- That might just be the best ever title I've given a video.
It really does say and we really are going to do
the 14 different ways that Paddington has been shown
on the tube map.
(soft music playing)
So I've come to the side cause in a minute
we'll be looking up there in that corner
at some tube maps over the years.
What you've got is what was built in 1863
and originally known as Paddington Bishops Road
to the north side of the mainline station.
And then a year later in 1864,
originally known as Praed Street
you've got the other station
and they are a five minute walk away
if you're walking through the concourse
at Paddington mainline,
there's like little coloured tape along the ground
showing you like which way to walk.
They've got separate gatelines.
You've also then got the complication of the Bakerloo line,
which came later in the 1900s.
But in terms of like the gateline
being the entrance to a station,
what is currently the Circle and District line
that is what was originally the Praed Street station
to the east of Paddington,
that's connected up with the Bakerloo,
so that's counted as one station.
And then what was Bishop's Road the first one,
which was on the Metropolitan
which is now on the Circle and Hammersmith and City line
that is a separate station to the north.
So those are the two stations
and they've been shown with different ways
in different configurations with lines
and ticks and blobs over the years.
Let's have a quick look.
So we'll start in 1933.
Look at this.
This is so clean, so simple, so beautiful
and just goes to highlight
how good Harry Beck's original 1933 map was.
I'm looking at it on screen now.
It's not even called Paddington.
The two Paddingtons that we know now.
You've got Bishop's Road and Praed Street.
The only one that is called Paddington is the Bakerloo line
which interestingly kind of like actually
mimics exactly what happens in real life.
It dips down, joins up with the Paddington
and then sort of curves its way out again
heading northwest out of London.
Out of all the maps that we're about to see
this is probably still
one of the best ways of representing it.
Next up is 1938.
And look, what's happened here.
Some arrows have appeared to the word Paddington
has appeared.
Pointing to the then Metropolitan line station
and the Bakerloo but then Paddington Praed Street
appears even though
that is linked with the Bakerloo Line station.
So I'm less keen on this one
but at least now for the first time
the two words of Paddington have appeared.
We move on to 1945.
A little bit dumbed down this one
because the two Paddingtons that we know today
have been merged as to one
and that's labelled there in green.
And in brown above separately, kind of not touching it
but with a different colour label
is the Bakerloo line station that is Paddington.
This again is one of my least favourite ones and probably
isn't an accurate representation of what's going on.
1948.
This is very interesting.
Look how what we know as the Circle and District
coming up through Bayswater curves round curves early
and then has to go up an angle
to make its way through to Edgware Road.
It's also the first time we see
that there's connector blobs here that are touching.
So I think before they'd had connector blobs
to show interchange stations, but here
the line between connector blobs hasn't existed yet.
But you've got them touching to show
that they are separate stations.
And what you've got there is the one label saying Paddington
but it does in fact, refer to three separate stations.
First to the green connector blob
which is the Circle and District line station.
It refers to the brown connector blob,
which is correct cause they're linked together.
That is the Bakerloo line station.
And then the light green line there
going across on the flat is the Metropolitan.
Now the Hammersmith and City Line.
And it's just got a little tick.
So all three stations as shown,
even though there's two with just one label.
We move on to 1958.
Again, there's one label that just says Paddington.
But this time the three connector blobs
are almost touching all each other.
So that Paddington tick has been upgraded to a blob.
This is what happens a lot to Paddington over the years.
Paddington on the Metropolitan line
the designers can never seem to decide
does it deserve a blob or does it deserve a tick?
It's sort of annoying how they're not all perfectly
like, you know, vertically aligned.
The District and Circle line one there,
is slightly bigger
and then slightly offset towards the others.
So it's almost like a perfect trio of three blobs in a row.
This one's kind of okay, but we can do better.
Now in the world of tube map designers everyone
has heard of knows of and loves Harry Beck.
There have been some different variations, Paul Garbutt
for example, over the years.
This one is by somebody called Hutchison.
And a lot of people grimace because his map in general
was seen as being well, not one of the best.
No curves, lots of hard 45 straight line degree angles.
And it happens here at Paddington.
It's quite ugly.
And instead of having connector blobs,
you've got connector squares.
So there's one for the Circle and District line
and it kind of links up with the Bakerloo line.
No it doesn't cause it's touching
the one that is the Metropolitan line
which is then incorrectly link with the one at the Bakerloo
in its interchanged square.
This is a terrible design.
This however is an intriguing design.
It's now 1964.
And look the connector blobs
have now got lines between them
and they've got little dots inside.
The dots were simply to denote
that that was also a connection
from a tube station to a mainline station.
There's three of them.
And it's correct because the Circle and District
have got a connector line going up to Bakerloo
to show that they are in effect one station.
What I'm still not happy with
is the fact that the Bakerloo is then
linked to the Metropolitan line station, which it isn't.
