Mapping London has long enjoyed Stephen Walter’s fabulously detailed, painstakingly created pencil-sketch maps of London, and now one of his most famous works, The Island, has been made into a jigsaw puzzle. It was launched late last year by publishers Prestel UK and comes as a 400-piece work. The team at Mapping London Towers likes to think that it knows London’s geography pretty well – after all, we’ve reviewed over 300 other maps here so far. So we assumed that completing this puzzle was going to be straightforward, something to piece together in a short break. How wrong we were – it took three of us nearly six hours each (over three long lunches) to complete the puzzle. There are various challenges making it harder – the map is black and white, which means there are no colour clues, apart from the red banded pieces forming the edge of the puzzle. In addition, as a semi-autobiographical work of the creator, some of the place names are spelt in local vernacular or slang. So going by simple place names is harder than you might expect. Conversely, if you have a good knowledge of historical spots in London, some demographic statistics (such as the area with lowest life expectancy) or can recognise flags and know which London neighbourhoods the corresponding nationality has an established community in, then this can be invaluable. Subtle changes in the density of the penciled buildings can also help. Stephen was never afraid to voice his opinion on many areas, and even be downright derogatory about some of them – perhaps sometimes deserved. But you really need to know London’s rough as well as its smooth, for these to help with the task of solving. The jigsaw puzzle pieces themselves are also...

This stunning map reveals the athletic footprint of London. Strava have taken their huge volume of movement data, recorded by runners, cyclists and other data-enabled fitness peeps and created a heatmap of London (and indeed, the world). Many people use Strava to record their cycle to work, whereas running to work is much rarer, and recreational running is much more likely so, in order to see an alternative, largely non-commuting flow map of London, we have here featured the running data. A street network is still seen, but the brightest lines are no longer the big road arteries of London – instead it is the park roads, athletics tracks, canal towpaths and the Thames footpaths. It shows a London reordered towards two feet rather than four (or two) wheels. The extract at top, centred over the London’s central area, shows four parks in each corner – Regent’s Park, Victoria Park, Greenwich Park and Battersea Park, as hotspots of activity, along with both sides of the Thames, the Regent’s Canal towpath, and Hyde Park. Two blurred areas – at Canary Wharf and the eastern part of the City of London – are likely a combination of a large number of runners and the GPS multipath-interference effect of the very tall, close together buildings in these areas. Looking more closely at certain areas, you can start to see the thousands of individual traces in each area, along with local “obstacles”: This obstacle, at Barnes Bridge in west London, is due to be fixed soon with a new underbridge: We featured an earlier version of the map in 2013, back then it only include a month’s worth of data, whereas this latest map includes all the data up to September 2017 (except that marked as private, in...

Tranquil Pavement is an online map recently launched by the Tranquil City project based in London, in association with the Outlandish Cooperative and funded by Organicity. It aims to highlight tranquil places to visit, if the hustle and bustle of city life gets too much, by plotting “crowdsourced “locations – referenced in an Instagram feed – as green circles, and also shows a general overlay map shade of calmness (or otherwise) across the capital. The latter is shown by a white (higher noise/pollution) to green (lower noise/pollution) gradient based on official data from DEFRA and the GLA. A different shade of green, showing park footprints, is underlaid to further emphasise likely tranquil locations. The background map makes a point of naming, and so highlighting, only smaller roads, rather than larger noisy artery roads, and also showing some water features, including, unusually, underground rivers such as the River Fleet. The overall map – tending to green in more suburban outer London, but with green highlights for specific tranquil locations more likely to be in the inner city, results in a rather pleasing to look at – although perhaps grey black would be an even better colour for pollution/noise – representing the murk of an untranquil location. Explore the live map here, or add the #tranquilcitylondon tag to your geotagged photos of London’s peaceful places, on...

