Legible London is a city–wide wayfinding system initiated and designed for pedestrians by Applied Information Group (now Applied) and commissioned by central London Borough’s, Business districts, landowners and Transport for London. Unlike other wayfinding projects Legible London leaps over bureaucratic boundaries in order to provide one consistent visual language across the city. This city–wide approach was implemented to help visitors and local residents to easily gain local geographic knowledge regardless of the area they are in. There are approximately 800 Legible London Monoliths, Midiliths, Miniliths and Fingerposts installed across London, and the system is still expanding. It is currently believed to be the world’s largest pedestrian wayfinding project.

In 2004 then London Mayor Ken Livingstone declared that he would make London a walkable city by 2015. Subsequently Central London Partnership (a representative organisation for Central London government and businesses led by Patricia Brown) commissioned Applied, (a wayfinding design company led by Tim Fendley) to research the walking environments of London. This research resulted in a study that proposed the idea of a ‘Legible London’. This was published in January 2006 by Applied under the title ‘Legible London – A Wayfinding Study’^[1]. The study was widely presented during 2005 and 2006 and contained a concept scenario – ‘Janes Walk’ ^[2]. Jenny Jones (Green Party Mayoral candidate) was an early supporter of the scheme at the GLA.

In 2006 Applied undertook local area studies in Westminster, South Bank, Richmond and Twickenham and Hackney to show how the concept could adapt to different urban forms. This was followed in 2006 with an exhibition at the NLA to promote the idea and lobby for its adoption. Patricia Brown and Spencer de Gray spoke at the launch of the exhibition.

A prototype was commissioned by Westminster City Council, Greater London Authority, New West End Company and the Crown Estate. The prototype contained 19 Legible London street signs installed around Oxford Street and Bond Street along with new customised maps and information panels. A book was published ‘The Yellow Book’^[3] to co-incide with the launch.

Following the successful reception of the prototype and research results the concept was adopted by Transport for London. A team led by Adrian Bell and Ben Plowden at TFL commissioned the core system architecture and three large pilots in Westminster/Camden, South Bank and Richmond and Twickenham. These were based on the earlier studies. The system and three pilots would show how the system could be applied and work for different urban forms and travel demands, and could be further tested. The system was extensively documented and three pilots delivered in 2009/2010. The system design role was undertaken by Applied. The pilots were locally delivered by three groups: Applied, Atkins and Faber Maunsell (now AECOM). Arup provided project management support to TFL.

The system has now been fully adopted by Transport for London and appears in all tube stations, on bus shelters and on cycle-hire. The sign system has been expanding throughout Westminster, Brent, Camden, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Southwark, Richmond and Twickenham, and other locations .

Through research Applied had learned that there were 32 different wayfinding systems in central London alone. Like many other major cities, London too had various local institutions such as boroughs and councils implementing their own local wayfinding signs. This was compounded by multiple pictures of the city being available in print and online. This had been causing visual incoherency and confusion throughout the city for the wayfinding pedestrian, ultimately causing a sense of insecurity that undermines the city’s potential for retail and tourism.

Another key factor in concept development was the burden that some of the London Underground stations were going through, many of them having to close when busy. Applied’s study showed that many stations were quicker to walk, yet the unfamiliar, uninformed visitor would take the tube, causing avoidable congestion in and around the station. The study found that 109 journeys were quicker to walk than to take the tube, 55% of journeys within a mile’s distance.

Furthermore, not knowing the local geography caused many pedestrians and travelers to use the tube map when navigating. Applied’s study showed that over 40% of the city’s travelers were using the iconic tube map even when navigating on foot.

Primary Legible London street-sign products or blades are the ‘Monolith’ and the ‘Minilith’ which are free standing vitreous enamel signs installed on the streets. The scheme was originally designed ^[4] to be available accros a number of media. For the prototype this included printed maps, in tube stations and on bus shelters. The tangible product aspect was designed in collaboration between Lacock Gullam, Seymour Powell and Applied. Manufacturer for the first prototypes in the Bond Street area was Woodhouse.

Distinctive design attributes to the Legible London products include the yellow bar at the top on the panels with the walking person icon, which makes these signs easier to spot within the urban environment. Two maps, a ‘planner map’ and a ‘finder map‘ are displayed on each side of the monoliths, although some signs are only one–sided.

Both planner and finder maps show ‘walking circles’ to place the user in context of his or her surroundings. The planner map displays a ’15 minutes walk’ circle, while finder maps show ‘5 minutes walk’ circle. These walking circles and the Tube stations shown within these circles all inform the user that the next Tube station is ‘walkable’.

While the map is illustrated in 2D, significant landmarks are shown in 3D, helping users identify the urban environment and also serving as ‘mental navigational tools’.

Both planner maps and finder maps are ‘heads–up’ (as opposed to ‘north–up’), a technique used since the Bristol Legible City initiative which is regarded as a predecessor project to Legible London. (Legible London’s creative director Tim Fendley was lead designer for Bristol Legible City.)

During installation of the 19 West End prototypes, 43 pre-existing signs were removed as part of the street clutter reduction plan. This plan is mentioned in Legible London Full Guidance:

“With this in mind, the installation of Legible London signs should coincide with the removal of all signage in the scheme area that will be made redundant, along with any other unnecessary furniture. To date, the Legible London schemes have delivered excellent ratios of signs removed compared to those installed.“

— Legible London Full Guidance, p. 33 ^[5]

Within Transport for London’s Legible London microsite there is ‘Delivering your scheme’ section ^[6] where TFL describes the steps needed for local authorities to bring Legible London to their areas.

Following the West End prototype in 2007, transport consultancy Colin Buchanan surveyed the impact of the new system. Among 2600 members of the public; 85 per cent found Legible London easy or very easy to use, 90 per cent wanted to see the system rolled out across London, almost two-thirds said the new system would encourage them to walk more, and on average, pedestrian journeys in the area were 16 per cent quicker following installation of the signage. ^[7]

Legible London has won Gold Medal in the Design for Society section of the DBA 2008 Design Effectiveness Awards^[8], and also OS MasterMap Award for Better Mapping from the British Cartographic Society in 2009 ^[9]. Internationally, the project has won top honour award from the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) of US in 2010 ^[10].

An application for smart phones called LivingSoho is in development by the Applied and the Living Map Company. Focusing on the Soho area it inherits the visual language of Legible London while adding live interactive features such as opening and closing times of retail shops, bars and transport information.

While Applied have worked on other cities since Legible London, most notable and perhaps most significant movement is I Walk New York commissioned by NYCDOT ^[11]. This collaborative research between Applied and Two Twelve aims to bring a similar initiative to New York.

In 2012 Seoul Development Institute published ‘A Strategy for Legible Seoul’ ^[12].

• Wayfinding
• Information design
• Maps
• Kevin A. Lynch
• Sign

• Transport for London’s official website
• Applied
• Living Soho
• Bristol Legible City
• Turner, Julia. "Legible London: Can better signs help people understand an extremely disorienting city?" in Slate. 4 March 2010.
• Reising, Jenny S. ""SEGDdesign" Walk this way" in segdDESIGN. No. 26, 2009.
• Kim, Kyoungmo "레지블 런던 프로젝트: 이해하기 쉽고 걷기 좋은 런던 만들기" in Design Seoul. 14 March 2011.
• Audio: the Urbanist for Monocle 24. 20 October 2011.
• Video: Legible London on BBC News
• Video: Legible London sign installation
• Video: Legible London mental mapping
• Video: Tim Fendley's Legible London talk
• Video: What difficulties do you face when walking in London?
• Video: What tools do you use when wayfinding in London?
• Video: Living Soho Demo