Dot Wordsworth

Mind Your Language | 28 June 2008

Dot Wordsworth on the anagram Underground Map

issue 28 June 2008

During my rather dry investigation last week of apostrophes on the London Underground map, I found something far more interesting. It is the anagram Underground map invented two years ago by the pseudonymous Barry Heck (after the great Underground mapper Harry Beck).

Transport for London, as they call themselves at the moment, asserted, no doubt correctly, their own copyright in the map, and clamped down on reproduction of the anagram version. But the anagram names of the stations are not their copyright and may be discussed without locking the door.

The anagrams were apparently done with an online anagram generator. To make them with a paper and pencil would be more satisfying, as crossword-solvers appreciate. Nevertheless, the choice of anagrams is generally pleasing and cumulatively funny, as lists can be. I shall let you work them out for yourselves — you could always refer to a map.

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