The repurposed tube map has been a staple ever since artist Simon Patterson took a 1992 copy and replaced station names with famous people. The latest version is the Black History Tube Map, an official collaboration between TfL and the Black Cultural Archives to celebrate Black History Month.
The aim is to celebrate the rich and varied contribution Black people have made to London and the UK from Roman times to the present day. Each line represents a different category from Sports (Bakerloo) to Literary (Victoria) and Trailblazer (District) to LGBTQ+ (Jubilee). Categories do not overlap at interchange stations, so for example Darcus Howe at Moorgate is not a Campaigning Georgian Medic.
The map doesn't mean much without a list of biographies (or a lot of Googling), but TfL accidentally released a few of these last week in a blogpost they've since deleted.
Princess Ademola(Rickmansworth station) Princess Omo-Oba Adenrele Ademola was a Nigerian princess and nurse. She trained as a nurse in London in the 1930s living in Africa Hostel in Camden Town – an important social and political scene for West Africans in Britain. Her nursing career spanned 30 years, including through World War II. She was the subject of a film, Nurse Ademola, made by the Colonial Film Unity. The film was screened across West Africa and said to have inspired many African viewers for the imperial war effort.
The map isn't yet generally available (because everything has to wait for the official sharing of the press release) but can currently be downloaded via a convenient Wordpress link. It looks to be a great way to highlight historic cultural diversity, and you will no doubt read more about it later in the week.
Also note that an additional black spur has appeared on the Northern line. It connects at Nana Bonsu showing that some trains on the Arthur Wharton branch divert off the John Archer extension and terminate at Sam King instead. It may only be present because this is art, but keep your eyes peeled for further information.