The Chiswick Timeline, a mural of maps showing the history of the pleasant west London neighbourhood, was successfully crowdfunded and launched last month. It appears alongside a road as it passes underneath a railway bridge by Turnham Green station. A commemorative book, reproducing the work, is available to buy online or at Foster’s Bookshop on Chiswick’s high street. At Mapping London, we love the idea of a community getting together to brighten up a drab wall in their area, particularly when the artwork commissioned is a map! In this case, it is many maps – even better. The mural features 16 different maps, 8 on each side of the road, from 1593 (Norden’s map of Middlesex) right up to the latest 2018 Legible London map of the area (those attractive pedestrian maps you see on totem poles throughout the inner London, and now extending further out). We feature three of these maps here – at the top is a map by William Knight from 1700 of “Towns, Villages, Gentlemen’s Houses for 20 Miles round London”, it shows that Turn(h)am Green has been around for far longer than the tube station which bears its name. Above is a land-use map drawn by Milne a hundred years later, in 1800. This is a historic “data” map, the colours depicting different land types. Showing choropleths and indeed simply using colour at all on a map was pretty ground-breaking 200+ years ago. The many market gardens around Chiswick are coloured in blue, with orchards in green. Finally, below is the 1949 Ordnance Survey “6 inch to the mile” map, with just the River Thames coloured in, which shows that Chiswick never got fully urbanised – the open lands to the south of the earlier maps have simply become...

If Lumiere London, which finished yesterday, has whet your appetite for seeing artistic displays of light after dark, then there is another festival of lights which runs until Saturday. It’s at Canary Wharf and called Winter Lights. Think Lumiere London, in a smaller area and without the huge crowds. And, like the King’s Cross, it’s produced its own special map for the event, which we feature above. Outdoor exhibits are indicated as magenta circles, and indoor ones are shown as white circles. It doesn’t quite have the glowing-lights-at-night feel of the Lumiere maps, but it’s clear and easy to read, and shows the area’s water-dominant geography well. Canary Wharf is a reasonably compact site, so you should be able to see many of the lights quickly – and Canary Wharf itself at night is quite impressive, even without the extra lighting. Winter Lights runs from 5-10pm, until 27...

King’s Cross is one of the six Lumiere London areas, where light-based artworks are on display every evening until Sunday. We looked at the general maps of the event yesterday, but we discovered also that King’s Cross has its own map, showing where the exhibits are. You don’t have to follow the marked route, although it does take you past all the key exhibits, and, with the expected large crowds, you may find it makes sense to follow this path of least resistance! Mapping London likes this attractive, clear map that is using a nice “nighttime” black, pastel pink and maroon colour scheme, bright colours for the routes and attractions, and nice labelling for the new streets. The area is rapidly evolving with different areas constantly opening up to the public. Current construction zones are shown as areas of dots. The canal is shown with watery waves, and green areas are a lighter pink shade. The overall effect is rather nice. Paper copies of this map are being handed out at the entrances to the area each evening. People who get one, and visit four places marked on the map (including a colourfully lit night market), can get their map stamped at each, and then and get free candyfloss or a glow band. Waterlicht (No. 5 on the map) is the undoubted highlight – lasers and dry ice across the huge Granary Square. See pic below for the general effect, it is one to definitely experience for yourself, it fills the whole square and has the crowds underneath it in awe. It reminds me of the Weather Project at the Tate Modern back in 2003. If you are looking for No. 7, look up high! It’s a screen suspended from a crane, which is...

The Lumiere London, a free show of more than 50 light-based artworks, scattered throughout central London, starts today and the lights are switched on for the next four evenings, until Sunday 21st. It’s the second running of the event, after the inaugural in January 2016 which led to huge crowds of onlookers on the streets (over a million in total). This year, many more central London roads are closed to traffic, which may make things easier for moving around on foot. This year’s event is based on six zones, and there is a simple map (above) showing the zones, and maps for each of these zones (two of these are below). There is also a more detailed map (excerpt at bottom) that you can buy for download, and a free app, which is also useful for navigating between the works. In fact, the website map, the pay-to-download map excerpt and the map in the app are all slightly different! Probably easiest just head to the giant ball above Oxford Circus and then follow the crowds. We like the stylized zone maps, they have an appropriately night-time/glowing theme, and should be quite useful to navigate with – or else just follow the lights and look up! London Lumiere is promoted by Visit London and organised by...

