Novelty variants of the Tube map. We love ‘em. It all started over a decade ago, with the famous Great Bear, which now hangs in Tate Britain. Ever since, a growing number of latter-day Tube revisionists have been photoshopping the network. The past few weeks have produced a particularly high yield. After the Anagram Tube and the Musical Tube, this week it’s the turn of the Sponsored Tube (subtitled ‘A missed fundraising opportunity for TfL?’).
This one’s good, but doesn’t quite capture the imagination like previous efforts. Still, there’s genius at work, for sure. Seven-up Sisters, Rentokilburn, Electroluxbridge and Babybelsize Park being our particular favourites.
There’s also the appropriate. Furniture-mad Tottenham Court Road becomes Habitattenham Court Road. Scruffy Aldgate is renamed Aldigate. And toffee-nosed Pimlico is aptly rechristened Pimmslico.
Then there’s the plain bonkers. Revlon Lipglosster Road, WimbleDonkey Kong, and the extremely laboured Cutty Saatchi Gallery for Artytime Viewage.
Even the line names have been given the corporate make-over. You can catch the Ted Bakerloo line to Elephant.co.uk and Castle. Or take the Portaloo and City line (closed April to September 2006 for cleaning) to Co-op Bank.
Is there any end to these bastardised charts? There’s a whole nauseum of them here, including a blank specimen, should you wish to produce your own.
