Art on the Underground

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Art on the Underground

Welcome to our official page. TfL’s contemporary art programme.

Art on the Underground was launched in 2000 to promote greater understanding of the Tube as a cultural and social environment. Since then, we have been producing and presenting new public artworks for the Underground network. As London's largest public contemporary arts programme, Art on the Underground is a pioneer in commissioning and celebrating contemporary artworks. Millions of people travel on the Tube every day, and Art on the Underground aims to enrich these journeys, today and for the future.

30/09/2026

What do the people of Brixton think of the artwork installed at Brixton Underground station?

‘The Congregation’ by artist Rudy Loewe is still on view at Brixton Underground station ahead of our 10th Brixton Mural Project commission, launching 19 November 2026. Take a look the next time you’re passing through!

Visit our website to find out more about the Brixton Mural commission and how they have engaged with Brixton’s history and communities over the years.

Reel by

21/09/2026

📢 Watch ‘Maybe It’s Because I’m A Londoner’, a new short film about our 2026 sound commission by Ain Bailey with Elaine Mitchener.

Bailey’s first UK public artwork undertook an autobiographical mapping of London to reflect on the value of London’s cultural spaces and their place in shaping a personal identity. It featured a new libretto paying homage to more than 70 London premises that have been important to Ain Bailey throughout her lifetime, which are no longer open. The commission could be heard at Waterloo Underground station from 29 June 2026 to 10 July 2026.

A new film about ‘Maybe It’s Because I’m A Londoner’ by Other Cinemas expands upon the artists’ experiences of London and the making of the artwork, featuring interviews with Bailey and Mitchener.

Watch the short documentary by via the link in bio 🎥

03/09/2026

🚨 Attention All Kids! Last few weeks to pick up your free ‘Spaghetti Map’ leaflet to help you think like an artist while Underground 🚊

This project is produced with Spaghetti Club, an art and creative writing collaboration between artist Michael Crowe and more than 100 children from five schools across London.

Leaflets are still available at South Kensington, Battersea, Nine Elms, Westminster, St James’ Park, Edgware Road (Circle line), Tottenham Court Road, Whitechapel, Manor House, Arsenal and Blackhorse Road Underground stations. ‘Spaghetti Map’ can also be downloaded from our website. Link in bio.

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Design by

01/09/2026

Ellen Gallagher, ‘Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish’ - have you spotted these posters for the 42nd pocket Tube map cover?

This new artwork draws inspiration from London’s long-buried River Fleet and its ancient wells, such as Clerkenwell and Sadler’s Wells, which mark the Fleet’s course through the city. Invoking the Fleet and its intersection with Tube tunnels, Gallagher visualises the historic and materially layered strata below London and connects it with the experience of travelling underground.

‘Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish’ also forms part of a larger body of work which draws on Gallagher’s ongoing research around Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and parallels with the whaling and triangular trades. This new work for the pocket Tube map references Melville’s story of Pip, a young Black cabin boy who falls overboard. Gallagher imagines the underwater world Pip experiences, the silver vertebrate of a whale carcass lying on the seabed forms the central composition, as seen from the surface, and brings together themes of marine life, transatlantic history and memory.

Look out for these posters and collect your free copy of the map from all London Underground stations.

25/08/2026

What goes up must come down! There are just a couple of weeks left to visit Monster Chetwynd’s Art on the Underground commission at Gloucester Road station. 🦎

Since 2023, Gloucester Road Underground station’s platform has been home to ‘Pond Life: Albertopolis and the Lily’, a large-scale sculpture installation revealing the entwined histories of Gloucester Road station and the vast programme of cultural redevelopment that followed the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park.

Through her research into Gloucester Road and the local area Monster Chetwynd became fascinated by the giant Amazonian waterlily. This plant was the inspiration behind gardener-turned-architect Joseph Paxton’s pioneering design for the Crystal Palace, the building which housed the Great Exhibition

At Gloucester Road Tube station, Chetwynd created a series of five 4-metre diameter disc-shaped sculptures along the length the platform. Each sculpture is populated with creatures – beetles, dragonfly larvae, tadpoles and tortoises – that appear to be constructing sections of the Crystal Palace. They show the underwater life of the submerged lily pads, their spiny network of veins playing host to the industrious wildlife. Rather than stepping down into the tunnels of the London Underground it is as if the viewer has stepped beneath the surface of the water, into a subterranean simulation of the Amazon

You can still visit the artwork at Gloucester Road until 5 September 🪲

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21/08/2026

📢 We’re hiring a Coordinator (Maternity Cover, 13 months)!

