Tom Anderson wrote to uk.transport.london on Wed, 1 Sep 2004:

I find labelling by terminus completely unhelpful - unless you know the
network well enough to know the terminus of every line (which most
Londoners probably do, but visitors certainly don't), it means you need a
map to interpret the signs.

Oh no, it's much easier! As a young adult, I lived in Paris before I
lived in London, and had enormous difficulty working out how the London
system worked, compared to the extraordinarily easy Paris system, which
labels by terminus. Doesn't help that I have enormous difficulty
knowing my left from my right, or my east from my west.... I can just
about manage north and south, but that's it!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/