Rare poster map of the London Underground, one of the last to show the Underground lines geographically rather than schematically. The Underground's seven lines are overlaid on a simple road map of London to show the locations of stations accurately. Whilst this technique looks superb, it does require a great deal of compression of the central London section to allow for the inclusion of the outer edges of the Metropolitan, District, Piccadilly, and Northern Lines. Larger posters like this one remain legible and usable, even for the Central London sections, but this compression question became a major problem for the smaller pamphlet maps handed out to passengers in stations.

Four further posters following this design were issued in 1930, 1931, 1932, and 1933 before the now-iconic Harry Beck schematic diagram became the dominant design. Thereafter, maps showing London Underground geographically became quite uncommon. As these poster maps were only ever intended to be displayed in the tube stations, very few copies have survived. A note in the lower-right corner of the map does suggest that copies of the map could be obtained for free by contacting the Assistant Publicity Manager, though it is unlikely that many copies were distributed this way. This design was also applied to large enamel signs for display in stations - those are also very rare.

Printed colour. Framed. [LDN5022]