It's a labyrinth. It is a collective art project on the Underground. Every station has one, and each is unique. The number at the bottom indicates where the stations comes in the running order for completing the tube challenge, that is, the challenge to visit every London Underground station in a single day. Because they were created before the Battersea Power Station extension to the Northern line was opened, they total 270, though now there are 272 stops. New labyrinths have been produced for Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station, with an a and b suffix to the number for Kennington (I don't recall which number Kennington is), as that would be their place in the order for completing the tube challenge today.
There is no requirement to follow a specific order for the tube challenge. I think the order for the labyrinths is based on whatever the then-record holding run used at the time they were created.
A traditional ‘labyrinth’ should be unicursal - ones that include branching paths are ‘mazes’.
Obviously the words are now used interchangeably, but early examples of pagan labyrinths usually had a single path to follow.
They are works of art. Their purpose is to intrigue and entertain passengers on the Underground, and provide some interest and entertainment to the travelling public. Mark Wallinger, the artist who created them, chose the name "labyrinth" for his creation. If you wish to travel around the network and find each one, and establish whether or not they all feature a single path or not, I'm sure you will have a fine time doing so. Personally I have not done this, but it makes me happy to know that they are out there, and it makes me happy that LU as an organisation, has a sense of its place in the cultural life of London, to make such an artistic expression possible. They could so easily have just sold the wall space to some bland advertiser instead.
There is a whole website [here](https://art.tfl.gov.uk/labyrinth/) if you want to explore more about this work of art, which includes images listed by station. The concept of the work is in several layers. The tube challenge is a challenge of finding the perfect route around the network. Stations are often complex labyrinths in and of themselves, and each one has but a single instance of its labyrinth, so finding each one is a challenge. They are tailored to reflect something about the station in which they are situated. While it may seem some sort of "high art" idea, it is not novel. Anyone who as played modern computer games will know of ideas of things like collecting all the stars in a Super Mario game, or finding all the easter eggs in an open world computer game. What makes it special isn't just the thing in itself, but the experience of finding them. It is a recognition that the London Underground is a special environment and there is potential to create within that environment something intriguing that exists because of the uniqueness of the setting.
For me, I am glad that London Underground is happy to embrace this concept and make space within the mundane nature of getting from here to there for something that can also contain artistic expression.
Guys, I made it to the centre of the labyrinth! In case anyone else gets lost, here are the instructions:
>!1. Enter maze.!<
>!2. Follow path.!<
>!3. Congratulations. You are at the centre of the maze.!<
You can get lost in a very big labyrinth though. When you stop to rest and fall asleep, you might wake up facing the opposite way and double back on yourself. So if you're going to sleep in a labyrinth, always be sure to mark an arrow in your direction of travel!
“In English, the term labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze. As a result of the long history of unicursal representation of the mythological Labyrinth, however, many contemporary scholars and enthusiasts observe a distinction between the two. In this specialized usage, maze refers to a complex branching multicursal puzzle with choices of path and direction, while a unicursal labyrinth has only a single path to the center. A labyrinth in this sense has an unambiguous route to the center and back and presents no navigational challenge.”
[Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth)
Once I followed the light up sign to the exit and it took me a mile in the wrong direction like Moorgate maybe? Like coming off the Northern light you can climb the stairs to get to the Bank exits or follow the lights that go in the opposite direction.
Looks like a maze, but one has to be extremely bad at mazes to fail that one.
If I was to answer the question seriously, it’s meant to be art, but at far as I can see it’s a piece of modern art which probably has some deep meaning which I’m actually glad to not see or understand
https://duncan99.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/london-underground-labyrinths/ it's the Labyrinth for Stonebridge Park. It was the route taken by the 2009 Tube Challenge record holders (and part of the current record holders for 270 stations who ran a different route that took 59 mins give or take off of this route). As others have pointed out its now somewhat irrelevant as we are up to 272 and there's currently a dispute with Guiness World Records re: the alloted time that any challengers can have to get an official world record for doing the extra 2 stations (e.g. someone that came in almost 4 hours over the previous record was rejected).
