Original 1933 London Underground Pocket Map - 1st Year HC Beck Design *Mint*


Original 1933 London Underground Pocket Map -  1st Year HC Beck Design *Mint*

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Original 1933 London Underground Pocket Map - 1st Year HC Beck Design *Mint*:
$869.10


Original 1933 London Underground pocket Map - 1st year edition of the Iconic design by HC Beck - Stunning unused mint example.\"Underground Railways of London\"
Print Code 33-2791 (August 1933.
Printed by Waterlow & Sons, London, Dunstable & Watford.On offer is one of the earliest examples of the Harry Beck\'s Underground map design. This edition was published just months after the 1st printing of Becks design and differs very little from the January 1933 edition.Mr Becks Underground Map In 2006, Becks Underground Map was voted #2 most Iconic British Designs of All Time (after Concorde) by the BBC. Its easy to see why. But in 1931, when the design was first presented to Frank Pick (Publicity Manager, London Transport), he was less than convincedHenry \'Harry\' Charles Beck was a temporarily employed electrical draughtsman who, on his own initiative, used his knowledge of circuit diagrams to reimagine the underground network, realising that passengers needs of navigation took president over geographical accuracy. Before Becks design, many designers had struggled to display the network, all were challenged with the same problem: How to show the densely packed central area clearly whilst showing the outer reaches of the network in all directions. The design, that seems such an obvious and intuitive approach to mapping today, was rejected when Beck first submitted it to the LT Board in 1931. Beck recalls \"My underground map was handed back to me and it seemed that that was the end of it. But I did not lose hope and the following year I decided to have one more try\". He later recounts \"I will never forget Mr Patmore saying to me \"you\'d better sit down, i\'m going to give you a shock. We\'re going to print it.\". The map first published in January 1933 and was immediately embranced by passengers and was eventually to become held with great affection. The incorporation of the river was also to be greatly revered by tube travellers and has been to the present day. This is the only surface feature shown on the map and although it too is a schematic representation, it provides a geographical datum which assists the interpretation and understanding of the map tremendously. The commercial value to London Transport and the rest of the world is immeasurable; for this he was paid 10 guineas, probably about two weeks wages in those days. This early edition of the iconic and important design is available to anyone in the world.

Original 1933 London Underground Pocket Map - 1st Year HC Beck Design *Mint*:
$869.10

Buy Now