postlondon

London is a very different place than Rotterdam. On our way to the first museum that already started to become clear. There's a lot of rules and signage in the underground telling you where to go and what to do and not do. Sure, these signs are around our Dutch cities as well but in London they seem to be respected or feared. I say feared because there's warnings of CCTV and/or police everywhere! It made me feel safe, but in the back of my mind it also made me feel watched a bit.

This following of the rules makes the daytime commuters seem a bit closed off. The train cars are silent, even filled with people and people stand in lines on the right on the escalator. This completely changes though after 17:00. The pubs start filling up quickly, the beer flows and the pub food gets ordered. Suddenly there is this relaxed vibe, like a big part of the city is just suddenly opening up. If you want to find one of these pubs you don't have to try hard. They can be recognized from their golden serif classical typography and brown/dark green colours.

The Underground was mentioned before already but of course there's still the question of the difference between Beck and Johnston's map and the current map used today.

In my opinion the current underground is too busy. The original charm of Beck's map was the ease of use. At a glance you could see where to go and there was this simplicity to it. A quick look at the current map will now confuse you again. There's a lot more added text on the map and the adding of the railway icons confuse and don't fit the simplistic original. It's like someone was very insecure about the original map and decided that the map needed more explaining on it. While the lack of a wall of text made the original so good in my opinion.

Underground campaign by the Frenchman McBess

This is my example of why the old map works better: Shrunken down the old map still has a bit of clarity. The new map however, is one big mess of words and descriptions. (Of course, there are a lot more stations too!)

The Underground was mentioned before already but of course there's still the question of the difference between Beck and Johnston's map and the current map used today.

In my opinion the current underground map is too busy. The original charm of Beck's map was the ease of use. At a glance you could see where to go and there was this simplicity to it. A quick look at the current map will now confuse you again. There's a lot more added text on the map and the adding of the railway icons confuse and don't fit the simplistic original. It's like someone was very insecure about the original map and decided that the map needed more explaining on it. While the lack of a wall of text made the original so good in my opinion. Underneath is a quick gallery of a few pictures I took or ideas that I liked.