Dry January? You might want to look away. From the industry’s official promoter of the fortified Andalusian wine in the UK, comes this map of tapas bars and restaurants in central London where you can be sure of finding a good glass of sherry. The map was published in October last year but we just spotted it now, and we like it! The map was created by illustrator Andy Smith. There’s lots of nice details in it – for example, the “Sherry Ferry” that appears in the Thames, heading towards Canary Wharf, is a reference to a ferry that used to go between two of the Camino bars in London. The plate of Mojama tuna is a nod to the animal that is, like sherry, local to Cadiz. Some tube station roundels and the River Thames appear – two musts with any London map – and the venues themselves are illustrated with numbered circles. A sprinkling of London landmarks are interspersed with names and logos of the bars/restaurants concerned, and various tapas-style snacks. N.B. Be careful if using this as a map to navigate by. The designer has gone beyond the usual bounds of simplifying detail and removing non-key roads, by connecting Farringdon Road and Borough High Street together across an unnamed bridge across the Thames. The former actually goes to Blackfriars Bridge and the latter to London Bridge, which are separated by several other bridges. This will be especially confusing if using the map to navigate after having tried several sherries. Use the London Sherry Trail map to find your venues, then your smartphone mapping platform of choice to work out how to actually get there! You may be able to pick up a paper copy of the map from the venues themeselves...

The Children’s Map of London (sometimes called the Children’s Pictorial Map of London) was drawn by Leslie Bullock and first published by Bartholomew in 1938, the edition here is I believe the original version. All royalties from the sale of the map went to the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street (aka GOSH) which appropriately does itself appear on the map. The decorative style brings to mind an older time – perhaps the 1920s, when decorative maps were popular and the Beck tube map had not yet appeared – or perhaps even a map from the 1800s. Despite this, it was likely a good map to navigate by, as it includes most of the street network, and doesn’t distort the geography. A lot has changed of course, since the 1930s – Euston station, for instance, looks a lot grander on the map, as this was before it was pulled down and replaced with a giant shed in the 1960s. It looks more grand than St Pancras even, on this map! University College also gets a nice drawing in, above. We liked also the appearance of the “Cheshire Cheese” on Fleet Street. A pub these days, and back then too, so a slightly curious choice for a map aimed at children, even if it is very historic: It’s a shame also the Zoo doesn’t make it in – the map stops just south of it, but does at least include a note “To the Zoo”. Hamleys doesn’t appear either – another institution that was certainly going strong at the time of this map. The cartography is clear and crisp, with a good balance of style and function. A yellow/red/blue colour scheme is adopted for all buildings and stations, so that the map is...

This hand-sketched map has been produced by Adam Dant and Herb Lester, for the East End Trades Guild, to promote over 200 small businesses based in east and north-east London. Over a hundred of these are independent shops, cafes and restaurants to visit. The map is presented with an unusual projection, focusing on Columbia Road near the bottom of the map (with the greatest concentration of featured businesses) with the rest of the area curving away as you look towards the top. Some places beyond the bounds of the map are included as little adornments attached to the map, which is in the style of a pinboard. Cardboard cutout-style illustrations show some businesses at work, while parks, tube stations and water features also show. The built up fabric between the road network is nicely illustrated with a striped hatching effect: The cartography is really rather lovely, and a million miles away from the ubiquitous Google Maps map with icon pins – it has its place, is accessible and is certainly an “easy” option, but putting points on a standard Google Maps map does not make a “map”. Designing a custom map like this, specifically focused on the structure of the area, gives the subject matter the framing it deserves. Kudos to the guild for commissioning a proper map like this. Here’s the full map in all its glory, click on it to view a larger version (you may need to click again if your browser initially resizes the image): Find out more about the map and the small businesses on it, at Spitalfields Life. Discovered on the Spitalfields Life...

