Most people are familiar with the London Underground map. It’s one of the most used, recognised and perhaps even loved designs ever used in travel.
That famous old map doesn’t really tell the whole story though. Aside from the countless commuter lines and intercity lines which most foreign visitors would never use and so are largely omitted from the London Underground map are a network of lines known as the London Overground.
Many of these lines were individual run, dilapidated and parts of some had even fallen into disuse before they were all brought together. They don’t really go where tourists go and indeed, some Londoners can go years without ever using them.
For those in the know however they are a secret wonder that whisk you between various parts of London that are hard to otherwise reach and even today they are largely overlooked in favour of the Underground.
Apart from them being a relatively new branding, one of the reasons the London Overground aren’t so well known or used is they have long been only tentatively and then half-heartedly shown on Transport For London Maps and when they were, they were all shown in one orange colour as if they were all one confusing single line.
Imagine if all the London Underground lines were just one colour to show they were one single system, how intimidating and crazy that would be.
After a long awaited consultation exercise it has been decided that these orange and officially nameless lines are to no longer be orange and officially nameless. In fact as of last week, they all received names and colours on the map.
The new names were chosen with the input of “stakeholders, customers, historians, industry experts and communities”. As always. the choices will, of course, divide Londoners. Some will call the names politically correct or rather tenuously linked and a few others actually had well loved local names that were swept away when they were all brought under the London Overground branding though still used by travellers.
The first line is the one I travel the most and one that already had the label of being the Harlequin line for traditional local reasons. It is now to be known as The Lioness line (Euston to Watford Junction): Named after the Euro-winning/World Cup finalist England women’s football team. The line passes through Wembley and will be shown by yellow parallel lines.
I don’t actually know anyone who thinks this is a good name for a permanent and existing train line. Most would stick with the Harlequin line or more excitingly something Harry Potter related given the famous films and tourist attraction are at the end of the line in Watford. Would you go on the overground line to Watford? Possibly not but would you go on the Hogwarts Express, probably definitely. Or even the Hornets Line, the nickname of Watford FC.
Oh well, what do I know. I’ve only lived here for 42 years and use the transport system about 360 days a year,
The Mildmay line (Stratford to Richmond/Clapham Junction): Named after a small charitable hospital in Shoreditch that has cared for Londoners over many years both in Victorian times for diseases such as Cholera and more recently becoming the first HIV/AIDS hospital in Europe in the 1980s. It will be shown with blue parallel lines.
The above seems a little obscure to me, what next the Liz Truss tramline?
A much better name in my opinion is The Windrush line (Highbury & Islington to Clapham Junction/New Cross/Crystal Palace/West Croydon): Fairly obviously, named for the famous ship and the generation who came to Britain on it in 1948.
This line “runs through areas with strong ties to Caribbean communities today, such as Dalston Junction, Peckham Rye and West Croydon”. It will be given red parallel lines on the map.
Another one that I like is The Weaver line (Liverpool Street to Cheshunt/Enfield Town/Chingford): Runs through areas such as Liverpool Street, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green and Hackney noted for their history of textile production. (And passes alongside Weavers Fields.) This line will be maroon parallel lines on the map.
I much prefer this name to the Lioness Lion. The Suffragette line (Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside): What was formerly nicknamed the Goblin will henceforth be named after those who struggled for women’s votes. We’re told that it celebrates the working class population of the East End who fought in the movement, and it includes Barking, “home of the longest surviving Suffragette Annie Huggett, who died at 103”. This line will have green parallel lines.
The Liberty line (Romford to Upminster): The tiny stump of Overground on the upper-right of the tube map is perhaps the most vague name choice. We’re told that freedom is a “defining feature of London and references the historical independence of the people of Havering, through which it runs. Nice name but a piece of track that hardly anyone uses. It will be shown with grey parallel lines.
Breaking up the Overground into separate lines, it’s hoped, will help with navigation. Currently, passengers have to decipher a web of orange, which includes 112 stations. This rebranding helps breaks it down into manageable chunks.
It does make the map a bit more useful now all the Overground lines are not in one Orange colour though it also means the official London Underground map is now even more psychedelic than ever.
Stephen Liddell 