A new play, The Truth About Harry Beck, navigates the story of the man who created the diagrammatic tube map — perhaps the most famous map of all time — and the strain it had on his relationship. Andy Burden, who spent over 15 years writing the play, explains why he wanted to do it.
I like the idea of exploring the character of someone who is fairly unremarkable, but does a remarkable thing.
For instance I love the story of Harrison's clocks: a carpenter who finds the solution to finding longitude at sea.
Harry Beck is another of those hidden heroes. Like Harrison, Beck tussled with a big organisation to accept his new revolutionary idea. What's more, I love London and I love the tube map. I had put a book on stage, a film on stage... I wondered if I could put a map on stage too!
I love that Beck was a problem solver. He was hyper focussed. He found an imaginative solution to making the tube map usable. He was an everyman character in many ways. I learned from reading many of his letters that he was very polite and trusting of other people. (His handwriting is also incredibly neat!) At the same time, he got very frustrated when he lost control of the design of the tube diagram. I think we all know a Harry Beck in our lives.
But The Truth About Harry Beck is as much about Beck's wife, Nora as it is about Harry. I did quite a bit of research but found little about her. In the play, Harry tells us that a lot of the details about Nora are made up, but plausible. I felt it would serve the story better if she worked at London Transport. I wanted her to have a job and have a shared interest in the changes going on at the time.
Something we did know about Nora was that she was comfortably off in her own right. That she volunteered at a soldiers' mess. I also know that Nora and Harry did not have children and that Harry had told the graphic designer Ken Garland this was because Nora 'had trouble with her nerves'. As the play developed, I realised this was about the strain of Harry's dedication to the tube diagram design. But fundamentally it was a really tender, loving relationship. This is a play about love (of a partner and of an invention), support and belief.
As I worked on the play for years, I kept building my research about Beck, the diagram and the entire history of London Transport. There was too much to put into it. At one point it was three and a half hours long! So the job has been to trim and make it just 65 minutes long. There is definitely another play or two in there if London Transport Museum wants them!
Beck's original map remains the best, but my favourite alternative tube map is Max Roberts' circular map, which just went viral. I have been in conversation with Max, he is a great guy, very intelligent — and I really like his different approach. I also like this sweeping version of the map. There are Beck sketches of a similar design.
The Truth About Harry Beck, Cubic Theatre, London Transport Museum 14 September-10 November 2024
