ABSTRACT
I must have been about two and a half when my father lifted me up to peep over the wall near to our fl at in West Kensington, to see the Piccadilly line trains coming out of the tunnel next to the District line ones. I became instantly fascinated by the tube, and in particular by H. C. Beck’s legendary map, which had made its fi rst public appearance that very year, 1934. A little later, at the age of about fi ve, I spent many obsessed hours with coloured crayons, copying it out. I suppose that in 1938 I must have been the only six-year-old in London who knew all the tube stations by heart. It was a very useful training for life, which did give me a kind of respect for rote learning.
