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Topsy-turvy Tube

from Cathy (cathyvpreece@aol.com)

Evening Standard

29/12/04 - London Cuts section

Topsy-turvy Tube

By Patrick Sawyer

Imagine a London where it is impossible to get to St Paul's or Oxford Circus by Tube and where everything worth doing happens south of the Thames.

Now two designers have brought the vision to life - turning the capital on its head and making south London the heart of the metropolis.

Daniel Letts and Andrew Fox have turned the iconic Tube map upside-down, linking dozens of south London districts by Underground, and leaving previously well-served areas of the north reliant on bus, car and train. The number of Tube stations north of the Thames falls from 239 to 71.

As well as highlighting how badly served the south is by the Underground, their map invites us to imagine London in a different and intriguing light. How would the capital look if the Victorian navvies had dug south not north?

"The map shifts the focus away from traditional ports of call, such as the West End and the City, and replaces them with previously isolated areas like Peckham and Coombe," said Mr Letts, a branding consultant who came up with the deceptively simple idea.

With the Tube map turned 180 degrees, dozens of new stations could be created along the lines. The designers christened the stops with street and town centre names.

From as far as Woking (replacing Upminster in the east), the map stretches to Bluewater shopping centre (normally Uxbridge in the west).

In the south the network stretches as far as Banstead and Leatherhead - but if you're going north on the new Tube system, you won't get past Tottenham Hale.

In between is a maze of destinations, some familiar but previously inaccessible (at least to northerners-such as Old Kent Road, others with enticing names such as Monks Orchard and Hilly Fields - in reality Beckenham and Brockley.

The lines have new names, with Clapham and Docks replacing the Hammersmith and City line, and the Piccadilly line renamed Elephant and Castle. Some locations would, ironically, be better connected, with Stoke Newington and Southall finally on the Tube.

The idea came to 41-year-old Mr Letts, who lives in Kennington, as he considered the familiar map while waiting at King's Cross station. He asked designer and artist Mr Fox to redraw it. Both are part of a creative group called Thinkers Block, which aims to re-imagine the everyday and the familiar.

"South London has always felt so much more mysterious and inaccessible to me," said Mr Fox, 31, of Ladbroke Grove. "With this map London suddenly becomes a very different place."

Find this story at
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/londoncuts/articles/15637095?version=1
©2004 Associated New Media

(posted 7029 days ago)

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