Lewes Tube Map Art Print - A Gift For Locals

A gift for Lewes people who have never found a single thing worth hanging that is actually about Lewes, because this draws the town once the seas have risen, with the 2030 and 2080 flood risk zones laid straight over the network. It is titled A Useless Lewes Tube Map. It is not trying to help you get anywhere.

Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper, textured matte, archival and acid-free. Produced unframed or framed. Deeply researched and designed by me in East Sussex.

I drew this one during the 2020 lockdown, from the location map and from living here, turning the town into a transit network with landmarks, streets and local quirks as stations. Eight lines, the River Ouse, and a subtitle that reads Local Lines For Local People.

Why this Lewes tube map art makes a gift Lewesians keep

The usual town souvenir could be any town. This one only works if you know Lewes, and the flood zones are the reason it has an edge to it rather than just being a joke.

Every line has something buried in it. It rewards every closer look.

What is on the map

The lines are the Cliffe and South Street, the Nevill and Commercial, the Southover, the Borough and Waterloo, the Virginia Woolf Branch Line down to Rodmell, and a Funicular Line up to the golf club.

Then there is the DFL Line, which anyone who has lived here for more than a fortnight will understand on sight. It calls at Old DFL Wharf and Newer DFL Wharf, there is an Upper DFL Wharf marked TBC, and a DFL Extension due in 2025.

Nearby you will find Eton New Town, also marked as established 2025, which is the same observation made from a slightly different angle.

The station names are where the map does its real work. Rozzer Headquarters and, separately, Rozzers (Hiding). Bypass Rumble, and further along, Bypass Rumble Denial. Random Starbucks, Angry Horse Rider, Twitchers Loiter, I Saw You Coming, Slow Coffees, Culfail Snail, Abyss and Smelly Ditch.

There is a No Bus Station, drawn with a bus interchange symbol. Swanborough has an airport symbol. The Rowing Club is in quotation marks, and I stand by that.

The real Lewes is all present too. Harvey's, Lewes Castle, Anne of Cleves, Lewes Priory, Pells Pool, HMP Lewes, the Cliffe Bonfire Site, Lewes FC, the Linklater Pavilion, Keere Street, Rotten Row, and The Depot with its own cinema symbol.

Two more sit there for locals to spot. Vampire's Wife Lair, and McCloud's Rusty Folly.

How I make each print

Each one is a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper with a textured matte finish, archival and acid-free, so the colours hold for years. Choose A2 or A1, unframed or framed, ready to hang in a hallway, kitchen or local business.

FAQ

Why are there flood zones on it?
Because the map is set once the seas have risen. The 2030 and 2080 flood risk zones are drawn over the network, which in a town that has flooded before is only partly a joke.

Is it an accurate map?
No, and the title says so. It is a tube map, so it is about connections rather than distances.

What is the DFL Line?
If you need to ask, you are probably on it.

Are the stations real places?
Many are. Harvey's, the Castle, Pells Pool, the Priory, HMP Lewes and The Depot are all on there, alongside the invented ones.

Is there an Uckfield version?
There is, and this map points across to it. It is called A Not Very Useful Uckfield Tube Map.

What are the framing options?
Unframed, or supplied framed and ready to hang.

Related Tube Maps

The Uckfield Tube Map Art Print is the companion piece, and this map points across to it. Both sit in the Lewes and Uckfield collection at mikebellmaps.com.

For more Sussex drawn the same way, the Brighton and Hove Albion Map Art Print covers the club rather than the town.