A century of the London Underground logo

One of the few surviving images of the early underground roundel can be seen towards the top right of the photograph, which shows a virtually unrecognisable Hammersmith Broadway in 1910 Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive

The early station signs had featured a solid circle crossed by a bar. Both the roundel and font were redesigned by Edward Johnston in 1913 into the format familiar to us today Photograph: Roger Bamber

In the 1920s, architect Charles Holden was commissioned to design a number of underground stations. His distinctive art-deco buildings incorporate the logo in stained-glass windows and on masts. Clapham South is shown here, shortly after it opened in 1926 Photograph: H F Davis/Hulton archive

A parrot and a crowd of children in swimming costumes outside Brent underground station (now Brent Cross) in August 1932. Brent station was the first station to open on the extension to the then Hampstead and Highgate line. At the time, it passed through undeveloped rural areas all the way to Edgware Photograph: J Gaiger/Hulton Archive

The roundel has featured in London Transport advertising too, as a recent exhibition at the London Transport museum showed. This extra-terrestrial poster image was designed by Man Ray in 1938 Photograph: London Transport museum

During the second world war, a number of underground stations were used as mass air raid shelters. This shot from 1940 shows people sheltering from shelling at Bounds Green, which later that year collapsed after aerial bombardment, leaving 17 dead in a scene reminiscent of the recent film version of Ian McEwan's Atonement Photograph: M McNeill/Hulton Archive

After the Great Smog of December 1952 contributed to the deaths of thousands of Londoners, people started to take precautions against air pollution. Here, in 1953, a policeman gives directions to a woman wearing a protective mask Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty

Travellers pass through Waterloo station in 1967. By this time the roundel was also being used on all London buses, hence the transition from Underground to London Transport on the bar across the centre Photograph: Rex Features

Passengers at High Street Kensington station wait for their train in 1979 Photograph: Owen Franken/Corbis

The tube logo at Tottenham Court Road station hangs among mosaic murals by Edward Paolozzi, which were installed in 1984, and make reference to the chaos of hi-fi and electronics shops nearby Photograph: Massimo Borchi/Corbis

The iconic status achieved by the tube logo was evidenced in 1999 when Lloyds International raised a tidy sum holding an auction of disused underground station furniture and signs, and even a tube train Photograph: Mykel Nicolaou/Rex Features

A century on, the tube logo is practically synonymous with London, associated with every means of transport from boats to trams, and appearing on every imaginable merchandising surface, including mugs and underwear Photograph: Rosie Greenway/Getty