It's the partnership we never knew we needed! Harry Potter star Emma Watson has officially teamed up with Reni Eddo-Lodge – author of Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race – to redraw the classic London Underground map. In a bid to recognise notable women with strong links to London through the ages, the dynamic duo is working closely with writer Rebecca Solnit, geographer Joshua Jelly-Schapiro and The WOW Foundation.
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Reni posted the news on Instagram
Posting the news on her Instagram, Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote:
"If your local London Underground station was named after a woman, who would it be?"
Continuing, she explained:
"City of Women London will redraw the classic London Underground map by naming each stop after a woman, non-binary person or group. This work builds on the incredible City of Women New York subway map that Rebecca and geographer Joshua Jelly-Shapiro published with @haymarketbooks in 2019, celebrating notable New Yorkers. We would LOVE your suggestions of women and non-binary Londoners. You can submit at the link in my bio."
Clearly delighting her 190k followers with the news, Reni has already received several suggestions for the map, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Olive Morris, Gina Martin, Olivia Colman, and Dame Judi Dench.
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Emma and Reni have teamed up
The project was inspired by Solnit and Jelly-Schapiro's acclaimed book Nonstop Metropolis, in which they adapted the New York City subway map to celebrate women who had made their mark on the city. Making a powerful impact, the map has since sparked important conversations about public space, history, gender, feminism, and memory.
Explaining their decision to launch the New York project, Solnit said:
"How does it impact our imaginations that so many places in so many cities are named after men and so few after women? What kind of landscape do we move through when streets and parks and statues and bridges are gendered … and it's usually one gender and not another?"
"This map was made to sing the praises of the extraordinary women who have, since the beginning, been shapers and heroes of this city that has always been, secretly, a City of Women."