It’s December! So Christmas is not far away, and so here’s a nice map which takes that always popular London map – the tube map – focuses on the inner city section, coverts the lines to coloured tissue paper, and hangs baubles on many of the stations, detailing a nearby Christmas-related attraction, be it a Christmas market, and ice rink, panto or other seasonal event. There’s 100 altogether. It’s more useful for ideas than navigation, although it will at least get you to the nearest tube station. Watch out – a couple of stations are on the wrong side of the River Thames though! To its credit, the London Overground gets a look in (all the interesting new stuff in London is happening near the Orange Line isn’t it?) The poor tube map gets reused for all sorts of different kinds of things (including a similar 2016 Christmas map) but the colours and lines are such an important identity for how London works, that it’s a natural way to present geographic information like this. And while an official Christmas-edition tube map would be amazing, this is certainly the next best thing. Here’s the full version, with captions and station/distance information in the section below, click for a larger image (if your browser then resizes the full image back down, click it once more): The map was commissioned by Clarendon and created by...

The Mayor of London released a draft version of his New London Plan this week. The plan is full of interesting maps, but one of the nicest looking ones is on the front cover. It’s an illustrative map created by, we believe, artist Jan Kallwejt (portfolio) which combines geographical landmarks, in their approximately correct relative locations, with illustrative features of the London experience – tube station roundels, parks with trees, and building terraces. As this is a plan for the future of London, there are also some future references – tunnel portals for the proposed Crossrail 2, for example. We really like the colour palette – yellow, cream, brown and green predominate. It’s nice also to see a comprehensive map like this, covering the whole of the Greater London Authority area, produced as a pure vector artwork, you can zoom right in for all the lovely detail. Direct link, or download a large version of the map. Discovered through online...

This rather nice diagrammatic map, created by by Premium Tours, looks at the top ranking on TripAdvisor for each cuisine type, for London, and then plots the restaurant concerned, in its approximate geographic location. Each restaurant is represented by a category icon, which varies according to the continent that the cuisine is based in. A few adornments are added – key parks, the River Thames and major London icons. A theoretical road network is also included, although you may want to consult Google Maps or OpenStreetMap to actually navigate to the restaurant concerned. Accompanying the map is an A-Z (well, W) list of the restaurants, with their street addresses. From Piebury Corner (TripAdvisor #1 Scottish restaurant in London) in Islington, to Peckham Bazaar (#1 Albanian), this map crosses culinary as well as geographical boundaries, and, perhaps most interestingly, shows that many of the top “theme” restaurants are not in Zone 1 touristville, but require a bit of urban exploration. We really like the colour palette used, the attractive adornments, and the fact that the map strips superfluous detail right down, making it a lot more interesting and engaging to read by focusing on the restaurants themselves. It really highlights the breadth of London restaurant choices, and that each major cuisine type is well represented right across the inner city. See a large version of the map here. Spotted via...

I have to confess, there was a sharp intake of breathe when this map was unwrapped here at Mapping London towers. We are a big fan of tube maps (we even have a special page just for them) and we know you are too, so discovering a new one is always a bit of a thrill. This is a beautifully designed package, with a roundel-shaped hole cut in the textured card, revealing the glimpse of a tube map with the familiar Transport for London line colours but the lines looking distinctively different – this is a paper geographical tube map of London: Using the famous “Johnston” font for the text throughout (note those diamond-shaped dots on the ‘i’s), and including a detailed description of some of the most architecturally interesting stations on the network, on the reverse, the map folds out to approximately A2 size, covering almost the entire network (Heathrow Terminal 5, Amersham and a couple of other outliers get cheekily omitted). An inset version shows the central London detail and includes a skeletal road network to put this section in context. The main map is presented on a simple white background with just the lines and stations, as well as the River Thames. The map has been curated by Mark Ovenden, well-known transport historian and tube geek, who’s detailed notes about some of the stations make this much more than just a map: Our favourite thing about this map is the paper it is printed on – lovely, grainy paper, and presented in that enticing roundel-adorned card envelope. The map inside arranges familiar colours and names into a different perspective and the notes on the reverse are full of interesting detail. You can get your own piece of tube map design from...

