Capital Transport Publishing is very much the leading light in this field.
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Mr Beck's Underground Map
by Ken Garland, 1st edition (1994), published by Capital Transport Publishing, ISBN 1854141686. Hardback. Published in association with London Transport Museum.This is an indispensible guide to the history of the Tube map since 1933. This short but profusely illustrated book is still the only dedicated introduction to Harry Beck's map. Mr Garland is a lecturer in graphic design, and was bequeathed Mr Beck's personal papers on his death in 1974. This book is therefore the nearest thing we have to an official biography of the great and good Mr Beck. Several interesting unpublished maps and drawings are included in the book. It covers the span of Mr Beck's involvement in the design of the Tube Map, providing a range of technical and human-interest material. It does not go into the design of the map in great technical detail, though. The only significant omission I am aware of is the continuation of the Hans Schleger design beyond 1938.
As far as I am aware, the London Underground map is not in itself an area of research interest for Mr Garland, and he was motivated to create this book by respect for the late Mr Beck, whom he knew personally. Mr Beck was for a while was sadly ignored by London Transport and the world in general. Mr Garland, through his book and television documentary, has turned this around and has done us a great service by placing Mr Beck firmly in annals of great artists.
An indication of what we are still up against, however, is provided by the following review by James Elkins, Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This short review appeared on the Seminary Bookshop, www.semcoop.com:
"The funniest book I read this year is Ken Garland's Mr Beck's Underground Map (Capital Transport Publishing), a monographic study on the genesis and development of the London Underground Map. (I bought it in Motor Books in London, where you can get the most outlandishly detailed trainspotters' guides.) Garland treats Harry Beck, the inventor of the famous 'modernist' subway map, as if he were Michelangelo or Picasso. His every move is treated with microscopic attention -- how he solved the difficult question of the intertwined lines at the 'Camden Town/Mornington Crescent/Euston complex', how his work was misunderstood, how he was sidelined. After reading this it is entirely impossible to read serious biographies of major artists without smiling. (The book also puts the lie to the notion that Beck's map was influenced by modernism, and even by Mondrian: his source was actually electric schematics. The many followers of Beck may have been thinking of modernist grids, but Beck was not much of a humanist--so much for modernism's universal reach.)
If this is the best that academic art criticism can offer on the subject, then it is rather a poor reflection on the present anaemic state of academia. As to whether Mr Beck was influenced by Mondrian: I am not aware of any firm evidence of this, but it is certainly plausible. The Dutch artist Mr Piet Mondrian had certainly exhibited his famous paintings of horizontal and vertical blocks of pure colour in the period leading up to Mr Beck's initial design of 1931. Mondrian's withdrawal from the De Stijl group in protest against the use of diagonal elements, around 1925, curiously prefigures Mr Beck's own obsessive drive to expel diagonals from the Tube Map, which he had almost succeeded in doing by 1958. In 1931, the year of Mr Beck's first draft design, Mondrian joined a group of abstract painters and sculptors known as Abstraction-Création, who arranged exhibitions and published an annual of their works. Without documentary support, we can only guess whether Mr Beck was familiar with this. Perhaps in a later edition of his book, Mr Garland may be able to throw some light on this, with reference to Mr Beck's papers. Certainly the Bang and Olufsen designers take the view that "[Mondrian] also had a profound influence on much industrial, decorative, and advertisement art from the 1930s onwards."(By the way: Mondrian's presence in London from 1938 to 1940 paradoxically coincided with the period of Hans Schleger's control of the Tube Map.)
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No Need to Ask! early Maps of London's Underground railways
by David Leboff and Tim Demuth, 1st edition (1999), published by Capital Transport Publishing, ISBN 1854142151. Hardback. Published in association with London Transport Museum.Indispensible guide to the history of the Tube map before 1933.
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A Logo for London
by David Lawrence, 1st edition (2000), published by Capital Transport Publishing, ISBN 1854142321. Hardback. Published in association with London Transport Museum.Guide to the history of the London Underground roundel. An informatibe coffee-table book, but its only connection with subway cartography is that London Underground maps all all partook of famous and successful branding instigated by Frank Pick in the 1930s.
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The London Underground: A Diagrammatic History
by Douglas Rose, 7th edition (1999), published by Capital Transport Publishing, ISBN 1854142194. Softback.Indispensible to any serious student of the London Underground system and maps thereof. This is a poster-sized map of the London Underground, in the style of Garbutt, with the date of opening of every station and stretch of track, plus the dates of any closures and changes of name, plus notes. A remarkable achievement, which Mr Rose has kept up to date, and is now in its seventh edition.
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London's Disused Underground Stations
by J.C. Connor. 128 pages, November 2001, published by Capital Transport Publishing, ISBN 185414250X. Softback.Apart from the inherent interest and romance of abandoned stations, this book also provides valuable historical information.
