London undergound based Map
The newly released Grassroots Music Venue Tube Map has struck a chord far beyond London’s city limits. Designed by music fan and graphic artist Tim Dunn, the unofficial map replaces London Underground stations with independent music venues. From historic haunts like The 100 Club and Windmill Brixton to newer community hubs like Grow in Hackney Wick.
But this is more than a clever design exercise or a nostalgic trip through gig memories. The map is a love letter to London’s endangered grassroots scene — and a rallying cry for its survival.
At a glance, it’s colourful, playful, and imaginative. Look closer, and it’s laced with grief and urgency. Since 2000, London has lost over a third of its small and mid-size music venues. The Grassroots Music Venue Tube Map reminds us not just what we have. But what we stand to lose if support doesn’t come soon.
The map as protest art
Unveiled in May 2025, the Grassroots Music Venue Tube Map quickly went viral across music blogs and social media feeds. Inspired by Harry Beck’s iconic 1933 design of the London Underground. Dunn’s map swaps out traditional station names for grassroots venues that have shaped the city’s cultural identity for decades.
Each line on the map represents a different theme. Punk and DIY venues, jazz spots, LGBTQ+ safe spaces, genre-defining clubs, and more. It’s not meant to be geographically accurate, but emotionally resonant. Stations like Camden Town become The Dublin Castle, Leytonstone turns into What’s Cookin’, and the Victoria line snakes through a who’s who of live music institutions.
The artwork is bold, but its message is blunt. This is what we have left — and even these venues are on borrowed time.
Unlike previous design riffs on the tube map, which have explored food, film, or football culture, this one exists with a pointed purpose. To raise awareness about the financial and legislative pressures threatening grassroots music spaces. Dunn has stated publicly that the map is intended to “spark conversation, visibility, and action.” Judging by the reception so far, it’s working.
The bigger picture: Music Venue Trust and the fight to survive
At the heart of this project lies the work of the Music Venue Trust (MVT). The UK charity dedicated to protecting, securing, and improving grassroots music venues. All proceeds from prints of the tube map are being donated directly to the MVT. And the map’s launch was timed to coincide with their 2025 awareness campaign.
According to MVT, over 125 grassroots venues have closed or stopped hosting live music in the past 12 months. A trend that’s accelerating post-pandemic, as energy prices, rent hikes, and noise complaints pile up. Many venues operate on razor-thin margins, with little to no financial safety net.
Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust, has repeatedly called the crisis a “cultural emergency,” and warned that without government intervention and community support. The live music ecosystem could collapse from the bottom up.
The Grassroots Music Venue Tube Map serves as a visual testament to the role these venues play in the broader music industry. Every stadium-filling act — from Adele and Arctic Monkeys to Skepta and Sam Fender — began on these stages. They are rehearsal rooms, testing grounds, and lifelines for new artists. Remove them and you stop future talent before it may have a chance to be heard.
More than nostalgia: A living, breathing scene
While much of the response to the map is tinged with nostalgia. It also highlights that London’s grassroots music scene is still very much alive — and worth fighting for. Venues like The Lexington, Paper Dress Vintage, Corsica Studios, and The George Tavern continue to host genre-blurring, boundary-pushing acts every week. Others, like The Amersham Arms and Luna Lounge, offer free or low-cost entry gigs that keep music accessible to everyone.
The map also spotlights cultural intersectionality: LGBTQ+ venues like Royal Vauxhall Tavern sit alongside metal strongholds like The Black Heart and dubwise sanctuaries like Channel One. This diversity reflects the real landscape of London music — not siloed by genre or postcode, but overlapping and coexisting in vibrant, unpredictable ways.
Importantly, some of the venues featured on the map are already lost. Spiritual ghosts of London’s music past. From Madame Jojo’s to The Joiners Arms, their inclusion is a poignant reminder of what happens when we take these spaces for granted.
How to support the cause
As the campaign gains momentum, several routes of action may help.
Buying a copy of the Grassroots Music Venue Tube Map is a direct way to fund the cause, with proceeds going to the Music Venue Trust’s Pipeline Investment Fund. But there’s more you can do:
Go to gigs — ticket sales are lifeblood. Even midweek support slots or local showcase nights make a difference.
Spread the word — share the map, highlight your favourite venues, and amplify campaigns like #SaveOurVenues.
Write to your MP — pressure for business rate reform and cultural venue protection laws is building.
Join the Music Venue Alliance. MVT’s national network shows you ways to get involved with grassroots level.
If every gig-goer took one extra friend to a local show this month, the ripple effect could help venues stay open through the summer. Every pint, every ticket, every social post matters.
Conclusion
The Grassroots Music Venue Tube Map is not just a piece of art — it’s a call to action disguised as design. In capturing the spirit of London’s music underground, it reminds us that these venues are more than rooms with stages.
In an age of algorithm-driven discovery and stadium-scale spectacles, this map recentres the places where it all begins. We need to value the small venues. Because if we don’t, we may soon find ourselves looking at a map of empty stations — ghosts of a scene that once was.
For more on the work of Music Venue Trust or to donate directly, visit musicvenuetrust
Other articles
For more on the challenges facing London’s music spaces. Read our feature on the Brockwell Park festival ban and how it could reshape the capital’s outdoor event scene. You can also explore our in-depth look at London’s Lost Venues at the V&A. A major new exhibition preserving the stories of clubs, pubs, and stages that helped define generations.
