The archive · Public & Social · Strategic decision · 2024
TfL names its six Overground lines after London's proudest stories
TfL and the Mayor of London turned naming the six Overground lines into a citywide co-creation that celebrates the stories Londoners cherish.
Transport for London (TfL)
What it had to solve
The six routes of the London Overground needed names, and TfL and the Mayor of London wanted the process to set a new benchmark for how cities name public infrastructure. Rather than a top-down transport decision, the naming was opened to the city.
How it works
The six routes of the London Overground needed names, and TfL and the Mayor of London set out to name them in a way that would set a new benchmark for how cities name public infrastructure. Instead of a top-down transport decision, the project was opened to Londoners as a citywide co-creation.
The process produced six names that celebrate what Londoners are proud of: Lioness for women in sport, Mildmay for LGBTQ+ history and the critical role of small healthcare centres, Windrush for the generation that shaped London's identity, Weaver for how migration revolutionised fashion, Suffragette for the fight for social reform, and Liberty for freedom of movement and Havering's historic independence.
The names turned everyday journeys into small civic monuments, and the project is preserved in the D&AD awards archive under Writing for Design as a reference for how cities can name infrastructure.
Why it lands
- The naming was a citywide co-creation, so the final names came from Londoners' own pride rather than from a transport department.
- Each name points to a real story — women's sport, LGBTQ+ history, Windrush heritage, migration and fashion, suffrage, liberty — turning the map into a record of the city.
- Every name is explainable in one line, which is what lets the meaning travel beyond the people who chose it.
- It set a public benchmark for infrastructure naming, showing other cities a repeatable way to involve residents in the identity of their own transport network.
What it did
Each of the six Overground lines now carries one of these stories, and TfL and the Mayor cast the project as a new benchmark for how cities can name their public infrastructure. The work is held in the D&AD awards archive under Writing for Design.
What you can take
When public infrastructure needs identity, let the public choose the meaning: names drawn from a city's own proud stories turn a transport decision into shared civic memory.
Since then
The six names became part of the London Overground's everyday identity — travellers ride the Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty lines. TfL and the Mayor presented the co-creation as a new benchmark for how cities name public infrastructure, and D&AD holds the project in its awards archive under Writing for Design.
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