Published in conjunction with TFL, this is a comprehensive guide to the London Underground, combining a historical overview, illustrations and newly commissioned photography.
Travel under the streets of London with this lavishly illustrated exploration of abandoned, modified, and reused Underground tunnels, stations, and architecture.
Since its establishment 150 years ago as the world's first urban subway, the London Underground has continuously set a benchmark for design that many transit systems around the world - from New York to Tokyo to Moscow and beyond - have followed. London Underground by Design is the first meticulous study of every aspect of that feat. Beginning in the pioneering Victorian age, Mark Ovenden charts the evolution of architecture, branding, typeface, map design, interior and textile styles, posters, signage and graphic design and how all these came together to shape not just the identity of the Underground, but the character of London itself. This is the story of some of the most celebrated figures in design history - from Frank Pick, the guru who conceptualised the design of the modern Tube with his idea of 'design fit for purpose', to Harry Beck, the creator of the Tube map, and from Marion Dorn, one of the leading textile designers of the 20th Century, to Edward Johnston, creator of the distinctive font that bears his name. Rich with stunning illustrations, London Underground by Design shows that design is about more than aesthetic pleasure, but is crucial to how we get around.
Since the Victorian era, London's Underground has had played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. Christian Wolmar celebrates the vision and determination of the 19th-century pioneers who made the world's first, and still the largest, underground passenger railway: one of the most impressive engineering achievements in history. From the early days of steam to electrification, via the Underground's contribution to 20th-century industrial design and its role during two world wars, the story comes right up to the present with its sleek, driverless trains, and the wrangles over the future of the system. This book reveals London's hidden wonder in all its glory, and shows how the railway beneath the streets helped create the city we know today.
With a supporting text detailing the rich architectural and design heritage of the London Underground, this unique photographic collection provides a striking record of the subterranean city before financial pressures, a lack of planning and investment and new safety legislation began to take their toll. Exploring the fascinating history and important nostalgia value of the network--both aspects which are rarely appreciated by the average strap-hanging commuter--the book celebrates what remains a magnificent engineering and aesthetic achievement while providing an affectionate if slightly elegiac portrait of a London which is now gone for good.
The original edition of Unseen London. Peter Dazeley has gained access to the hidden interiors of some of London's most iconic buildings, from Tower Bridge to Battersea Power Station, Big Ben to the Old Bailey. His photographs of these buildings - some derelict, but many still working - are astonishing. Here is a collection of some 50 extraordinary locations, with a thoughtful text by Mark Daly which tells the story of how each of these places was created, how they are used, and what they reveal about the currents of power flowing through the city. Unseen London takes you backstage at some of the capital's great theatres, into the changing rooms of some of our greatest temples of sport, into the heart of the Establishment, the boiler room of the city's infrastructure and behind the scenes at some of the most opulent buildings in the Square Mile.
WHAT IS THERE TO SEE? That was the question the authors of this book, Elke and Niko Rollman, heard all the time when explaining their photographic project. The answer is LOOK AGAIN, this book will encourage its readers to see the London Underground in a different light. There is indeed a multitude of images on offer, ranging from architecture to technology, from old design classics to modern art. For anyone interested in the history of the London Underground, spanning over 150 years, this is the book for you. Once you discover the beauty of this particular underworld, it can turn your daily routine into an exciting and almost endless trail of new impressions. The authors also want to encourage readers to go out there and explore "The Tube" by themselves. Photographer Elke Rollmann and historian Niko Rollmann - have spent over 10 years exploring this iconic network of the London Underground with their cameras aiming to catch as many different aspects of the system as possible. A lot of time also went into researching the Underground's complex history . This publication is not just about the network as such, but also about the people who work there and, of course, the commuters. A timeline and a further reading list complement the images and texts.
Did You Know? In 1884 the Circle Line opened and was described in The Times as ‘a form of mild torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently help it.’ According to one psychologist, Tube commuters can experience greater levels of stress than a police officer facing a rioting mob or even a fighter pilot going into a dogfight. Underground trains have only twice been used to transport deceased people in coffins: William Gladstone and Dr Barnardo. Some of the most bizarre items handed in to lost property include 250lb of sultanas, a 14ft canoe, a child’s garden slide, a harpoon gun, a pith helmet, an artificial leg, someone’s brother’s ashes and a sealed box containing three dead bats. WITH well over a billion passengers a year, more than 250 miles of track, literally hundreds of different stations and a history stretching back at least 160 years, the world’s oldest underground railway might seem familiar, but how well do you actually know it? This book offers a feast of Tube-based trivia for travellers and lovers of London alike.
This wonderful new edition of Poems on the Underground is published to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Underground in 2013. Here 230 poems old and new, romantic, comic and sublime explore such diverse topics as love, London, exile, families, dreams, war, music and the seasons, and feature poets from Sappho to Carol Ann Duffy and Wendy Cope, including Chaucer and Shakespeare, Milton, Blake and Shelley, Whitman and Dickinson, Yeats and Auden, Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott and a host of younger poets. It includes a new foreword and over two dozen poems not included in previous anthologies.