The Tube, you likely take it every day and it is a key piece of the massive infrastructure machine which keeps London moving and its iconic roundel logo arguably is just as important. It indicates a myriad of quick information to help the service run smoothly, from station names and ferry terminals to overground vs underground. You can see it on apps and websites, embossed onto buses and trains and even painted onto bikes and cable cars. It is more than iconic, being mimicked and sold worldwide to tourists and enthusiasts alike but the journey to what we now know to be the Tube roundel was long and winding. There is one atypical place in London where you can see this journey, it's not any museum or TfL office, but one out-of-the-way tube station which serves as its own form of museum, having preserved a plethora of the not-so-common history of the TfL roundel.
 
The roundel was born in 1908, being created to help station names better stand out on the platforms as they were being flooded by billboards and advertisements. However, it wasn't until about 3 years later when the famous bar and circle took off as it began appearing on maps, general publicity and station exteriors. It's not until 1926 that our story starts when an architect called Charles Holden was given the task of redesigning and designing new tube stations.
 
This brings us to South Wimbledon, a quaint tube station whose two platforms serve the northern line's Morden branch, it sits about a 15-minute walk from Wimbledon High Street and is only a 20-minute tube ride into central London. It is a grade II listed building made of Portland stone and has remained relatively unchanged since its creation, this means it is a functional time capsule for tube memorabilia.

 (Image: Author)When the station was made it used the design you see above. However, in the roundel's fledgeling phase, redesigns were quick and the above design soon became outdated before the station even turned 10. In the 1930s some changes were made and we were given new design language like the arrow and typeface you see below. Such design language and the station's architecture have oft been replaced in many stations but in South Wimbledon, it remains in good condition.
 (Image: Author)After the 1930s it remained mostly unchanged thanks to the rise of minimalism in the post-war period and its favouring of simple easy to maintain design. Until 1972 when a local branding firm was employed to review TfL's branding. The firm employed a darker blue, a different, brighter shade of red and a thicker ring and bar as well as a new typeface. This attempt at modernisation proved quite popular and while the change was minor it was soon implemented throughout London and it is the design we all know today. The citywide implementation largely spared South Wimbledon except for two of the platform signs as seen below.
 (Image: Author)This station is blessed with two quite notable rarities visa vee the tube roundels. The first is seen above with its featuring of a two-line or "double decker roundel" title and while it is one of the longer names on the underground network, plenty are longer or of equal length and do not have such a design. The second can be seen below, occupying the other four platform signs and is equally as rare, having the station's previous name and the borough's name below. These rarities are exclusive to this station and remain a quirk of tube history.
 (Image: Author)The only major change to the famous roundel this century has been the creation of a myriad of variations. One lesser-known one is the below "Love the tube - 160 years of service" appreciation variation also visible in South Wimbledon station.
 (Image: Author) Much more common ones are also visible as they are used to signify the overground, Elizabeth line and the growing number of services TfL manages like river, taxi and bike services. But none are as iconic as the classic blue and red roundel which adorns each and every tube station - even the time capsules and relics like South Wimbledon.

(Image: Author)I think this station is extraordinary, it is in a place that compared to the rest of London is totally uninteresting. But the station, if you look close enough is full of history, like a mini museum that sits trackside. It's subtle enough that if running for a train, purse in hand, already late for work or school, you wouldn't notice it. The 98-year-old art-deco architecture and Portland stone would be and is often just a blur to the many passersby the station sees each day. But if you stop and really look, the station can take you on a journey of the over 100 years it took to build the iconic design which is every day drawn onto trinkets for tourists and painted onto the sides of busses. So if you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods, maybe stop and smell the flowers, to not miss the rich and ever-growing history of the every day and the mundane.