For the next few days, you can catch a London Underground or Elizabeth line train from Burberry Street tube station.
(c) Burberry
What was Bond Street station has been transformed into ‘Burberry Street’ for the duration of London Fashion Week, which runs until next Tuesday.
This transformation isn’t limited to just a name change as the ‘Burberry Street’ station makeover extends to its entrance, signage, and Transport for London (TfL) roundels adorning the Central, Jubilee, and Elizabeth line platforms. These elements now sport “knight blue,” a hue introduced by Chief Creative Officer Daniel Lee as one of Burberry’s new symbols of the house.
Even the station signs on the Elizabeth line platform maps have been tweaked.
(c) Burberry
The ‘Burberry Street’ partnership will run from today until Tuesday 19th September 2023. If you’re looking to infuse a bit of fashion into your daily commute, hop on board at ‘Burberry Street’ station during this limited-time partnership.
TfL will have earned an income from the rebranding, which is then pumped back into running the network.
Updated 20th Sept: now confirmed that TfL earned £200,000 from the five day sponsorship.
(c) Burberry
This seems like it would be incredibly confusing for tourists.
Was a confusing change, was on the Elizabeth line. We pulled in another passenger in an electric wheelchair started getting off the train and stopped and got back on due to the signs.
Not seen it first hand to be able to properly comment, but that was my first thought also, not just tourists, but occasional travellers as well
Branding is cool and all, but don’t let directional signage suffer from it
I can appreciate that TfL needs the money, but wayfinding signage is for wayfinding, interfering so thoroughly with it is bound to confuse tourists
It would have been helpful to still have “(Bond Street)” on a line below the temporary Burberry Street branding at platform level. I can imagine the platform level rebranding causing confusion for those not familiar with the stations.
As presumably the income they received more than covers the costs of the temporary branding I dare say we may see more of these sorts of things, especially given the current TFL long term funding uncertainty.
Great Stuff.
When the doors are about to close can we please have
“please mind the Diors”
nice one. Surely it’s less classy than that though… mind the Gap. I wonder if they will refund any tourists (or even locals) who are seriously affected by this. I was in the early stages of Covid, as it turns out, and was flummoxed by it even as a very experienced tube user!
I temped at Burberry HO once upon a time. They made you pay 80p for you to make your own instant coffee. I’m amazed they’re spending so much on something like this tbh.
Very cool takeover, happily the tannoy’s etc still say ‘Bond Street’ so not too much confusion.
I’m all for getting TfL some extra income by allowing temporary rebrands, as long as it isn’t too drastic or confusing. This is an absolute mess – not only does ‘Burberry’ have no similarity with ‘Bond’ (save for the one starting letter), they’ve also redone every sign and all the wayfinding, including on maps! Just change the roundels, nothing else or you confuse tourists, even some regular Londoners.
I kind of liked some of the past campaigns, like “Gareth Southgate”, “Green Planet”, “Webminster”, and “Picardilly Circus”. The crucial thing is that you’d be able to look at those names and pretty easily figure out what station you’re at. Really disappointing from Burberry, and disappointed that you didn’t even offer an ounce of criticism, Ian.
Should have renamed Hackney Central. That was where the Burberry factory was.
This is outrageous and will cause huge disruption and confusion to people unfamiliar with the tube network. A few years ago the station Penrith was temporarily changed to the name of a music festival and I saw an old man get back on the train. The next stop was 50 miles away at Lancaster.
Calm down Graeme , its only for one week . Stop moaning .huge disruption ? Really ? No probably not
Shows the desperate state of affairs at TfL financially. Doubt it’d be happening if they weren’t on the brink of bankruptcy all the time.
TfL is expected to return to an operational surplus in 2023/24. Due mostly to higher than expected revenue from the Elisabeth Line.
My commute is on the Elizabeth line to Bond Street 4 days a week. I was slightly confused when I arrived at Bond Street station on Friday and all of the station signs had been changed to “Burberry Street”.
As my train pulled into the station, staff announced that we were at Bond Street station and that Burberry Street was just for the day.
On my return, I was curious so I asked a member of station staff “why is Bond Street Burberry Street today?”.
They seemed taken aback. Must have been asked the same question all day.
They said it was because of a movie that references Bond Street. I asked “what is the movie?” They said it was an old movie. Now I see from the other posts that it wasn’t because of a movie. It’s because it’s Fashion Week.
Absolute madness. Station names should never be tinkered with unless it’s a permanent change that doesn’t cause confusion
Permanently changing Bond Street to Selfridges would be acceptable because it’s a well known destination, but temporary use of a non-existent street name is not.
The resultant confusion could even have serious consequences if a 999 caller gave their location as ‘outside the main entrance to Burberry Street station’.
As the article notes, it also fails to achieve its intended purpose because very few people recognise the connection to London Fashion Week.
I think we can sue the TFL for deliberately causing confusion to the public and create false information.