This 1929 drawing of Piccadilly Circus underground station is a thing of beauty

Originally published at: This 1929 drawing of Piccadilly Circus underground station is a thing of beauty | Boing Boing

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Love it!

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Really outstanding. Worth noting, being an Italian illustrator, the traffic above is on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. This just adds…

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That’s a lovely bit of art.

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Just the math involved with mapping that out…Eakins or Uglow level work.

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That is gorgeous. It also reminds me of what happens when you clip in some video games.

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London Transport (as was) was a real leader in graphic design - not just obvious things like the Underground roundel and the Underground map itself, but the advertising was often commissioned from leading artists and was in keeping with the times.

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Fortunately, some of that ethos remains - for those who haven’t already done so - the stations on the Jubilee Line extension and the Elizabeth Line are architectural triumphs.

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A draughtsman after my own heart!

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Ooh, that Summer Sales poster is scrumdiddlyumptious.

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This one is pretty good as well:

(source)

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If people want to have some fun on the Underground - try to find each of the 270 Labyrinths created by the artist Mark Wallinger.

Here’s the one from Liverpool Street station:

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From that picture, I am sure he would have loved Westminster’s stupendous Underground Station which looks like something from Piranesi by way of Giger as you descend escalators with all the guts of the station hanging around you:

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Reminds me a little of the “Hudson Tubes” diagram on a historical marker - aka PATH train in NY/NJ. Image is from 1909 when the underwater portion opened (ref: wikipedia).

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To paraphrase a friend: “How could he even see that?”

The mind’s eye is an amazing thing.

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London Transport Museum has a lovely model of that. (From the 1930ies, IIRC.)

I can’t find it on their website because for some reason it doesn’t render properly on my tablet. Maybe you have better luck:

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One of the rare exceptions where management actually understood design and how much power it can have.

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Renzo Picasso drew the Hudson Tubes too.

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Now I understand the inspiration behind the early set design for Doctor Who and Red Dwarf! Lots and lots of corridors.

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Corridors? We used to dream of having sets with corridors!

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