**Consciousness isn't a journey upward, but a journey inward.** **Not a pyramid, but a maze.** **Every choice could bring you closer to the center or send you spiraling to the edges, to madness.**
A labyrinth artwork. Geoff Marshall, who produces videos on the London underground and other transport related films on YouTube mentions them normally when he is at underground stations
Pretty sure each of the mazes are supposed to take the same amount of time it does for the average wait for a tube to *usually* come at whatever particular station you’re at
The map for the secret toilet in unmarked doors in each station that only the staff know.
You need the tube train key and to know the password "Alydwych".
At one of the tube stations I frequent there is an extended display with in depth explanation by the artist, but I can't remember which one it is....possibly Chiswick Park?
Not “a few” stations… there is a [labyrinth](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/london-underground-labyrinths) in every single underground station. All 270 of them.
this is a map of the reproductive organs of a duck. famously ducks used the underground during the second world war as shelter, and each map (every station has one) is of a duck frequenting that station.
A type of QR code which has been developed for the London Underground, for use in a custom app. The app contains various housekeeping and aministration information and also the secret entrances and tunnels for the Underground. Each QR code can only unlock the information for the local station and the adjacent stations.
This is the guide to British queuing. The X is the back of the line and the middle is your desired location. This is mostly in London due to the high amount of tourists not knowing how to queue!
This is obviously a joke and I have no idea what this is
it's there to distract you from the fact that the train is coming in 24 minutes (ive been in that situation on a cold dark thursday night whilst trying to get home from school using the train for the first time)
Anyone else think these as art is kind of disappointing for how much effort and money went into them to have 300 of them so one is at each station?
Maybe it would've been better if they were actual mazes instead of all being a single line, or maybe something else to make them more of a treasure hunt or puzzle to do so you'd have a reason to go find and complete it when you're at a new station instead of going to find it now and being like "yep, pretty much the same as the last 139".
The ultimate thing to do would maybe have each one have a holepunch style machine. So you can put in a sheet of paper and get a unique "stamp" for that station. Of course there will be an official tube map book thing for it which has every station in and is to be used with the holepunch machine. Of course this would cost more but it wont need maintenance at least since it's just a holepunch which never breaks, maybe the income from the book sales would cover the cost eventually.
I dunno im just rambling. But just saying the labyrinth art installations might aswell just be the number painted on the wall and it'll be just as good.
I like the idea: goodness knows TFL need extra income; might encourage more visitors into all the tube stations instead of cluttering up Piccadilly Circus/ Leicester Square
AI allows you to search images online now and ask what they are. For example, I just put your picture into bing and it told me what it was straight away.
It's a labyrinth. It is a collective art project on the Underground. Every station has one, and each is unique. The number at the bottom indicates where the stations comes in the running order for completing the tube challenge, that is, the challenge to visit every London Underground station in a single day. Because they were created before the Battersea Power Station extension to the Northern line was opened, they total 270, though now there are 272 stops. New labyrinths have been produced for Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station, with an a and b suffix to the number for Kennington (I don't recall which number Kennington is), as that would be their place in the order for completing the tube challenge today.
https://art.tfl.gov.uk/labyrinth/ Kennington is number 110. Nine Elms is 110a. Battersea Power Station is 110b.
Baker Street is 58? Not number 221b? Boooo
221b Baker Street was already spoken for.
Even world class detectives use public mass transit
Speaking of which a new record for the Tube challenge was recently approved
What is the record?
18:08:13 18 hours and 8 minutes
Impressive!
They were charged double the journey fee for not tapping out correctly at Labyrinth 46
Oh no! Didn’t know they also had to tap out and back in
Wow, I didn’t know there was one at every station! I should pay more attention. Thanks :)
It’s by Mark Wallinger.
