Angus Hyland Appears on ‘Secrets of the London Underground’
The Pentagram partner and fellow maze-enthusiast pays homage to Alan Fletcher’s Victoria Line artwork.
Secrets of the London Underground follows railway historian Tim Dunn and the London Transport Museum’s Siddy Holloway as they explore the fascinating disused parts of London's expansive tube network.
Episode 6 of series 4 features Pentagram’s Angus Hyland talking to Siddy about the mural in Warren Street tube station. Designed by Pentagram founder Alan Fletcher, the striking graphic mural takes the form of a maze. It’s both a pun on the name of the station and a reference to the huge expanse of tunnels that stretch out underneath it.
The Warren Street maze was designed to be completed in less than four minutes, the interval between trains when the Vctoria Line launched in 1968. In 2024, the line runs a train every 100 seconds during rush hour, leaving passengers much less time to complete the maze.
The maze is one of a series of decorative murals that appear at stations along the Victoria Line, created by designers including Abram Games, Hans Unger, Tom Eckersley, Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious.
Alan Fletcher was fascinated by mazes and they appeared in several of his projects, including this piece for Design Objectives from 1972. Angus too shares Fletcher’s love of mazes—his illustrated book The Maze: A Labyrinthine Compendium explores the curious circumstances behind sixty real and fictional mazes from across the world.
Secrets of the London Underground airs on UK TV on Tuesday 6 August at 8pm (and on catch-up at UKTV.com).
Thanks to David Sams at The Print Arkive
