London Underground

As part of my ongoing obsession with geography and cartography, and as part of my post-graduation ennui, I've made a map of the London Underground with cut paper. I used foam core as the base and all my leftover paper from my school projects for the different lines. I officially know more about the metro system than the engineers who designed it. I'm ready to move!

The map measures about 32" by 40" so I'm going to have to find a really big frame somewhere. I had to print out my template on something like nine sheets of tabloid sized paper and tape them all together. Then keep re-taping the template as I cut through it to make the twelve lines of transit. I omitted the overground trains to keep it purely the subway system and wrote all of the labels by hand.

The large scale was definitely a challenge, but next time it would be even more interesting to go in the opposite direction and make a tiny, handheld diagrammatic map.

I made this as a wedding present for Sam, my English husband. I imagine we'll hang it in our living room and forever be the people who know the best routes of public transportation.

Of course, if we need to take a bus, we're screwed.