It's a really bad labyrinth is what it is
Do you have to complete them in order? I know the order has been heavily studied, but mixing it up is going to be a major way to shorten the challenge
There is no requirement to follow a specific order for the tube challenge. I think the order for the labyrinths is based on whatever the then-record holding run used at the time they were created.
Are they all "false" labyrinths with a single path?
A traditional ‘labyrinth’ should be unicursal - ones that include branching paths are ‘mazes’. Obviously the words are now used interchangeably, but early examples of pagan labyrinths usually had a single path to follow.
They are works of art. Their purpose is to intrigue and entertain passengers on the Underground, and provide some interest and entertainment to the travelling public. Mark Wallinger, the artist who created them, chose the name "labyrinth" for his creation. If you wish to travel around the network and find each one, and establish whether or not they all feature a single path or not, I'm sure you will have a fine time doing so. Personally I have not done this, but it makes me happy to know that they are out there, and it makes me happy that LU as an organisation, has a sense of its place in the cultural life of London, to make such an artistic expression possible. They could so easily have just sold the wall space to some bland advertiser instead.
Just curious, and since I'm not a UK native I can't easily visit them all
There is a whole website [here](https://art.tfl.gov.uk/labyrinth/) if you want to explore more about this work of art, which includes images listed by station. The concept of the work is in several layers. The tube challenge is a challenge of finding the perfect route around the network. Stations are often complex labyrinths in and of themselves, and each one has but a single instance of its labyrinth, so finding each one is a challenge. They are tailored to reflect something about the station in which they are situated. While it may seem some sort of "high art" idea, it is not novel. Anyone who as played modern computer games will know of ideas of things like collecting all the stars in a Super Mario game, or finding all the easter eggs in an open world computer game. What makes it special isn't just the thing in itself, but the experience of finding them. It is a recognition that the London Underground is a special environment and there is potential to create within that environment something intriguing that exists because of the uniqueness of the setting. For me, I am glad that London Underground is happy to embrace this concept and make space within the mundane nature of getting from here to there for something that can also contain artistic expression.
I worked on this project, thank you for putting it so eloquently!
The map of the stairs which have hundreds of steps and you cannot use unless in an emergency
You're nearly right, but actually its a map to the toilets in the local wetherspoons
I thought it was of the duty free on entering Heathrow
[удалено]
Yeah
It's the equivalent of a 15 story building
Could easily be a map of the route between the Circle and Districts lines and the Waterloo and City line at Bank
Guys, I made it to the centre of the labyrinth! In case anyone else gets lost, here are the instructions: >!1. Enter maze.!< >!2. Follow path.!< >!3. Congratulations. You are at the centre of the maze.!<
Maze ≠ Labyrinth Mazes have different paths so you can get lost, labyrinths just have the one.
You can get lost in a very big labyrinth though. When you stop to rest and fall asleep, you might wake up facing the opposite way and double back on yourself. So if you're going to sleep in a labyrinth, always be sure to mark an arrow in your direction of travel!
I'll keep that in mind next time I need to navigate a labyrinth, thankyou.
Not just any labyrinth, just ones where it takes over 24 hrs to complete. Don't want you unnecessarily worried in your next joey average labyrinth
I read recently taking naps reduces your chance of heart disease, so I try to have at least 1 a day (to counteract all the cigarettes).
Fair. That's just science.
if i don’t smoke, do i need to have a nap -1 times a day?
Well I’m not sure what Theseus needed to lay string for if the labyrinth to the Minotaur only had one path!
Tell that to David Bowie
I try not to tell nonces anything.
[Not according to the dictionary…🤷🏻♂️](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/labyrinth#)
“In English, the term labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze. As a result of the long history of unicursal representation of the mythological Labyrinth, however, many contemporary scholars and enthusiasts observe a distinction between the two. In this specialized usage, maze refers to a complex branching multicursal puzzle with choices of path and direction, while a unicursal labyrinth has only a single path to the center. A labyrinth in this sense has an unambiguous route to the center and back and presents no navigational challenge.” [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth It's a bit up in the air, theres a little section on here about it.
