RATE IT! Musical Tube Map

Some people prefer Paris, others Rome...but in the beautiful lyrics of Saint Etienne, London belongs to me. I *love* London... more than any other place on the planet. The history, pop culture references, I just can't get enough.

I've always been a fan of the London Underground - the Tube - which probably does make me a silly tourist in some people's books. Perhaps if I lived there, I wouldn't hold the transportation network in such high esteem. Regardless of how you feel about the rounded subway trains and the Cadbury vending machines on station platforms, you can't really argue about the iconic status of the Tube's map, originally crafted back in 1933 by Harry Beck. It's cool. Cool enough to adorn mugs, t-shirts and posters. In my search for my own poster, I came across this different take on the Undergound grid. In 2006, Dorian Lynskey of the Guardian newspaper devised the map with musical artists appearing in the place of the traditional station names (for example, Pimlico station --- one of my fave areas of London -- is rendered as disco stalwarts, Chic).

Blending music and the Tube map = pure genius in my books! Two of my loves together! Is it any surprise that I ordered my copy minutes after my discovery? Yeah, the poster has been around for a few years, but it's new to me and I adore it. Shame there's no Duran Duran on here, and there's far too much rap included for my liking but Saint Etienne, Depeche Mode, and Blur did get a look in, so it's still a winner in my eyes.

You can order a copy of this poster from the London Transport Museum here.