The slightly-wrangled orange blob of curves and points that is the map of the London Overground is getting a colour-coded makeover. The significant change will include ‘a major update to London's world-famous Tube map, and will make it easier for customers to navigate London's transport network while also celebrating the city's diverse culture and history,’ according to Transport to London.
The makeover includes six new names to honour historical events in the UK -- Lioness, Mildmay, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty, and Windrush, to commemorate the era of Caribbean immigration.
But is it really a celebration, or glorification of amends to old wrongs done by the British empire?
Receptionist Leona Hemley-Akano, a 25, years old who was born and raised in London - and, is not amused. “As somebody of Carribbean descent, it is very frustrating seeing the Mayor of London do these empty gestures by having something called the Windrush Lline when there are so many people who came [to London] during the Windrush period have been displaced.”
“Many Windrush members have been sent back to Jamaica, haven’t been given stay, even though they were encouraged by the British government to come here.”
“Aside from the displacement of the Carribean people being sent back home, British people in general are suffering from the state of the economy. Yeah, it’s nice for the lines to get a name, but it’s not a priority. And the fact that this much money has been put into renaming lines rather than helping members of the windrush community is very telling,” she said, as she feels it’s representation of what the British government always does: empty gestures with no practical, grounded meaning.
The renaming of the lines and adding of new colours to the Tube map cost £6.3 million from the Greater London Authority budget as part of a drive to simplify the transport network, as reported by Ham & High.
Meanwhile, some renters are grateful for the change. Ella Baddeley, 28, head of operations at BylineTimes, shared, “I was moving recently, and when the estate agents would ask me ‘where do you want to live, what areas are you interested in?’ I used to always say ‘you know the line that goes from Clapham Junction or Richmond to Stratford, I want to live anywhere on that line.’ Then the day after we moved, they named it! And it would have been so much easier to say to the estate agents ‘I want to live on the Mildmay line.’”
The Mildmay line, marked by blue parallel lines on the map, honours the small charitable hospital in Shoreditch which played a pivotal role in the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s and is highly respected by the LGBTQ+ community today.
The MildmayUK charity released a public statement that they were ‘honoured’ that their historic hospital will be tributed in the new overground map, set to launch in August 2024.
Meanwhile, There’s been a lot of backlash on twitter, with the hashtag #SadiqKunt trending, and memes being posted like this one:
Journalist and author of Fake History Otto English turned the discussion to the Tories’ desire to sellthe naming rights of the London Overground, tweeting, “we could have been riding the HSBC line – before changing onto the BAE Systems and going all the way on the Domestos to Wanstead Junction”.
No matter the opinion, it’s coming, it’s happening, it’s here in a few months time, set to unveil in Autumn 2024.
The much-loved orange roundel will continue to be used across the London Overground network, and the train's interiors will surely stay the same orange too. Let’s be reasonable now, this is England.
Comments