23 July 2013

Art on the Underground (Piccadilly Circus station)

On our way to the Mexico exhibition, we came across this clever reconstruction of the now-iconic Tube map -
 The year of the original was 1933, and some lines were yet to be built -
 But some stations in use then are no longer in use - British Museum, Strand, and most recently Aldwych (see photos of them, then and now, here) -
 For comparison, a detail of Harry Beck's map (from here) -
The Tube map is actually a diagram, as it ignores the important Western convention of mapping that requires accurate distances between points. But you knew that. What is more surprising is the graphic uses it has been put to - determining life expectancy of children born near each station, and showing that house prices rise by £150,000 a minute as you journey into the centre of town are two I've come across recently. A thorough search would no doubt reveal even greater inventiveness.

Also at Piccadilly Circus station, a display of work by Jacqueline Poncelet -
Originally a ceramicist, she has a passion for pattern and colour, and is bringing that into architecture, printing patterns onto metal and dressing buildings with them, for instance Wrapper above Edgware Road tube station -

2 comments:

irene macwilliam said...

I prefer this facade to the one on the Sheffield flats that are in the running for an award but of course it is how the panels in both locations stand the passing of time.

June said...

Ooooo, I like this info -- make my brain go whiz.