Emma Watson and Reni Eddo-Lodge Are Renaming London Tube Stops in Recognition of Women and Non-Binary People

Taking inspiration from a map of the New York City subway system that has renamed stops in recognition of the contributions made by women and non-binary people, Emma Watson and author Reni Eddo-Lodge are part of a team of organizers leading the way for a similar project for the London Underground, commonly known as the “London Tube.”

The Guardian and the Evening Standard have reported on the project, with the former explaining the project’s origins.

Eddo-Lodge, author of the bestselling Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race, and the actor and activist Watson were inspired by a similar project in the book Nonstop Metropolis by Rebecca Solnit and geographer Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, which featured a New York City subway map with all the stations renamed after great women. Both Solnit and Schapiro are working with Eddo-Lodge and Watson to help create the City of Women London.

The names on the map will be those of individuals or groups with ties to the local area. The organizers were also quoted by the Guardian:

The project aims to identify remarkable female or non-binary Londoners who have had an impact on the city’s history in some way. It will allocate them to each of the stations depicted on the London [T]ube map according to their connections to a local area. Some of these people might be household names, [while] others might be unsung heroes or figures from London’s hidden histories. The names might be drawn from arts, civil society, business, politics, sport and so on.

The City of Women London project is being undertaken in partnership with the WOW Foundation. It will be published by Haymarket Books on March 8, 2021, which is also International Women’s Day.

Additionally, members of the general public can submit their own ideas for potential names through a Google Form. Some of the suggestions reportedly include Mary Wollstonecraft, Amy Winehouse, Zadie Smith, Jung Chang, and Virginia Woolf.

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