An oversized map on the Victoria line

on

I took this photo of an inaccurate Tube map three months ago, but never got around to criticising it. Until now.

This one's courtesy of the Victoria line. Unlike the map on the Bakerloo, this map suffers from being too wide. Let's focus on the west to begin with:

I know the photo is of low quality - that's what happens when you'd rather take it from the other side of the carriage than to stand in front of someone and risk stray looks.

Yet the stations outside of London that are inexplicably said to now be central are:

  • Maidenhead
  • Taplow
  • Burnham
  • Slough
  • Langley
  • Iver
Far, far worse than the Bakerloo map was, which if you remember well, only had Elstree and Borehamwood going beyond the grain.

This, however, is what happens when you use a map as distorted geographically as the Tube map, and use it to describe a geographic area as Central London.

Aside: where is Central London, you may ask? Some boroughs, like Lambeth and Camden, arguably don't entirely fit the definition well, after all. I suppose it's more down to vibes, and as the buildings get posher and more expensive, you can generally assume you're getting close to the centre - that, or you're near the Circle line.

Anyways, here's the rest of the map segment, and its shortcomings become immediately more obvious, as if including non-London stations wasn't enough:



North to south, the map looks okay - I could complain that Elephant and Castle, which to me was the place which signalled the start of central when I was younger, isn't there, but I get frame restrictions don't help.

However:

  • Upminster and dinty Emerson Park are included, far out in the east
  • Cyprus is in Central London too, despite being out in the Docklands
  • Hatton Cross is visible too, as well as London City Airport, and they're not central either.

And I wonder in particular why call these maps Central London maps if they hardly reflect that area all that well? Inner London is a more apt name, I'd think, yet I doubt TfL will be out and about changing the names of the maps. For now, we will have to be content with a rather inaccurate name reflecting an endless sprawl of London and Reading. 

Comments

Post a Comment