Explore a new Pride-themed audio guide on the Tube, featuring artists, queer staff and community voices guiding you between artworks across stations , a free, sensory way to connect with public art and London’s LGBTQ+ history while you travel.

  • What it is: A free Pride audio tour across five public artworks on the Tube, narrated by artists, contributors and queer TfL staff.
  • Feel: Personal, reflective voices paired with visual art, bringing stations to life with intimate stories and local colour.
  • Where it goes: Stops include Bethnal Green, Notting Hill Gate, St James’s Park, Trafalgar Square and Brixton , a mix of east, west and central London.
  • Practical: Available through June, listen on the move via your phone; routes are spread out, so plan travel time and tube fares.
  • Bonus: Part of TfL’s wider Pride activity including portrait posters across the network and staff participation in the Pride parade.

A short walk, a long conversation , why this tour matters

This isn’t a single gallery stop, it’s a networked walk through London’s public art where each piece gets a human introduction. The audio pairs visual works with personal testimony, so a mural or sculpture doesn’t feel remote , it sounds lived-in and warm. According to TfL’s Art on the Underground, the project was created in partnership with OUTbound, TfL’s LGBTQ+ staff network, which makes the voices on the guide feel both local and official.

Meet the voices behind the artworks

Highlights include Phoebe Boswell’s We Move Through Scales of Blue, spanning Bethnal Green and Notting Hill Gate, and a reflection from Zahara C-Jones, one of the swimmers pictured in the work. At St James’s Park, Dr Maggie Matić talks about Angels of History by Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings. Trafalgar Square listens to Abel Holsborough, whose face was one of hundreds used in Teresa Margolles’ Fourth Plinth piece. These are first-person connections that give texture to public commissions and make familiar stations feel newly intimate.

How the tour fits into TfL’s Pride plans

TfL has threaded this audio project into a broader Pride programme. The city has kept alternative pedestrian crossing symbols near Trafalgar Square since 2016 , small green symbols that celebrate same-sex couples and trans identities , and the audio tour sits alongside new portrait posters across the network and a TfL float in the Pride parade. Emma Strain, TfL’s customer director, frames the effort as a way to reflect London’s diversity and bridge art with lived experience.

Practical tips for enjoying the route

Plan it as a relaxed day out rather than a hop-on hop-off sprint. The five works are spread across zones, so buy a day travel card or plan Oyster top-ups, and bring headphones with good volume so station announcements don’t drown the narration. If you want a quieter listen, hit the stations early or later in the evening when footfall drops. And if one stop is busy, save it for a return visit , the audio will be available online while the project runs.

Why public art and personal stories work together

Public art can be decorative or provocative, but adding personal testimony turns it into conversation. When people who appear in or are connected to a work tell you what it means to them, the piece gains context, and the station does too. It’s a small, democratic way to weave LGBTQ+ histories into everyday travel , and a reminder that the Tube isn’t just concrete and tiles, it’s community.

It's a small change that can make each journey feel more human and more visible.

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