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Underground: Official Handbook
by Bob Bayman, 5th edition (January 2000), 80 pages, published by Capital Transport Publishing, ISBN 1854142216.This is a pleasant, and richly illustrated, coffee-table book -- but to call it an "Official Handbook" is somewhat misleading. Unlike some of the other books published by Capital Transport Publishing, this one is not even designated as "Published in association with London Transport Museum". It is a good introduction to the Underground for the general reader, but does not have a high density of factual information that an enthusiast might seek.
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Jubilee Line
by Mike A.C. Horne FCIT, 80 pages, colour and monochrome photographs (January 2000), published by Capital Transport Publishing, ISBN 1854142208.A general book on the most astonishing development of the London's underground railway, the Jubilee Line Extension from Green Park (bypassing Charing Cross) to Stratford. Despite the sheer magnitude and excellence of this project, it always maintained a low profile in the media. Perhaps this was prudent, given the destructive media barrage that killed the Dome -- which was a much cheaper project that had a very high media profile. Mr Horne writes the following caption to a photograph at the end of his book:
" The first scheduled passenger train from the old to the new section of the Jubilee Line left West Hampstead with 20 ordinary passengers and one enthusiast. The trip was made without ceremony of any kind and without announcement of its significance over the public address. This view shows it en route. "
The "one enthusiast aboard" must have been Mr Horne himself -- which may seem to suggest a poor turn-out from London's Tube enthusiasts, but really reflects London Underground's lack of prior publicity for this historic train journey. Presumably Mr Horne interviewed the "20 ordinary passengers" to check whether or not they were "enthusiasts" ...The front cover has a painting by Peter Green GRA, but the body of the book is richly illustrated with modern colour photographs and historical monochrome photographs. The frontispiece happens to be a picture of the humble West Hampstead station, 1898, which is the closest station to my home.
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Underground to Everywhere
by Stephen Halliday, 241 pages, published by Sutton Publishing in 2001, ISBN 075092585X.This is a well-written literary book about the Underground and the places and communities it connects. It provides a good background flavour but not much technical information.
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The Necropolis Railway: A Novel of Murder, Mystery and Steam
by Andrew Martin, 231 pages, published by Faber and Faber on 19 August, 2002, ISBN 0571209610.This is an exceedingly rare thing: a well-written literary book containing perceptive accounts of the railway system based on extensive and intensive research. The focus of the book is the special-purpose railway from Waterloo to the super-cemetry or 'necropolis' at Brookwood. The author does, however, include accounts of the London Underground of 1907, which was at that time changing from steam to electric. The author formerly ran a very good column in the Evening Standard, entitled "Tube Talk". The book is highly recommended for an evocation of the atmosphere of the railways in 1907, and peoples contemporary attitudes to high speed and electrification.
At the book signing at West End Lane Books, Mr Martin gave a graphic account of his experiences in learning to drive steam engines as part of his research for the book.
Softback edition is coming out soon (3rd July 2003): ISBN 0571209912. The paperback cover is less attractive, though.
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Mind the Gap
by Simon James, foreward by Michael Palin. 160 pages, published by HarperCollins on 3rd September, 2001, ISBN: 0007114478.This is a collection of photographs taken by Mr James in and around various Underground stations. My impression is that Mr James is rather more concerned with such matters as surface colour and texture than with the design, engineering, and history of London's Underground railway. This impression was confirmed when I spoke with Mr James at the opening event.
If your preference is for disengaged photographs of arbitrary scenes around London, then this book is for you.
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Ian Allen
Ian Allen has been synonymous with publishing for the trainspotting community for many years, but does not appear to have focused on the Underground. The following is one Ian Allen book that I have come across.
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London Underground (Ian Allen ABC series)
by John Glover, 95 pages including monochrome photographs, 1st edition 1997, published by Ian Allen, ISBN 0711025452.This book packs a lot more information into its 95 pages than Bob Bayman's "Official Guide" listed above. This is much more an enthusiast's book, and the lack of glossy colour photoraphs would probably discourage the general reader. As one would expect from Ian Allen, the emphasis is on the rolling stock, rather than the cartography of the underground system or the aesthetics of Beck diagram. There is, however, a useful chapter at the end, on possible future extensions of the system.
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London's Passenger Rail Network, published by London Transport, March 1999. No ISBN, and hence not available on Amazon. I have only ever seen this in the London Transport Museum shop.
This is a very large geographic map showing the entire physical network of Underground and Overground lines.
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Quail Maps
John Yonge has numerous detailed track maps of British and overseas railway systems in this series. Search amazon.co.uk for author "John Yonge".
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London Transport Railway Track Map
by John Yonge, 5th edition (1995), published by Quail Map Co, ISBN 1898319146. Softback.Detailed map of the physical tracks, including junctions, sidings, platforms. Geographically laid out, but the outlying sections of track have been compressed to fit them on the map. Immensely useful.