Songs of London Town replaces street names with song names. The pastel coloured, hand-drawn basemap is overlaid with hundreds of song titles, each arranged over the street that it references. It’s rather a clever idea and allows for the creation of your own song-narrated self-guided tour of each central London neighborhood you happen to be in. The map covers the centre of the capital as well as decent part of the inner city – see the full map pic at the bottom of this post. The reverse, or “B Side” of the map, contains further details on each song reference: You can find the map at Present Indicative. (If you like the style, also see Fictional London, which is also produced by Present Indicative, we we reviewed it recently.) Thanks to Present Indicative for a review...

Citee has been producing technical T-shirts featuring maps of various cities around the world, including London, for the last year. They are currently crowdfunding for a new black version of the T-shirts, with the map detail overlaid in greys and whites. Citee were kind enough to send a sample of their existing London design, which is a white technical T-shirt with minor roads, railways and housing in light grey, and major roads, rivers and lakes in dark grey. Alex Szabo-Haslam of Citee designs the T-shirts in Sheffield. The map design appears on the front of the shirt, spreading to the edges of both sleeves, and, for London, covers an area stretching from Tooting Common in the south to Archway in the north, and from Brent Cross in the west to Walthamstow in the east. The Thames makes for a striking wavy black line in the middle of the shirt. The map detail, based on a custom OpenStreetMap render, is printed directly onto the 100% polyester technical fabric. The transfer quality is excellent, considering the material it is printed on, with individual detail clear and generally sharp. The combination of the street topography and the noticeable vertical grain of the material is rather pleasing (see my Victoria Park closeup below), and, by restricting the design to white, greys and black, it creates a design that is quite sophisticated and not too in-your-face. The T-shirts themselves are made by American Apparel in the USA, and come in sizes XS-XL (note that US sizes are a little bigger than UK sizes – my XS sample would fit an S and possibly an M here). You can get a London (or other city) technical T directly from Citee or join the Kickstarter to get your design in the...

Jones & Sawers’ Map of Fictional London is an a hand-drawn typographic map of central London, where the street and park names are replaced with the names of the novels, plays and other works that mention them. Over 600 such pieces are named on the map. The cartography is rather attractive, with pastel shades and the literary placenames written on in an attractive font. The work is produced by The Literary Gift Company and is available through them or Present Indicative, in both folded and poster forms. We love the clear and attractive cartography and the detail in the map – a key on the reverse of the map links each story to the real street name and quotes the specific line in the work that references the street (or park), allowing you to create your own literary tour, taking your own route through the centre of the capital. Buy a copy of this lovely map here – currently at £5.99 for the folded version, it’s a nice stocking filler for that London literary map geek you know! Thank you to the Literary Gift Company for sending a review...

Urban Good, a new community interest company created by Charlie Peel, have this month published the first edition of their London National Park City Map. This huge (over 1 metre wide when unfolded) paper map covering the whole of London, was created through a crowdfunding campaign, and is available from Urban Good’s web store for just a payment of a postage and handling fee. (N.B. temporarily out of stock, but you can pre-order for delivery expected soon). It’s part of a campaign, led by Dan Raven-Ellison, to designate London as the UK’s first National Park city – along the way, increasing the awareness and use of the capital’s many and varied green spaces, to further the fitness and health of Londoners and visitors. The campaign has caught the eye of the London Mayor, and this map has the support of the Greater London Agency. The map was produced using Ordnance Survey and GiGL (Greenspace Information for Greater London) data and aims to map all of London’s green space and water. When you include private gardens, it’s is estimated that almost 50% of London is green or blue. Urban Good have created a detailed map which has many functions – as well as mapping the green and blue space, it highlights public parks, allotments, marked walking trails, city farms, allotments, cemeteries and nature reserves. It also shows the city’s highest peaks and is indeed overlaid with a hillshade texture to show the slopes and hills. This has the effect of blurring and pixelating the garden/water detail below it – a printing quirk when combining raster field data like this with the vectors of the park outlines and captions means that the whole image is typically rasterised when sending to a lithographer or digital printer –...

