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Amazon is confusing Londoners by changing the name of Westminster Tube

Amazon is confusing Londoners by changing the name of Westminster Tube

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It’s the tourists I feel sorry for

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Jana Kupfer / AWS

Last December, Amazon launched a new clutch of data centers in London to support its extremely profitable cloud service business. You probably don’t care and almost certainly didn’t notice, and so to remedy this situation, Amazon has decided to confuse London’s commuters. The company has temporarily fiddled with the signage in the central Westminster Tube station (“alight for Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament”), changing the name on maps and roundels in the station to read “Webminster” instead.

Commuters are perplexed:

Some have twigged the basic idea:

And others have worked out who’s responsible (Amazon Web Services signage in other parts of the station presumably helped):

It’s not actually the first time a corporation has bought (temporarily) a slice of the Tube. During the London Marathon in 2015, Canada Water station was briefly renamed Buxton Water. But that at least gets points for being a more straightforward pun, while even the generous-hearted would agree that “Webminster” is pretty groan-worthy. Other suggestions we’ve seen include Bermodemsy (Bermondsey) and Regent Spark (Regent’s Park). Leave your own ideas below if the spirit takes you.