Map of London's Underground as run by separate companies

GILL, Leslie MacDonald.

Map of the Underground Railways of London.
London: Waterlow & Sons Ltd for Electric Railway House, c.1923. 365 x 440mm

A map of the London underground rail network published a decade before the operating companies were amalgamated as 'London Transport'. It shows the stations with more geographic accuracy than the iconic design of Henry C. Beck, also a decade later. Three stations, Wembley Park, Wembley for Sudbury & Sudbury Town, are marked with red circles as 'British Empire Exhibition Stations', for the exhibition which was opened at Wembley by George V on 23rd April 1924. The script used for the station names is particularly striking.

Leslie MacDonald Gill (1884-1947), younger brother of Eric Gill, specialised in graphic design in the Arts and Crafts style. His most important commission was from the Imperial War Graves Commission, designing the script used on Commission headstones and war memorials, including the 'Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme'. He produced a number of maps, two of which appeared in the British Museum exhibition 'Magnificent Maps in 2010: 'The Wonderground Map of London' (1914) & 'Tea Revives the World' (1940).


Stock ID : 21774