • Has "PLACES OF INTEREST." and "THEATRES", both of which continue to appear until the 10th edition; the 11th edition has only "THEATRES". (I don't know whether these two lists appear in editions 2 & 3.)

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• 5th Stingemore, 1928

  Changes:

  • Size increased from 6 x 5 inches to 6.5 x 5.5 inches.
  Letch describes this and the following edition as "1928/9", and places it after the pale green edition. Internal evidence, however, shows that this must be placed before the pale green edition, and probably in 1928. See the notes on the following edition.

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• 6th Stingemore, 1929

  Changes:

  • In the map: station names & call-outs, which were previously printed in black, are now self-coloured.
  • Deleted apostrophe from "St Mary's" Station.
  • Changed "LAMBETH (NORTH)" to "LAMBETH NORTH".
  • Under "THEATRES": Inserted "Dominion .. Tottenham Court Road" (which opened 1929); but deleted "Royal Opera House .. Covent Garden".
  Letch lists this (pale green) map before the previous (yellow) map, but I think that that is mistaken as this one has self-coloured station names, as the later maps do, whereas the yellow map has black station names. In fact, Letch does note that the pale green map has self-coloured station names, but says nothing about the yellow map. Furthermore, Letch describes this edition as 1928/9, but in fact the reverse of the map card lists the Dominion Theatre, which opened in 1929 -- which strongly suggests that the map should be dated to that year. This also corroborates placing the pale green edition after the yellow edition, as the latter does not mention the Dominion Theatre.

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• 7th Stingemore, 1930

  Changes:

  • Showed Piccadilly Railway Extension as a dotted line, signifying that it is under construction, according to Letch.

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• 8th Stingemore, 1931

  Changes:

  • Issued by the Publicity Manager's Office (rather than the Commercial Manager's Office), and printed by Dave Allen.
  • Showed two extensions of the Piccadilly Railway Extension as under construction: (a) Hammersmith to Northfields (which opened 4th July 1932); (b) Finsbury Park to Wood Green and beyond (which opened 19th September 1932). Therefore it can be dated to before mid-1932.
  Leboff & Demuth, p 71, refer to it as a 1931 map. It is listed by Letch as 1930.She says the two maps for 1931 both show the later extension to Sudbury -- which this map does not show.

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• 9th Stingemore, c. 1931

  Changes:

  • Showed a third extension extension to the Piccadilly Railway Extension under construction: (c) to Sudbury Town and beyond.
  • Under "THEATRES": Inserted "Alhambra .. Leicester Square" (1 line)and "Sadler's Wells .. Angel" (2 lines), thereby adding a total of three lines. To make room for these additions, the following adjustments were made: "Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road" was reduced to just "Leicester Square" for the following three theatres: "Cambridge", "Palace", and "Phoenix"; and the line "Prince of Wales .. Piccadilly" was deleted altogether, thereby saving a total of four lines.

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• 10th Stingemore, c. 1931/H2

  Changes:

  • Three extensions of the Piccadilly are shown as under construction, so the map must be prior to mid-1932, and could be 1931. Letch lists it as 1931.
  • The printer's name is in a slightly smaller typeface, now barely legible.
  • Under "THEATRES": Four new theatres were added: "Prince of Wales .. Piccadilly" (2 lines), "Saville .. Leicester Square" (1 line), "Victoria Pal. .. Victoria" (1 line), and "Westminster .. Victoria" (1 line), thereby adding a total of five lines. (The Prince of Wales is not really new but is reinstated from the 8th edition.) To make room for these additions, the following changes were made: the theatres "Ambassadors" and "Prince Edward" were each reduced from two lines to one, by listing them against "Leicester Square" only (rather than "Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road"); "Prince Edward" was shortened to "Prince Ed." (saving another line); "Sadler's Wells" was compressed from two lines to one by crudely printing the apostrophe above the "rs" instead of in its own space between the two letters; and "Winter Garden .. Holborn or British Museum" was reduced to "Winter Gdn. .. Holborn"; thereby saving a total of five lines.

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• 11th Stingemore, 1932/H2

  Changes:

  • The "Piccadilly Railway Extensions" are now shown as completed (opened July 1932); the dotted line is removed from the key, and the red "EXTENSION TO COCKFOSTERS" box is removed.
  • The list of "PLACES OF INTEREST, &c.etc" has been replaced by an information panel containing the two sections "PICCADILLY RAILWAY EXTENSIONS" and "RENAMING OF STATIONS".
  • Amongst the changes stated in the latter section are the closure of Dover Street Station and British Musuem Station (for reconstruction, due for completion in July 1933 and October 1933 respectively -- the latter being renamed as Green Park station).
  • Those station closures entail the following modifications under "THEATRES": "Holborn Em.", "Kingsway", and "Prince's" are now listed against "Holborn" only (not also "British Museum"). "St James's" is now listed against "St James Park" (not also "Dover St"). In addition, the apostrophe is deleted from "Sadler's Wells". (There is no change in the number of lines in this list.)
  The map is identical to the one that Garland (1996, p 13) dates as 1932 and describes as "Stingemore's last card folder".

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