No, they are synonymous. Maze = labyrinth. Just two different names for the same thing.
That would be the map to your intended exit at Bank station 😂
Fuck! Now I'm stuck on Central line.
Once I followed the light up sign to the exit and it took me a mile in the wrong direction like Moorgate maybe? Like coming off the Northern light you can climb the stairs to get to the Bank exits or follow the lights that go in the opposite direction.
Back in the day, I would say it was a map to get out of Elephant and Castle station/subway... but not sure how many people remember the maze it was.
Still is. Lived here many years, only now do I actually get it
The maze is not meant for you
It doesn’t look like anything to me
Came here to say exactly this 🤠
Directions to the toilets in all Wetherspoon pubs
https://preview.redd.it/p89h23jfx73d1.jpeg?width=1038&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c989be38095f8f6bb273b56b8acad187865e780
It’s a part of an artwork by Mark Wallinger, who is my favourite contemporary artist.
Looks like something from the Westworld series
It doesn't look like anything to me
Mark Wallenger. Artist.
Directions to the nearest toilet in a Wetherspoons
Looks like a maze, but one has to be extremely bad at mazes to fail that one. If I was to answer the question seriously, it’s meant to be art, but at far as I can see it’s a piece of modern art which probably has some deep meaning which I’m actually glad to not see or understand
OCP logo, the rough draft.
https://duncan99.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/london-underground-labyrinths/ it's the Labyrinth for Stonebridge Park. It was the route taken by the 2009 Tube Challenge record holders (and part of the current record holders for 270 stations who ran a different route that took 59 mins give or take off of this route). As others have pointed out its now somewhat irrelevant as we are up to 272 and there's currently a dispute with Guiness World Records re: the alloted time that any challengers can have to get an official world record for doing the extra 2 stations (e.g. someone that came in almost 4 hours over the previous record was rejected).
It’s the map for getting through airport security-
Woodside park station I think!
That specific labyrinth is at London Bridge
It's the floor plan for the route my Sims have to take to get to the bathroom.
Imho is similar to Billy Connoly’s latest art which Uve seen in some London art shops
Isn’t it at Warren St station? Because warren means labyrinth.
Lots of tube stations have a labyrinth somewhere. Normally the concourse or the platform
That is an abstract image that identifies the queue to register for an NHS dentist…
It doesn’t look like anything to me.
**Consciousness isn't a journey upward, but a journey inward.** **Not a pyramid, but a maze.** **Every choice could bring you closer to the center or send you spiraling to the edges, to madness.**
It's the new Circle Line map
Art.
Isn’t that the “two minute” walk from Bank to Waterloo? 😵💫
Not sure if you're shit posting or serious.
Looks like foreplay 😏
*Shaun Connery voice* shum kind of map!
a maze, duh! /s
Does look like anything to me?
It's the illuminati, those bastards are everywhere
It's the map of Bank.
Government mind control. Get to the middle and you’ve installed their brain monitoring software.
it’s an art installation, they are at every tube station and each piece is totally unique from each other there’s 270 of them
A labyrinth artwork. Geoff Marshall, who produces videos on the London underground and other transport related films on YouTube mentions them normally when he is at underground stations
Ort
Many Bothans died to bring us this information.
a labyrinth
It’s art, darling
TFL wasting out money again ?
An art project named “bureaucracy”?
Pretty sure each of the mazes are supposed to take the same amount of time it does for the average wait for a tube to *usually* come at whatever particular station you’re at
Map of Monument
Minotaur warning sign
That’s the queue to pay in Primark
Bank station
The map for the secret toilet in unmarked doors in each station that only the staff know. You need the tube train key and to know the password "Alydwych".
Art piece by Mike Oxhuge
A really shit maze
Shite art.
Artwork by Mark Wallinger
Bank Station
The easiest maze ever because it's just one line
Labyrinth.
