The Iconic London Underground Map has been Translated Into Welsh!
The London Underground map is probably the most famous metro map ever created. It was the first and most people believe it’s the best.
Who Translated The Iconic London Underground Map Into Welsh?
David Smith often works as a guard/signalman/controller on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways in Snowdonia, North Wales.
Getting to know a few locals who worked on the railway and spoke Welsh as a first language, Smith started to feel bad that they had to swap to English to talk to him. Sometimes, passengers would ask questions in Welsh too. So Smith decided to start learning the language.
A few years down the line, a small group of railway workers occasionally meet up in London. Explains Smith, “We were on the Victoria line one evening on the way back from the pub, looking at the map in the train, and we started translating the various places into Welsh”.
“We liked the sound of it and talked about doing the whole map. I had a couple of days at home where the weather was miserable, so I started translating the tube map.”
Smith went through the etymology of each station (with a little help from Londonist), translating these into Welsh and putting it together into something that ‘sounded’ like a place.
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All images © David Smith, Elen Bradley-Roberts, Lisa Peters & Howie Russell
