Matthew Engel: "This is the sixth in my irregular series on British Institutions. After I finished the fifth, I noticed that the themes were becoming familiar: [...] the glory days were over; it was a fight to maintain popularity and relevance; and money was getting ever tighter." "But London Underground is different. It is more expansive and confident now than at any time in memory. How on earth has this happened?" Nice photographs too.

"The continued occupancy by London Underground of 55 Broadway, its iconic headquarters, is currently under review. The Grade 1 listed building, which includes St James Park station, is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest pieces of architecture – one of the lasting legacies of Frank Pick’s time at London Underground." Sigh.

A 27 page PDF by Max Roberts studying how - and how not - to design a diagram of a railway system. Given the "London Tubemap" that's been doing the rounds, tl;dr types should skip to page 14: "The arbitrary breaking of the single-angle rule introduces an disorder into the design with no payback." It also contains some of Beck & Roberts' alternatives, such as the attractive 60 degree version on p12.

"the map effect is almost two times more influential than the actual travel time. In other words, underground passengers trust the tube map (two times) more than their own travel experience with the system."

"Nextdoor, in two upper rooms, is the reason you'll probably want to visit soon. The museum is hosting a special exhibition devoted to Harry Beck, designer of the world-famous tube map, who was born down the road in Finchley." You'll also need to visit soon, because Barnet Council want to  close the entire museum. 

"A growing number of artists—largely from a dark electronic genre known as witch house—have found that by using symbols in their name they can make it to the top of playlists even if they’re not ranked at the top of Google results." File under 'creative (ab)uses of Unicode'?

"Next month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will unveil a resized, recolored and simplified edition of the well-known map, its first overhaul in more than a decade." First reaction: it's a lot less cluttered. Looking back, the MTA's subway map has veered a lot more since '68 than the London diagram, but this is way better than the '79 nadir.

A hagiography of sorts to Frank Pick and the art and design of the Underground in the first half of the twentieth century, contrasting it with the more recent efforts of Art on the Underground.

The story of Hannah Dadds, who became the Tube's first woman driver in the late 1970s.

"an Oyster-generation map will need to show all the routes available to card users, the design has become too limited in its scope. Mapmakers have had their work cut out trying to fit all the information into a legible sheet of paper. For years, there have been maps on platform walls of the Overground mixed up with the Underground, yet these are scrappy – even ugly – things in comparison with the classic tube-only map." Slight ahistorical (it doesn't mention Beck's all-London maps, or the fact the Connections map dates from 1976) but Glancey still has something of a point.

Eiichi Kono's account of his work redesigning Johnston for Banks and Miles and London Underground in the late 1970s. Part of the source material for the London Reconnections post.

"London Underground approached various graphic design agencies and consulted on the subject. Many recommended dropping [Johnston] completely in favour of other faces (Helvetica was considered, as was Univers Bold) but ultimately one agency – Banks and Miles – stepped forward and suggested an alternative:- Rework Johnston into a proper, fully extended, typeface." I never realised that LU had even considered this. Thank goodness they went with the redesign.

An exhaustive, well-written and readable look at the new poster and folder versions of the London tube map, complete with a comment thread featuring Max Roberts, author of Underground Maps After Beck.

"While tunnel affectionados will be familiar with the “Mail Rail” that runs under London, fewer know that it was in fact the second such system, and an earlier tunnel had been built to carry mail from the Post Office’s national sorting centre – by today’s St Pauls tube station – up to Euston Station" described further in an article from The Windsor Magazine of April 1900.

There's now a product page for the Nearest Tube app, which is apparently waiting approval. No price listed, though. Of note: all the linkjuice on delicious (and even more so on Twitter (sigh)) points to the YouTube video, which doesn't link to this page (although it might point to the App Store after launch, I suppose).

Coming for the iPhone 3GS, apparently. How are they getting camera data? I didn't think there was an official API call for that. Also, not yet on the App Store, so no idea about the pricing, and what's with the huge black border on the video? (Why is there only video, for that matter?) Probably also more useful for tourists than Londoners. Still, quibbles aside, interesting to see apps like this emerging.

Station entrance and exit figures for all London Underground stations from 2004 to 2008, broken down into weekday time slices and the two weekend days. I should ask TfL for deep historic versions of this.

"The Victoria line was the most advanced underground railway in the world, with computer-controlled trains and automatic ticket barriers. The unpainted silver finish and wrap-around windscreens of the trains gave London's new Tube a fashionable space age look." The Euston pattern, in prototype, and a collection of other Victoria Line items from the LTM.

"40 years ago today, on 7th March 1969, the Victoria line was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She took a one-stop tube journey from Victoria to Green Park, and she even bought her own ticket." TfL have even held off on engineering works for the occasion. Diamond Geezer collects the tile patterns.

Everything you never wanted to know about escalators and lifts on the London Underground, and more besides. There's even a second page with details on vertical rises and escalator pitch (26°23' at Oxford Circus, not the usual 30°; that 3°37' really annoys me, somehow).

Open day in March this year. For once I've been organised and booked tickets.

"A short story for every station on the London Underground and DLR, in alphabetical order by station name. Updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays."

"In an era of soaring fuel prices and precious boutique hotels, what about indulging in the subway as a form of tourism? Opportunity costs are minimal, adventures abound and the journey is sometimes more interesting than the destination." A good read, and thanks to Earle for mentioning it. Bonus points: calling Beck's work "the diagram".

"[O2] integrated Oyster card technology and a Barclaycard Visa card into a Nokia 6131 handset and gave it to 500 testers who spent six months using the phone as a mobile wallet." Not surprising, but it's good to see it making it to live trials, at least.

A good post covering the new Art on the Underground relaunch, including the poster giveaway (focussing on the artwork I care about most), and also mentioning other events this week and the lovely London's Kerning.

Five free posters available at major Underground stations this week. Obviously by now you've missed two, but Thursday's seems like the most desirable to me.