It isn't a separate station.
I'd have liked this if it had been a connector blob
with a line between the Bakerloo and Circle and District
and then a connector blob by itself on the Metropolitan
linked to the Hammersmith and City Line station.
That would have been better, but that is 1964.
We move on to 1987 and it was like, I preempted it.
Of course I knew it was coming.
They've done what I would do
to the Bakerloo line is outside of the Circle line
even though in real life, it isn't, but they have correctly.
And the 1980s, I think were a really good time
for design of tube maps.
I think it's when they were at their pinnacle
before they got too cluttered
and the designers got a lot of things right.
So the Circle and District line there
you can see has got the connector blob
with the connector line going up
and then connecting to correctly
the Bakerloo line station showing it is all one station.
And then the Metropolitan line as it was
it's about to become The H&C in the 1990s
but it's coloured here purple has got a connector blob
but it's separate, but it is all
shown with one label as being Paddington station.
1990 brought the colour pink to the tube map.
This is when basically backing down to Hammersmith trains
got labelled as the Hammersmith and City line.
It was formerly the Metropolitan line
formerly the Metropolitan railway
but it's now denoted as a separate colour.
And we've gone back again
to the triangle showing all three with the three blobs
with connector lines, which is not correct.
I really wanna see The H&C Paddington station
shown as a separate station.
Which is what they did in 1991.
This is a rather intriguing tube map.
The place where I got this from
and I will put a link in the description
I'm thinking this might actually be
a London Connection's map
because you've got that green coloured shading
for the zone instead of just the white and grey colours
which is what you get on a standard tube map.
But look Paddington The H&C
has gone to a little tick
showing it's a separate station correctly
to the Bakerloo and Circle and District
which are correctly joined with a connector line
between two connector blobs.
And then it stayed like that for quite some time
and the next time there was a major change was in 2007.
Look what's happened here.
This is really interesting.
I think I remember right back in 1933
I talked about how the Bakerloo line
dipped inside the Circle line.
In real life that's what it's does, it's outside
and then it curves in and then it curves back out again
but on all the other previous maps
they've shown it always as being outside.
But here in 2007, the Bakerloo is inside.
This means that Edgware Road is wrong
because Edgware Road is not to the south
of the Circle and District line station of Edgware Road.
It is to the north.
It's to the north and then it would have to dip down.
But it does mean you've got a reasonably clean design here
that again, correctly shows
the Circle and District Paddington
linking with connector blobs
and a connector line, the Bakerloo Paddington
and then a separate connector blob standalone
which is correct for the Hammersmith and City line station.
But by 2011, look, they've moved it.
They must sit around in design meetings going there.
Do we put the Bakerloo line
inside the Circle line on Edgware Paddington?
Or do we put it outside?
That must have been a hot topic of debate over the years.
So by 2011, it's back outside again.
And there's three connector blobs all in a diagonal line.
And yeah, I'm not comfortable with this
because the Hammersmith and City and Circle line
by now the Circle line was no longer a circle
and that was now going down to Hammersmith
this is just wrong
in terms of it being two separate stations
cause they make it look as if it's either one station
or three separate stations.
And I think that's wrong.
And now we're right up to date.
It's 2018, and we've had an added further complication here
because cross Liz perp, TFL route
as it's shown here on the map is coming.
So what they've got is for the first time
four connector blobs.
The District and Circle
with it's blob diagonally through as it was last time
which I'm not happy with to The Agency and Circle
and the Bakerloo, the Bakerloo should be inside.
And then off to the side, they've now got to show
because the tube map is really a map of TFL services.
So they've got to show TFL rather mainline
coming in on the GWR tracks
from out west and a fourth connector blob for that.
And if you think that is bad, then I'm predicting
or projecting what's gonna happen maybe
by the end of 2020, or definitely, certainly
hopefully in 2021.
And that's when Crossroads services do start
through the middle of London.
They're only be going to go in
from Abbey Wood to Paddington to begin with
through services at Paddington won't be happening.
So I predict that this is what's gonna happen.
There'll be a five connector blob station at Paddington
which is gonna look a right old mess on the tube map.
Personally, I would love it
if somehow the Bakerloo was to curve back in.
In the correct perfect world the Bakerloo
and the District and Circle should be one blob.
And if they can't one blob it, then yes
to have two connector blobs with a connector line.
And then the Hammersmith and City
and Circle line should be a separate station altogether.
But with the connector blob to show that it does connect
to the mainline station and then TFL cross rail.
Good luck with that.
There we go.
That's 14 different designs.
The title of the video did not lie
of how Paddington has been shown on the tube map
over the years.
A link to the class pre-tube map archive and the comments
which is where I've got all these screengrabs from.
Let us know in the comments, which your favourite is.
Thanks.