Transport for London’s iconic Tube map has been remixed — this time, to honour the city’s grassroots music venues.
The reimagined Grassroots Music Tube Map replaces train lines with electric cables, swaps station names for song titles, and connects the dots between the places where the UK’s next big thing often plays their first chaotic, under-attended set.
It’s part of a wider push from Mayor Sadiq Khan and TfL under the banner of London Creates, a new campaign spotlighting the capital’s small venues. As in the ones that actually grow artists, not just host them once they’ve cracked radio.
The stats also don’t lie. In the last year alone, London’s grassroots spaces have welcomed more than 4.2 million people, staged over 328,000 artist performances, and contributed £313 million to the economy. But they’ve done it while fighting rising rents, noise complaints, and the slow bleed of gentrification. This map might not fix those problems — but it does make the scene more visible, which is at least a start.
The new map highlights the role these venues have played in building careers. Coldplay cut their teeth at The Dublin Castle. Charli xcx lit up east London clubs. Noah Kahan played The Social. Chappell Roan packed out The Garage before hitting the global stage. Seven of the UK’s 10 biggest-selling albums last year came from artists forged in these kinds of rooms.
Skin from Skunk Anansie summed it up best: “You don’t get mainstream music without the grassroots. If you want to be good live, you’ve got to go get wild on those smaller stages first.”
London’s live music scene doesn’t just run on big names and arena tours. It runs on cramped soundchecks, DIY promoters, and the venues that let new bands fail forward. This map is a cool gesture — but it’s the venues themselves that deserve to stay on the map.
So, if anything the tube map is a call to action. Support your local dive. It’s truly where the good shit always starts.
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