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Tipp man to become Tube’s most familiar face

By Noreen Bowden | June 20, 2007

A man who emigrated from Tipperary in 1962 will have his portrait on the cover of the London Tube map.

John Hough left his home near Borrisokane at the age of 19, in response to an ad from London Transport. He took up work with the company and has been there ever since; he worked for five years as a bus conductor before becoming a booking clerk for the Underground. He now works a station supervisor for Wembley Park.  

 The Irish Times reports,

“There wasn’t much going on in Ireland. I was only living on a small farm at the time; there was no way that was going to sustain me for the rest of my life. There wasn’t much on the horizon.”

Mr Hough will retire next week and was honoured yesterday by London mayor Ken Livingstone. His 45 years of service makes him the longest-serving transport worker.

His portrait will be printed on five million copies of the London Underground pocket Tube map; the work is part of the “Platform for Art” Project

The Guardian quotes Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, who created the drawing with Paul Ryan:

“Just as the tube map is a piece of portraiture of London, this works in the same way, but of a person. I was inspired by the Hockney Portraits Show at the National Portrait Gallery last year. It also has an element of social history – John came over from Ireland in the late 50s as there was no work, so it represents the movement of labour and immigration.”

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