The epic graphic novel entitled “From Hell” is summarised in the following way: “An unflinching recreation of Jack the Ripper’s mutilation of five Whitechapel prostitutes in 1888 is the core of this graphic novel. Jack acts as “midwife to the 20th century”,...

Here is part of a map, The Map of Roman Britain, Second Edition, published by the Ordnance Survey in 1931 and scanned by Bibliographics. The extract above shows the area taken roughly up by the modern Greater London conurbation, along with the surrounding area. The black triangles and circles...

The London Blitz, from 1940-1941, was a traumatic event that changed London’s landscape for ever. Until now, maps of the impact sights from the bombs falling on the city, have remained in paper form and have only been available to view when travelling to public archives, or through...

A book, by author and illustrator David Fathers, has recently been published, on the Regent’s Canal. It’s an engaging little book, part route finder, part local history guide, that documents curiosities about the canal (plus its nearby canal links) as it runs between Paddington in...

This is an extract of a map produced in 1928 for London Transport by Macdonald Gill. He produced many maps in this “flowery” style – a world away from the straight lines and diagrams of Beck that were to come just a few years later. This particular map is entitled “The...

The same day that James received a historic picture map of London that we eventually dated to around 1908, mainly based on the appearance of the 1908 Olympic Stadium in what is now White City, we noticed a Tweet from Collins about a new book that they had produced in conjunction with...

I recently managed to get my hands on one of my favourite maps of London. It is produced by G.W. Bacon and Co. Ltd and dates from around 1908. I like it for its clear cartography, the selection of pseudo 3D buildings (nice to see UCL in there) and the simplicity of the street network (only...

The image above is a photo of part of a large map of London, created just after the Second World War and showing buildings that were damaged or destroyed in the Blitz. The map is the centrepiece of a small free exhibition at the London Metropolitan Archive in Finsbury, which closes on 29...

We probably don’t feature enough old maps of London on here – we tend to go for the latest glitzy maps, but to make up, here is a huge collection of older maps, which we have received multiple tips about over the last few weeks! It’s not specifically London-related, but Old...

After featuring many very modern maps on Mapping London thus far, it was a pleasure to hear about the Grand Map of London, produced by a small bespoke mapping company called Wellington’s Travel. Their idea is to produce an up-to-date map of London, featuring the latest City skyscrapers...

We were delighted to receive a copy of this rather brilliant new map from artist Julia Forte. It highlights the sort of things in the centre of London that you wouldn’t necessarily find in a standard guide book, but might well hear about in a pub quiz. In fact the descriptions of each...

There is a shop in London that I always peer into when I walk past but have always resisted going in as it presented a real risk of bankruptcy. With a couple of hours (the minimum required I thought) to spare last weekend I thought it was finally time to go and look around the cartophiles...

As a followup to yesterday’s article on the Soviet Cold War maps of London, above is an extract sent from the Landmark Information Group, which has acquired a large number of the maps. The extract is of a particularly interesting area in the very centre of London – Whitehall...

Yes the U.S.S.R. had its own maps of London, and other British cities, produced during Cold War era, i.e. the 1950s-1980s, to be perhaps used either for identifying targets to attack for a future UK invasion, or for logistics and management of the realm immediately after a successful...

The OpenStreetMap Out-of-Copyright (OOC) project aims to scan in old Ordnance Survey maps of the country, so that they may be of some use when filling in the modern map. The maps have to be at least 50 years old to be used in such a way – as Crown Copyright expires after this time....

I came across this map of London train lines and underground routes in 1948, part of a guide and travel-card given to competitors at last Olympic Games in London, in 1948, while at an exhibition at Westminster Hall on London 2012. The circle line is highlighted in red and captioned...

Using the visualisation technique used by ABC Australia and the New York Times to show before/after photographs of the impact of the Japan Tsunami, below are before/after photographs of four areas in London which have seen dramatic change in the last ten years. Pass your mouse over each image...

Paying to use London’s roads is not a new idea. I have just come across a map showing turnpike gates (tolls) which were like the 18th Century equivalent of congestion charging. Instead of a single zone there appear to have been 16, each demanding a fee. It is unclear whether cyclists(!)...