Suffragette City

There’s already talk of expanding the Elizabeth line, which only launched in May 2022, to stations in Staines and Ebbsfleet, and this came shortly after the news that Overground routes will be adopting new names and individual route colours from this autumn. An extension to the Bakerloo line has been proposed for several years.

But I’m mesmerised by previous versions showing the continuous expansion and alterations to the system, not just in the iconic design conceived by Harry Beck in 1931 (for which he purportedly received a whopping £300 in today’s money) but many of the hectic versions used for decades prior to that.

Today, many of the maps also incorporate rail, Overground, DLR and more, and there are many people who are unhappy with the busy official versions and suggest a host of alternatives that are easier to read or focus on different elements.

The launch of brand new lines and extensions to existing routes are complemented by the occasional permanent cancellation of services, such as the easternmost part of the Central line, the Metropolitan line beyond Amersham and even seasonal District line trains to Shoeburyness (through Leigh-on-Sea, new home to fabulous specialist food-and-drink industry social media and content providers We Love Creative – I don’t apologise for promoting my friends here!)

There’s been the closure of numerous stations in the centre of the city (goodbye Aldwych, Down Street, British Museum and more) and the re-naming of quite a few too, such as Aldersgate (now Barbican), Dover Street (changed to Green Park) and my regular Marylebone, which you can see on some early maps as Grand Central.

It’s impossible to condense such a colourful history to a few hundred words and I’m sure my appetite for learning more will never be sated.

I’m looking forward to the official naming of the Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty later this year, but who knows whether those will be the final changes we see to the maps in 2024?