Not all maps of London need to cover the whole, 33 borough, 8 million-population metropolis. Here’s three maps that focus more on a local area: 1. Tottenham This attractive little map promotes a number of the new start-up businesses in the area – including a climbing wall, a brewery/bar, and arts centre and a concept “healthy” fried chicken restaurant. It was created by Pencil Bandit. 2. Southall This map of Southall in west London was created by James Merry. It illustrates the key buildings on Southall’s key streets, and helpfully includes an inset map of London, showing Southall’s location relative to the rest of the capital sprawl. The noise of Heathrow airport is never far away from Southall and the map shows where the planes are landing – just to the west! 3. South-East London Finally, this sketch map of inner SE London was created by the excellently named Running for Crayons. It’s a colourful, energetic map, showing that there’s a lot of interesting things going on in an area tradionally off the tourist trails. The maps are the copyright of their respective...

Map on Table is a project, currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter by Hasan Agar, to machine-cut a bespoke, ornate metallic map of central London, apply a colour finish and mount it on four legs to create a small table. The table corners have markers showing the cardinal directions on them. A rendering of Agar’s map, with additional waymark names added – not on the physical product, can be seen below. We really like the way the road network is carefully reproduced, the wave detailing for the the River Thames, and little tree shapes representing the extents of central London parks. If you look more carefully, more and more careful detail appears. The cuts in the metal form the roads, allowing the network to “shine through” the table surface. Certain key buildings are shown symbolically. The British Museum’s famous front portico is drawn, as is the market building in Covent Garden. Horses and guards are shown beside Whitehall, and Leicester Square has a film director’s clapperboard. Overall, it’s a lovely map, beautifully designed, and looks fantastic when machined in metal. It’s almost too nice to place anything on the table itself. You can see the prototype tables in all their cartographical glory in this promotional video, and you can join the Kickstarter here. There is also a New York City version. All photos courtesy of Hasan...

We featured Bridges of London earlier this week. However, the public realm relating to the Thames is more than the river itself and the bridges crossing it. One of London’s defining features, in recent times, as the Thames has cleaned and the spaces beside it have become less-traffic choked, is its riverside frontage. This lovely new illustrated map by Martin Thompson focuses both on the bridges and on the public realm beside the river. Running from Canary Wharf and Greenwich in the east, to Battersea Park in the west, it includes beautiful sketches of the 12 foot-accessible bridges in this section, the iconic buildings alongside, and other little details, such as the lost (that is, now underground) smaller rivers that meet the Thames in this central part of the capital. Martin redraws the river as a straight line of fixed width, with the buildings on either side flaring out and away from it. Most of London’s main tourist attractions, are in fact, not far from the River Thames, so the sketch encapsulates many of London’s most notable landmarks. The bridge detail is lovely: Intriguingly, Martin uses brown to show the river, rather than the usual blue. You would think this would result in muddy, murky illustration, however it turns out it works really well, contrasting with the colour and detail of the riverbanks, and the blue of the skies beyond, on either side. Martin has plans to print to order giclee prints of the work, contact him via his website for further details. Images courtesy of the...

The River Thames is London’s defining geographical feature and its inclusion is almost mandatory on any map attempting to cover the whole of the capital. Bridges are most Londoners’ visible contact with the river, with over 30 spanning the river in London, including elevated crossing by the so-called “Underground”. As such, illustrated maps of the Thames are a popular produced work that Londoners can relate to. This hand-drawn artwork by illustrator Lis Watkins show the bridges in their approximately correct geographical position, and correct distances apart, although the width of the Thames itself is greatly exaggerated, as a fish jumping out of the river announces in a little speech bubble! Sketches of all 35 bridges that are within the Greater London boundary are included, as close as possible to the bridge itself concerned on the map. The map includes the outlines of major parks beside the river, and a lovely bridge-themed title panel, adorned with architectural elements of the bridges themselves. The map was commissioned by the AA and Londonist. See a full-size version here. Spotted via...

