Loosing the Thames

A new london tube map has been created, missing of the Themes river. Some have been shocked and disappointed by this, because it has messed up the classic design of the early 30's Harry Beck design. It was said that the redesign was done to make the map more simlar and clutter less, but many have said that it has removed a vital orienting point, demirching the capitals history and worst of all according to some Londoners, (which i am not one of) annxed the separate kingdoms of north and south london. I just found it interesting that london felt the need to change such an iconic design which has worked so well in past years. 

Something I learned last night while talking to some friends about this new tube map with out the themes was that the reason the map was designed in this way was because the designer worked in the construction on the underground when it was first made, and was part of the 

circuit board team for the electricity down there. He decided that there was no need for a true to scale and size map as when someone is down in the underground they have no sense of direction, area, size or scale, so decided to draw it just like a circuit board map, and because of this original idea which worked so well nearly every other city thought out the world with an underground has used a simular idea. I found this very interesting, and I was also told that in the london transport museum you can see all the underground maps of london which have ever existed and see how they have changed over the years, it is apparently very interesting and even though I am not a londoner myself I am very keen to go see this.