English Technical Draughtsman. He created the present London Underground Tube map in 1931, with its principles subsequently being emulated by subway, bus, and transit companies around the world for many urban rail and metro maps. He drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office. London Underground was initially skeptical of his radical proposal and treated his work as an uncommissioned spare-time project for which he is reported to have not been paid. He had the idea of creating a full system map in colour and believed that Underground passengers were not concerned with geographical accuracy and were more interested in how to get from one station to another and where to change trains. He set about using straight lines, experimenting with diagonals, and evening out the distance between stations. Despite London Underground's reservations, they tentatively introduced it to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933 and it became immediately popular. Although technically a diagram, not a map, the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since. The original design has evolved to reflect zones, mainline train stations, and new lines and now shows about 270 tube stations – twice as many stations and connections that he had put into the first Tube map. In 1997, the importance of his work was posthumously recognised, and currently (2018), the statement "This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck" is printed on every London Underground map. In January 2007, GB Railfreight named locomotive 66721 after him, and in January 2009, the Royal Mail issued a set of postage stamps celebrating British design classics, including the contemporary version of the London Underground diagram. In March 2013, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Tube map, a blue plaque was unveiled on the house where he was born, in Wesley Road, Leyton, Essex.