{"id":677143,"date":"2026-07-06T18:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T18:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/677143\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T18:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T18:35:09","slug":"a-new-tube-map-artwork-is-appearing-in-tube-stations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/677143\/","title":{"rendered":"A new tube map artwork is appearing in tube stations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tube map collectors will be out in force over the next few days hunting down copies of the updated pocket leaflet that\u2019s popping up in tube stations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The updated cover is by artist Ellen Gallagher, who created an artwork we\u2019re told is inspired by London\u2019s buried rivers, maritime history and Herman Melville\u2019s Moby-Dick.<\/p>\n

It is, however, not an original artwork but something that has been created previously and now shrunk to a pocket-sized version for the tube map.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re told that Gallagher\u2019s artwork combines references to literature, mythology and London\u2019s geography, centring on the skeletal remains of a whale resting on the seabed. The work draws on Moby-Dick, particularly the story of Pip, the young Black cabin boy who falls overboard, imagining the underwater world he encounters while exploring themes of marine life, memory and the transatlantic slave trade.<\/p>\n

Showing how flexible the art of writing about art can be, the artwork has also been given a London veneer of justification with a claim that it also took inspiration from the long-buried River Fleet and the historic wells at Clerkenwell and Sadler\u2019s Wells that trace its former course<\/p>\n

Which wasn\u2019t in the original artwork<\/a> at all, but seems to have been added on to justify its use on the tube map.<\/p>\n

Justine Simons, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, said the Tube map was \u201cone of London\u2019s most recognisable icons\u201d and that Gallagher\u2019s artwork offered \u201ca fresh way to explore the city\u2019s history\u201d, encouraging people to discover the capital\u2019s maritime past.<\/p>\n

The new pocket Tube map is now available across the London Underground network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tube map collectors will be out in force over the next few days hunting down copies of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-677143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}