In anyone’s book, Harry Beck’s Tube map is a design classic and surely the most famous piece of graphics to signify “London”. Surprising then, given current activity to establish a graphic identity for London, that TfL decided to remove not just the zones but also the river in the latest map redesign. This arguably meddles with the capital’s graphic crown jewels. A furious Boris Johnson has ordered these key elements to be returned, urging Londoners to “imagine the Thames in place until it reappears on the maps”.

It’s been suggested that the reason given for the change - greater simplicity in the spirit of the original design - was a cover for removing the zones ahead of re-pricing or re-zoning. ‘The London Paper’ was a bit hysterical in calling this the first major change since 1933. A glance at that map shows the original has been overhauled incrementally many times, but there is no doubt that removing the Thames would be a drastic step.

The genius of Beck’s original map was to take inspiration from a circuit diagram and break with the traditional approach to cartography, where distances are to scale. But the river has always been a key navigation aid for many of us, and the one element that links the stations on the map to a sense of what’s above ground. Simply put, it bolted the map to London. Taking away the river would reduce the map’s sense of soul, and make functional perfection feel just a little too functional. As an agency we often recommend paring things back to essentials but this would have been a step too far for us. So thank you Boris for saving the crown jewels!