DRINKERS have a new way to navigate between their favourite watering holes using this tube map with a twist.

Designer John Coats specialises in producing unusual maps and designed this schematic of 126 Reading pubs based on the iconic London Underground maps, whose circuit-board type design was the brainchild of engineer Harry Beck in the early 1930s. Mr Coats, a maths teacher, first applied the idea to his home city of Sheffield, using his local knowledge to create the map.

But more recent maps tend to depend on careful use of the internet, he admits.

Mr Coats told The Chronicle: “I have had a couple of nights out in Reading when I was a student, but I couldn’t honestly tell you which pubs I visited!

“The ease with which information is now available on the internet now means I can usually put the designs together using the web, which does take some of the fun out of designing - and testing out - pub crawls.

“The Reading design was a must for us simply because of the number of people that have asked us to do a poster for Reading.”

The map, sponsored by Henley-based pub chain Brakspear, sticks to the basic geography of Reading, its suburbs and surrounding villages, but incorporates some of the well-known features of the London tube map such as a branching Northern Line running from pubs in Theale, Shinfield and Whitley up through the town centre to Caversham and Playhatch, and an east-west Central Line from Tilehurst to east Reading, Earley and Winnersh.

The poster will be on sale from tomorrow (Friday) at But Is It Art? in Queen Victoria Street, from Picture Frame Maker in Church Road, Caversham, and online at www.pubstops.co.uk for £5.95.