I had the pleasure a week or so ago of indulging in my growing interest in urban iconography and sat in on a meeting with some of the team working on ‘Legible London’ – a scheme aimed at improving way-finding across the UK's capital through improved signage and maps. Essentially research seems to show that London’s streets are too cluttered and have confusing and incorrect signage…
‘…study found that a major problem was presented by the 32 different pedestrian way finding systems used within the central Congestion Charge Zone. As a result, walkers tended to rely too heavily on the Tube map, a schematic representation of the London Underground system, which distorts the real distances between stations making people think they are too far to walk.
However, finding ways to encourage people to travel by foot would reduce pressure on the public transport infrastructure, stimulate the local economy, encourage a more vibrant street life, and even improve personal safety on the streets of London’.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I have seen someone get on at Embankment tube to alight at Charring Cross – you can see one from the other! But, in defence of those less familiar with the geography of London – it’s not exactly sign-posted or clear, and you would only see the sign for the other station if you knew exactly where to look… as the below image from Legible London shows there are a fair few tube stations where it’s better to walk that head underground:
An interesting aside from their work on the feasibility and the potential impact of introducing a coherent and visually consistent signage system around London is in it’s overlap with the relevance of London’s ‘urban villages’… particularly through mental maps (as highlighted in their report). It’s a reminder of how every person perceives and interprets the built environment in a different way – and starts to touch upon issues of equality and diversity in the urban landscape.
As with almost all other work in the built environment field, this work is specifically relevant and has almost endless interlinks with other aspects of the ‘urban composition’… Legible London’s full, very interesting, report is on their website.
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