Tube map celebrating engineers
A London Tube map to honour engineers worldwide has been created by Transport for London (TfL), the Royal Academy of Engineering and the London Transport Museum.
The new Engineering Icons Tube map has been released on National Engineering Day, which is marked on the first Wednesday in November each year.
The day aims to make engineering more visible and celebrate how engineers improve everyday lives. The map, which renames 274 Tube and Elizabeth line stations after notable engineers, was created to encourage and inspire more people to consider engineering as a career.
Leading engineers from different fields including transport, defence, entertainment, computing and health have been selected for Tube and Elizabeth line stations on the map, including:
- Oxford Circus station has been renamed as Harry Beck, who was an electrical draughtsman and created the iconic London Underground Tube map 90 years ago in 1933
- Shepherd’s Bush has been renamed as Professor Dame Ann Dowling, who was the first female President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and worked on pioneering noise-reduction research on Concorde
- Uxbridge has been renamed as Dr Gladys West, who was the first woman to receive the Royal Academy of Engineering’s highest individual award, the Prince Philip Medal, for work that paved the way to Global Positioning System
Hundreds of engineers worked to create the Elizabeth line which opened in May 2022 and is already carrying more than four million people a week.
Engineers also played a significant role in the extension of the Northern line to Battersea Power Station and London Overground to Barking Riverside, as well as the 700m transformation of Bank station, which was completed earlier this year.
Deputy Mayor for Transport, Seb Dance, said, 'I hope this initiative inspires Londoners from all walks of life to consider engineering as a career, helping us to continue building a better, more prosperous London for everyone.'
