This unique manuscript sketch by Harry Beck, the designer of the iconic London Tube Map, shows an early attempt to add the Victoria Line (still under construction at the time) to his Underground diagram. His elegant and ingenious proposal introduces the Victoria line as a clean diagonal running from northeast to southwest. This sketch focuses on the most complex section of the map: Highbury & Islington to Victoria.
Harry Beck had served as the chief designer for the London Underground map since 1933 when his revolutionary schematic design was first introduced to the public. With only a brief interlude from 1937 to 1941, Beck retained control of the design until 1960 when he was unceremoniously told by London Transport that his services were no longer required. Another member of London Transport’s Publicity Department, Harold Hutchinson, took it upon himself to produce a new Underground map in 1960, without consulting Beck and without following many of the key tenets of Beck’s design.
The Hutchinson design, much derided at the time, was felt to be a poor replacement with its harsh angles and inelegant zig-zagging lines. Beck may have thought that the arrival of the Victoria Line offered an opportunity to correct the errors of the Hutchinson design. After working for months to incorporate the new line, Beck submitted two Quad Royal posters for approval on 29 November 1961.
On those maps, the Victoria Line is portrayed in lilac, a colour which was ultimately abandoned as it was too difficult to print consistently. Both Quad Royal posters were returned less than two weeks later without comments. His elegant solution for the Victoria Line was never adopted. The following year, London Transport sent Harry Beck a dismissive letter in which they stated: “If at any time London Transport decides to use your map again, nobody but yourself will be commissioned to alter it and bring it up to date. The map now in use is of another design, and this is the one on which London Transport intends to show the Victoria Line and any other future additions to the Underground System.”
This wholly unfinished sketch provides a fascinating insight into Beck’s design process.
