Stephen Walter
London Rail, 2021
Archival Inkjet print on Paper
Edition of 50
89.5 x 104 cm

London Rail, 2021, is a geographically accurate rail track map of London and joins a long list of altered London transport maps where the station names have been changed to fit a particular subject or concept. This is my version of this growing genre of which the most notable example is Simon Patterson’s The Great Bear, of 1992. This work, to some extent pays homage to Patterson’s famous map, however my focus here remains on exploring the nature of actual places and their particular geography, history and etymology.

Many of the new station names on this map celebrate notable people associated with the area, both contemporary and historical. Those who were either born in the area or have previously lived in or currently reside there now. These would have been, or are now, their local stations.

This map comes in two versions - the large whole of London (London Rail, 2021), and a smaller central zones map called Inner London Rail, 2021. This shows the stations within zones 1, 2 and 3. It has been delicately edited and altered to an alternative scale to the whole map, and has a couple of different station names which makes it a stand alone piece in itself.