The London Underground has undergone another partial rebrand to promote the new Guinness brewery in Covent Garden.
Eleven Tube route maps on the Northern line platforms at Tottenham Court Road station have been temporarily redesigned to mimic the classic look of a pint of the Irish stout – a black body with a white head, “inverting” the normal black text on a white background.
The Guinness harp logo has replaced the classic Tube roundel on platforms at Covent Garden station.
And a caricature of the toucan bird – which the brewer has used for decades in its advertising – can be found on top of a sign at Tottenham Court Road, near the Toucan pub in Soho.
The week-long campaign was launched on February 9 and will last until next Monday.
It is likely to generate a five-figure sum for Transport for London but may reignite the debate about TfL’s willingness to allow the capital’s public transport network to be rebranded, which some critics – including disability groups - say confuses passengers.
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The Guinness campaign comes a month after parts of the Bakerloo line were rebranded by Heineken to promote its zero-alcohol beer.
The Guinness Open Gate brewery opened in Covent Garden in December – with King Charles pouring the “perfect pint” when he visited.
Emma Strain, TfL’s customer director, said: “The Guinness Open Gate Brewery is one of London’s newest exciting venues and just a short walk away from some of our best known Tube stations so we are pleased to join Guinness as they celebrate the opening of their new venue in Covent Garden.”
She added: “Guinness adverts are part of the fabric of London’s advertising and have certainly been a presence for almost 100 years - remember the surfers, the toucan?
“[We’ve] brought the iconic ‘black with a white top’ approach, the harp and the toucan back to London Underground.
“The London transport network is a great advertising canvas and the investment that brands make when they advertise on our network is a form of giving back, as all the money we raised is used to continue to improve our public transport network.
“We also work really hard in the background with brands, stakeholders and TfL operational colleagues to ensure that we are not confusing customers.
“This includes having [equality impact assessments] in place, actively working with equality and inclusion stakeholders and only changing some of the signage so we don’t have a detrimental impact on customers’ wayfinding.
“Every collaboration is unique and hopefully delights our customers as well as helping us to invest in the transport network.”
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Drinking alcohol is banned on the Tube and is one of the main causes of passenger injuries, in particular falls on escalators.
It is also a factor in the assaults and aggression faced by Tube station staff.
Ironically, TfL has increased its own advertising “warning of the dangers of intoxication” to “encourage customers to travel responsibly and safely”.
TfL commissioner Andy Lord, in a recent update to the TfL board about safety over the Christmas period, said: “Over the holiday period, customer safety incidents across our network tend to rise, often linked to alcohol consumption.
“To address this, our annual comprehensive, data-driven safety plan launched in November 2025, and focuses on mitigating the impact of intoxication.”
He said TfL enforcement officers patrolled the Underground to help passengers who were intoxicated and to ask them to hand over any open bottles or cans of alcohol.
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