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Railway Track Diagrams No 3: Great Western
by John Yonge, published by Quail Map Co, ISBN 1898319391. Softback.Detailed map of the physical tracks. The GWR comes into London at Paddington.
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London Transport Railway Track Map
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Lines on the Underground
This is an interesting series of small paperbacks published by Cassell. They are not about the railway system itself, but about places and people associated the locality of Tube stations. For each station, there is a snippe of poetry or prose from some literary work. The books are well-designed, erudite, and entertaining.
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Lines on the Underground: Northern Line
compiled by Dorothy Meade & Tatiana Wolff, 32 pages (September 1996) , published by Cassell, ISBN 0304348597. Softback.Includes the work of writers such as Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf. [NB: Not listed in amazon.co.uk.]
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Lines on the Underground: Bakerloo & Jubilee Line
compiled by Dorothy Meade & Tatiana Wolff, 32 pages (September 1996) , published by Cassell, ISBN 0304348617. Softback.Includes the work of writers such as H.G. Wells, Julian Barnes, Michael Flanders, Doris Lessing, Charlie Chaplin. [Note: Not listed in amazon.co.uk.]
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Lines on the Underground: Metropolitan Line and Hammersmith and City Line
by Dorothy Meade & Tatiana Wolff, 32 pages (September 1996) , published by Cassell, ISBN 0304348627. Softback.Includes the work of writers such as John Betjeman, Wilkie Collins, J.B. Priestley, Eleanor Farjeon, Julian Barnes, John Mortimer, Philip Howard, and Muriel Spark.
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Lines on the Underground: District Line
by Dorothy Meade & Tatiana Wolff, 32 pages (September 1996) , published by Cassell, ISBN 0304348414. Softback.Includes the work of writers such as John Mortimer, Susan Hill, Fleur Adcock, Edward Lear. [Note: the amazon.co.uk page refers to a joint "District & Circle Line [sic]" book, but I have the actual book in front of me: it has the same ISBN but it covers only the District Line.]
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Lines on the Underground: Central Line
by Dorothy Meade & Tatiana Wolff, 32 pages (September 1996) , published by Cassell, ISBN 0304348406. Softback.Includes the work of writers such as Ruth Rendell, Daniel Defoe, and George Bernard Shaw.
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Lines on the Underground: Circle Line
by Dorothy Meade & Tatiana Wolff, 32 pages (September 1996) , published by Cassell, ISBN 0304348406. Softback.Includes the work of writers such as Samuel Pepys, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Iris Murdoch, John Betjeman, and Eleanor Farjeon.
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Lines on the Underground: Northern Line
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London Observed: Stories and Sketches
by Doris Lessing, 214 pages (1987, reprinted 1992), published by Flamingo, an imprint of HarperCollins, ISBN 0586092269. Softback.This is a compilation of ten essays about London, including "In Defence of the Underground", pp 79-96, which makes several appearances in Cassell's "London Lines" series. Doris Lessing's writing in this essay is impressionistic and ranges far from the nominal topic of underground railways. She is, at least, favourably disposed to the Tube:
"I like travelling by Underground. This is a defiant admission. I am always hearing, reading, I hate the Underground. In a book I have just picked up the author says he seldom uses it, but when he did have to go a few stop, he found it disgusting. A strong word. If people have to travel in the rush hour, then all is understood, but you may hear people who know nothing about rush hours say how terrible the Underground is. This is the Jubilee Line and I use it all the time. Fifteen minutes at most to get into the centre. The carriages are bright and new -- well, almost. There are efficient indicators, Charing Cross: five minutes, three minutes, one minute. The platforms are no more littered than the streets, often less so, or not at all."
As Doring Lessing works very hard at home in West Hampstead, she is seldom exposed to the so-called 'rush hour', which should more accurately be called the 'crush hour'. This does rather test one's faith in the Tube.
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Poems on the Underground
The project "Poems on the Underground" started in January 1986, and involved placing short poems on display in trains and stations. This has spawned a series of books published by Cassell: each year's poems were published in a compilation, and other selections were published as separate volumes. The project seems to have ceased in 1997, but some of the books are still in print: the following are some of them.
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Poems on the Underground: 97
by Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik, Cicely Herbert, published by Cassell, ISBN 0304349887. Softback. No longer available on Amazon.Compilation of the poems displayed during 1997.
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Poems on the Underground
by Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik, Cicely Herbert, 368 pages 10th edition (11 October, 2001), published by Cassell, ISBN 0304356395, hardback.I presume this one will be a cumulative compilation.
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Poems on the Underground: Audiotape
by Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik, Cicely Herbert, (April 1995), published by Cassell, ISBN 0304345717, audio cassette.
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Poems on the Underground: 97
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Silver Link Publishers
Mind The Doors, Tales Of A Tube Train Driver, Since 1966
by Rob Griffiths, published by Silver Link Publishers, ISBN 1 85794 197 7. See author's web site: www.mindthedoors.net
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