London’s most common second languages tube map

If diversity is wealth these are the ten richest cities in the world: Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sydney, Paris, Los Angeles, Manchester, London and New York, the city with the largest immigrant population in the world.

Everyone says that London is a multicultural city. But, why? The English capital have 8.308 million residents. In 2011, the 44.9% of the population were White British while the 37% were born outside United Kingdom. For that reason, in the capital it is possible to hear more than 300 different languages.

The traditional fish and chips shares customers with the Bhapaa Aloo, Tandoori chicken, Crepes, Pizza, Paella or Dumplings. In London it is possible to eat and drink anything that you want without the need to travel.

But also, London allows the possibility to get in touch with a big variety of dresses, religions, fashion trends and cultural offers.

If you had the chance to live or visit London during the Olympic Games 2012, you probably noticed that every single one of the competing countries had some representatives communities in the city. 

The Taste of the Tube

All Londoners are familiar with the London Underground. The delays, the temperature and the smell are the most frequently complains. But there is a 54 years old man, James Wannerton, who has a particular relationship with the Tube and its stations because he is synesthetes.

The synaesthesia, as it is defined by the Oxford dictionary, is a neurological condition in which "the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body".

In other words, James's senses get mixed up and these are some of his experiences.

                  

Tottenham Court Road Station

This picture, taken in Tottenham Court Road Station, represents a small part of one of the 1000 square metres of mosaic designed by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.

The Football Map

Both the Football Association and London Underground are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year. The Metropolitan Railway, the oldest of the Underground, opened to the public on January 10, 1863. The FA was formed on October 26, 1863, at the Freemasons’ Tavern, near Holborn tube. 

To commemorate this historic moment, they worked together to create a new Tube map.

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The Small Theatres

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Thanks to "Centre Stage", the report made by the London Assembly, we know that nearly half of the small Londoners' theatres have some financial problems. Because of the politics and the new ways of entertainment, these theatres have an insecure future. 

To show this situation, Transport For London has designed a new alternative map in which they have plotted London’s many small theatres and their closest tube stations.

The map is a great way to know where many interesting places in the city are but, at the same time, it shows two theatrically impoverished areas: the north-west and south.

The Ghosts Stations

What's happening with this Tube's map? Where are all the stations? Do some names look familiar to you? 

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That is because these stops don't exist anymore. They are ghost stations, maybe because they were old installations, moved to another location or because of the number of passengers was very low.

Nowadays, Ajit Chambers wants to re-open some of them and use them as event spaces or museums.

Thanks to Dylan Maryk, who plotted the exact location of these stations in Google map, we can see, easily, where these stations were located and relevant information, like th1e date and the reason for closure.

Biblical Tube

Another curious underground map was created by James Eaglesfield one year ago to connect York and London. James was inspired to design this sketch when he was a volunteer on York Mystery Plays 2012. 

In this sacred map, you can discover biblical places, spiritual connections, holy stations and religious references.

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Questions: 

Can you find Ascension Central, Old Testament Gate, Angel Gabriel, Barabbas-ican, Crucifix-ton, Canada Holy Water, Covent Garden of Eden, Herod Park Corner, Lamb of God North, Cain & Abel, Gad’s Hill, Jonah & The Whale, Lucifer Road or Seven Thunder?

Walk Around London

Yes. It’s true. London is a huge city. You can take the underground and the overground to arrive quickly to your destiny, if the lines are not closed. But if you really want to know the city, you have to walk through streets, parks, squares... It’s the best way to discover the secrets of London. 

Because of the 150th tube anniversary, PruHealth has created a singular map. It’s an underground plan showing the steps between stations. This could be a good way to have a healthy body this summer.

Super Mario Bros in the Tube

The English Harry Beck created the actual London Underground Tube map in 1931 in his break time while he was working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office

Since then, lot of people want to reinvent it the famous map and modernize it. Reddit, user NaturalBeats, designed a new artistic map covering Zone 1. It’s the London Underground in Super Mario 3’s style.

Mind the Gap

When you are travelling in the underground, it doesn’t matter the country where you are, you have to be careful and don’t put your foot into the hole when you are entering in the train car. In New York we can see "mind your step". In Japan, for example, they say "Densha to homu no aida wa hiroku aite orimasu no de, gochuui kudasai", "Atenção ao intervalo entre o cais e o comboio" in Lisbon or "Attention à la marche en descendant du train" in Paris. 

But the most famous warning is the Londoner “mind the gap” or the variant: "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform." 

The phase was created in 1968. The underground workers were worried because they had to alert the passengers all the time. So the managers decided to record a brief notice. 

Some of these warnings were recorded by British artists like Emma Clarke, on Bakerloo, Central and District lines or Tim Bentinck, on Piccadilly line. The original voice in the Northern, for more than forty years, was the actor Oswald Laurence. Last November, Embankment Station, the only place where this recording was still being used, installed a new system. Oswald, who died in 2007, stopped to warn us. 

His wife Margaret McCollum could hear her dead husband’s voice when she was travelling in Tube. She was destroyed when she realized she could never listen to Oswald’s speech any more. Margaret wrote a letter to the Underground’s Director because she wanted to have the advice’s record, as a memory. 

Widow's determination has been the key. Now Margaret has a CD with a copy of the announcement. Besides, all travellers can listen again Laurence's voice in Embankment Station.