The London Underground (and it's animals!)

I came across this intriguing Yahoo 2004 pick called the "Animals of the Underground". That site (more of it later) is really interesting, but I thought of refreshing my memory of the London Underground and it's famous map first.

Harry Beck, an electrical engineer, re-engineered, so to speak the London Underground map 1933, to make it simpler and easier. He based his idea on his regular job and designed it to look like an circuit diagram. Needless to say, it became insanely popular and has forever remained as a design classic and an icon. A brief history of 'The Tube', as it is called, is here.

The Tube map, is instantly recognisable -



Of course, it has changed over all these years. And the question as to whether all these new fangled design actually reflects the land above ground is answered wonderfully in this interactive map! Here you can see how the actual street map differs from today's London Underground map which is way different than the map as it was originally proposed!


And now to the Animals of the London Underground!

Well, you see, if you join different lines along the myriad links which form the London Underground map, you get some very strange shapes. And that's what this site is about.

Here's a bird in flight! (The home page lists an elephant, but somehow I like the bird!)



Thanks to Yahoo Picks 2004, I had a nice walk down memory lane of the London Underground!