Henry Beck's map of the London Underground Railway is the most famous transport map in the world, and an icon of 20th-century London. It shows the London Underground Railway network in a diagrammatic topographical form.

Beck was an unemployed engineer when he first devised the map. His design was inspired by electrical circuit diagrams and uses only vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines. In designing this map, Beck ignored geographical accuracy and chose instead to emphasize the connections and interchanges between the different lines and stations. This resulted in a map which is misleading about the distances between individual stations, but is very clear and easy to use for those undertaking a journey on the system. The map was so successful that it has remained largely unchanged (apart from the addition of new lines and stations) since it was first introduced to the public in 1933 after a successful trial of 500 copies in 1932. The original sketch for the map is also in the collection (E.814-1979).

This map was acquired as part of the Shekou Project, an international partnership between the V&A and China Merchant Shekou Holdings (CMSK) to open a new cultural platform called Design Society in Shekou. It was included in the inaugural exhibition, ‘Values of Design’, in the V&A Gallery at Design Society as an example communication and conveying information in design practice.