{"id":1834360,"date":"2024-10-03T18:38:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T22:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1834360"},"modified":"2024-10-03T18:51:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T22:51:39","slug":"the-truth-about-harry-beck-a-play-about-the-tube-maps-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/10\/the-truth-about-harry-beck-a-play-about-the-tube-maps-creator\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About Harry Beck: A Play About the Tube Map’s Creator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Cover<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Truth About Harry Beck<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, a play about the designer of London\u2019s iconic Tube map, is at the London Transport Museum\u2019s Cubic Theatre<\/a> through January. Writer and director Andy Burden spent years working on the play<\/a>. So far reviews have been mostly positive: Theatre Vibe<\/em>\u2019s Lizzie Loveridge<\/a> found it \u201ccharming,\u201d Everything Theatre<\/a><\/em> \u201cwarm,\u201d and Broadway World<\/em> calls it<\/a> \u201cas reassuring as a comfy pair of slippers,\u201d whereas The Arts Desk<\/em>\u2019s take is more mixed<\/a> and The Standard<\/em> dismisses it<\/a> as \u201cchock-full of mugging, direct address and chuntering dimwittery.\u201d BBC News coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not coincidentally, it\u2019s the 50th anniversary of Beck\u2019s death. London map dealer The Map House has an exhibition to mark the anniversary: Mapping the Tube: 1863-2023<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. They\u2019re a map dealer so the displays are for sale, including a draft copy of the map and one of only five remaining first-edition Tube map posters. Runs from 25 October to 30 November, free admission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Truth About Harry Beck, a play about the designer of London\u2019s iconic Tube map, is at the London Transport Museum\u2019s Cubic Theatre through January. Writer and director Andy Burden spent years working on the… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[1196,50,166,384,1696,1694,204],"class_list":["post-1834360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-transit","tag-beck","tag-exhibitions","tag-london","tag-map-dealers","tag-plays","tag-theatre","tag-tube","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1788200,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/01\/a-modern-day-tube-map-in-the-original-tube-map-style\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834360,"position":0},"title":"A Modern-Day Tube Map in the Original Tube Map Style","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 January 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"There have been a lot of Beck-style maps\u2014maps done in the style of the London underground map. This one\u2019s a bit meta. Arturs D., a student living in London, has created a map of the present-day London underground using Harry Beck\u2019s original style. The current TfL network map (PDF) is,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/arturs-beck-1024x717.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/arturs-beck-1024x717.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/arturs-beck-1024x717.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/arturs-beck-1024x717.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6024,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/09\/a-geographically-accurate-tube-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834360,"position":1},"title":"A Geographically Accurate Tube Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 September 2015","format":"link","excerpt":"There is no transit map more iconic than the London Underground's Tube map. First created by Harry Beck in the 1930s, the design has inspired countless other transit network maps that are schematic diagrams rather than geographically accurate maps. But Transport for London, which operates the Underground, also has a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1785608,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/05\/before-beck-permans-underground-railways-of-london\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834360,"position":2},"title":"Before Beck: Perman’s Underground Railways of London","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 May 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Mapping London takes a close look at a 1928 map of the London Underground by E. G. Perman. Perman's map, with its use of colour, italic lettering and focus on green spaces, seems like it comes from a completely different era, even though it was published\u00a0only a few years before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/perman-underground-railways-of-london-840x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/perman-underground-railways-of-london-840x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/perman-underground-railways-of-london-840x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/perman-underground-railways-of-london-840x1024.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1810130,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/11\/part-two-of-unfinished-londons-tube-map-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834360,"position":3},"title":"Part Two of Unfinished London’s Tube Map History","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 November 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/jaEhvWXmLyk And here\u2019s part two of Jay Foreman\u2019s history of London Tube\u2019s map, which looks at its post-Beck existence and increasing clutter and complication. (To say nothing of Beck\u2019s post-map existence.) Part one is here. Previously: Unfinished London: History of the Tube Map; Kenneth Field: \u2018Dump the Map\u2019; So the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/jaEhvWXmLyk\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1785517,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/05\/before-beck-the-prior-art-of-diagrammatic-transit-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834360,"position":4},"title":"Before Beck: The Prior Art of Diagrammatic Transit Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"1 May 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Harry Beck may have created the iconic Tube map, which substituted a schematic diagram of the network for a geographically accurate map, but he didn't invent the diagrammatic transit map. Alberto Cairo points to a number of pieces that explore examples of diagrammatic maps that were contemporaneous with or earlier\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dow-lner-1929.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dow-lner-1929.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dow-lner-1929.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2040,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/05\/a-history-of-the-tube-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834360,"position":5},"title":"A History of the Tube Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 May 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Speaking of London,\u00a0Londonist has published\u00a0an illustrated history of the Tube map, with examples both pre- and post-Beck.","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1834360"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1834363,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834360\/revisions\/1834363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1834360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1834360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1834360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}