We’re looking for a Coordinator to support Art on the Underground’s programme, helping bring to life the exciting commissions and events planned by the team.

The role spans programme delivery, social media and website management, and technical, financial and administrative support. You’ll work closely with artists, designers, photographers, contractors and TfL colleagues, while helping ensure our work aligns with TfL’s brand and design guidelines.

📅 Deadline to apply: Friday 4 September, 2026

Find the full job description and details on how to apply via the link in our bio.

21/08/2026

AOTU Recommends:

Rudy Loewe: Intimacies of Care
at Wellcome Collection Wellcome Collection
On till 7 February 2027

Rudy Loewe (b.1987, London) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores histories of resistance and African and Caribbean spiritual practices. For this new commission they are working in large-scale multi-media sculpture for the first time. Creating spaces for participation, rest and reflection, they invite us to collectively reimagine what care could be.

Loewe’s work responds to statistics showing that Black people in the UK face systemic barriers to accessing mentalhealth support when seeking it voluntarily yet are four timesmore likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act.

‘The Congregation’ by Rudy Loewe, commissioned by Art on the Underground, is also still on view at Brixton Underground station till November 2027. Take a look when passing through!

1: Rudy Loewe, ‘And Here We Found One Another’, 2025. Photo: Thomas Farnetti
2. Rudy Loewe, ‘The Congregation’, 2026, Brixton Underground station. Photo: Angus Mill

Rudy Loewe

18/08/2026

“‘Spaghetti Map’ isn’t an ‘A to B’ style map, it’s a map for ideas, inviting children to think like artists and put pen to paper while underground. It’s an invitation to get to know a local artwork, and to look out for others while travelling through the city. Did you know there’s a unique Mark Wallinger artwork in every Underground station?”
- Michael Crowe, Artist and Spaghetti Club founder

‘Spaghetti Map’ is a free interactive leaflet that explores artworks permanently installed on London’s Underground.

From Jacqueline Poncelet’s ‘Wrapper’ – a 1,500m vitreous enamel artwork that covers Edgware Road’s Circle line substation – to Larry Achiampong’s pan-African roundel at Westminster Underground station, ‘PAN AFRICAN FLAG FOR THE RELIC TRAVELLERS’ ALLIANCE (UNION)’, the new art map for kids features six works commissioned by Art on the Underground since 2012.

Leaflets are available until September 2026 at South Kensington, Battersea, Nine Elms, Westminster, St James’ Park, Edgware Road (Circle line), Tottenham Court Road, Whitechapel, Manor House, Arsenal and Blackhorse Road Underground stations. ‘Spaghetti Map’ can also be downloaded from our website. Link in bio.

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04/08/2026

🚨 Attention Kids! ‘Spaghetti Map’ is now available at a station near you. 🍝

This free activity leaflet has been developed by with over 100 primary school children across London, to help you think like an artist while underground 🚊 .

Pick up your free ‘Spaghetti Map’ from Battersea Power station, Nine Elms, Tottenham Court Road, Westminster, South Kensington, St James’s Park, Edgware Road, Whitechapel, Arsenal, Manor House or Blackhorse Road stations.

Find out more via the link in bio!

23/07/2026

🍝🪄✨ Photos from the launch of ‘Spaghetti Map’ in the South Kensington pedestrian tunnel and artist “book signing” event. Several of the artists who contributed to ‘Spaghetti Map’ joined us to celebrate the launch of the new leaflet and poster artworks at South Kensington. We met many other young artists out and about in London who stamped their launch edition leaflets. Thanks to all who celebrated with us!

‘Spaghetti Map’ is a free interactive leaflet that explores artworks permanently installed in London’s Underground. Inviting primary-aged children to think like artists while underground, it is created by Spaghetti Club, an art and creative writing collaboration between artist Michael Crowe and more than 100 children from five London primary schools.

The leaflet is available to download via the link in our bio, or collect from: South Kensington, Battersea, Nine Elms, Westminster, St James’s Park, Edgware Road (Circle line), Tottenham Court Road, Whitechapel, Manor House, Arsenal and Blackhorse Road Underground stations.

Get your copy now to avoid disappointment!

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