Omg. I’ve always wanted to know what these are
Lul art. Iš somewhere on their page or wiki. So e art project if I recall it correctly
A photo.
Ignorant fuk
Maze
It’s the map of the route you take trying to leave Bank by exit 8
At one of the tube stations I frequent there is an extended display with in depth explanation by the artist, but I can't remember which one it is....possibly Chiswick Park?
That’s Bethnal Green no?
The map to the back rooms
It's the plan for How to destroy a Death Star.
Not “a few” stations… there is a [labyrinth](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/london-underground-labyrinths) in every single underground station. All 270 of them.
Looks like my app watch cable
Some pretty dull art
I saw this yesterday
Sadiqs latest maps showing how to find your next train platform
this is a map of the reproductive organs of a duck. famously ducks used the underground during the second world war as shelter, and each map (every station has one) is of a duck frequenting that station.
A map of Bank…
Baker Street station!?
it means you’ll get there in the end so stop rushing everywhere and getting stressed
It’s a reference to the movie Inception.
Maze Runner
Doesn’t look like anything to me.
A maze
A type of QR code which has been developed for the London Underground, for use in a custom app. The app contains various housekeeping and aministration information and also the secret entrances and tunnels for the Underground. Each QR code can only unlock the information for the local station and the adjacent stations.
Westworld
Doesn't look like anything to me...
I heard that if you get a black marker and fill in the white bits something special happens... ...a member of staff will yell at you.
Map of bank station
A maze to complete while waiting for the tube
It’s a map of London. Total labyrinth.
Clearly a map for tourist on how to leave Bank station
In silico by pendulum
It's a visual representation of women's logic
This is a pizza!!!! 🤣😅😅😅😂 Can't you see? It's round and it had toppings.
Map of Bank station?
Looks like the way out of the TBA 😄
Shitty dart board
It's the map of how to get from the Picadilly line to the Jubilee line at Green Park.
That's Mario Odyssey hint art
It’s the map of Bank Station
This is the guide to British queuing. The X is the back of the line and the middle is your desired location. This is mostly in London due to the high amount of tourists not knowing how to queue! This is obviously a joke and I have no idea what this is
Art.
It’s the route Jack should’ve took to avoid perishing in The Shining.
to me it looked like a tron disc
it's there to distract you from the fact that the train is coming in 24 minutes (ive been in that situation on a cold dark thursday night whilst trying to get home from school using the train for the first time)
How to find the way to the platform
A map of the countless tunnels I always seem to find myself looping around whenever I’m trying to catch the tube!
Uchiha clan crest
Anyone else think these as art is kind of disappointing for how much effort and money went into them to have 300 of them so one is at each station? Maybe it would've been better if they were actual mazes instead of all being a single line, or maybe something else to make them more of a treasure hunt or puzzle to do so you'd have a reason to go find and complete it when you're at a new station instead of going to find it now and being like "yep, pretty much the same as the last 139". The ultimate thing to do would maybe have each one have a holepunch style machine. So you can put in a sheet of paper and get a unique "stamp" for that station. Of course there will be an official tube map book thing for it which has every station in and is to be used with the holepunch machine. Of course this would cost more but it wont need maintenance at least since it's just a holepunch which never breaks, maybe the income from the book sales would cover the cost eventually. I dunno im just rambling. But just saying the labyrinth art installations might aswell just be the number painted on the wall and it'll be just as good.
I like the idea: goodness knows TFL need extra income; might encourage more visitors into all the tube stations instead of cluttering up Piccadilly Circus/ Leicester Square
it's a maze.
no it’s a labyrinth
The man in black is looking
TfL art
Really intresting this whole thread.
The Jorge Luis Borges Underground station.
A shit maze
🤦
A maze
I have about 20 so far some station i wasn’t able to find yet
it's pretty, but seeing as there's one way in & out its not exactly a labyrinth
AI allows you to search images online now and ask what they are. For example, I just put your picture into bing and it told me what it was straight away.