This map created by illustrator Mike Hall (who we’ve featured before) for Penguin Books, shows the locations in London that featured in John le Carré’s George Smiley spy novels. This is a lovely map, drawn from scratch and using a distinctive yellow/green and pastel blue pastel colour palette that evokes classic literary works and hand-printed maps. Illustrated vignettes, positioned near their actual location, show the houses and scenes. Tube stations, parks and railways are also woven into the map, with careful cartography and labelling by Mike ensuring the map does not clutter and is attractive to look at. Some subtle digital paper “grain” in the map background, when you zoom in close, adds to the vintage feel: The map was commissioned by Penguin to mark the forthcoming release of A Legacy of Spies, after more than 25 years since the previous George Smiley novel. The new book is published on 7 September. You can see the full map as a PDF here. Copyright Mike Hall and reproduced with kind...

The Corporate Archives division of Transport for London recently held a short internal exhibition at their headquarters at Palestra, called “Mapping London” and showcasing new and old maps of London’s transport from the archive. Amongst the highlights included this Lego historic tube map. The Lego is modern but the map was one of the last pre-Beck (pre-straight lines) map of the tube network, from the early 1930s. It contrasts with the light-up Lego map of the modern network that was recently installed in the new Lego shop on Leicester Square. I also liked this experimental Braille map of the tube network, from the 1990s. As well as the big station areas with their names written in Braille, the lines themselves have different patterns, a little like physical version of the current black & white map of the network, an adaptation of which was used in this colour-blind tube map. Finally there was a glimpse of a modern geographical map of the tube network I hadn’t seen before. Dating from the early 1970s, it shows the network and its actual relation with the rest of London, and can be compared with the more modern London Connections map. Unfortunately the print was very small and I wasn’t able to capture a good image of it. The two yellow boxes near the bottom indicate the opening of the final section of the Victoria Line, between Victoria and Brixton, which happened in 1971. Thank you to TfL’s Press Office for inviting Mapping London to the...

This artistic map of central London attractions was drawn by illustrator Andy Smith for Chiltern Railway, as part of a promotion to attract families into London during the summer holidays. We like the bold and unusual colour scheme for the map, of maroons, pinks and oranges. It’s fairly unusual to see the Thames in pink but it works with the theme! We also like the predominance of bicycles appearing, and especially the “Boris Bike” unofficial nickname for the bikeshare, appearing prominently. It may never have been a term that the authorities have used, but, with the official names always being long-winded, it is something that has stuck! The map is an artwork but is approximately topologically correct, revealing just how much there is to do on a central London day-trip. Copyright Andy...

It’s a typical August day in London today, with the rain falling pretty heavily and at least one tube station closed due to flooding. London’s greatest long-term flooding threat, though, is from isothermal expansion of the world’s water (i.e. it needs slightly more space as it heats) due to climate change. The above map was produced by Jeffrey Linn, showing what London would look like if submerged by 40 metres of seawater, which would happen due to the isothermal expansion happening by a temperature change that would cause 2/3rds of the world’s ice sheets to melt. Blues show the underwater regions, while greens and yellows show land that is dry – for the time being. Unsurprisingly, Thames-side London is well and truly in the drink, with some new islands appearing at Wimbledon Common, Kingston Hill and Richmond Park, while Shooters Hill, Crystal Palace, Highgate and Epping Forest form new peninsulas. Dark blues show particularly deep water – as well as the Thames itself, the Bluewater shopping centre, currently deep inside a chalk quarry, becomes a dark pool. This is a nice looking, if alarming, piece of cartography by Jeffrey, using the classic altitude and bathymetric colour ramps made famous from the Times Atlas and other classic physical maps of the world, with the lush, verdant greens of low-lying areas offset by the barren yellows and browns of higher places. The existing main road map is lightly superimposed in grey, to ground this map in current reality and allow for easy checking of the under/above water status of your neighbourhood. Quite a bit of climate change will have had to have happened for this scenario to happen. A more pressing scenario, showing a water rise of just 10 metres, will still put plenty of London...

Time Out London, in conjunction with official Harry Potter portal Pottermore, created this lovely map showing 18 places in central London that have featured in the Harry Potter books and films. From Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross station, to the Knight Bus crossing Lambeth Bridge, the map allows you to construct your own Harry Potter themed tour of the capital. Filming locations are marked with a purple logo while book locations are in brown. The places are overlaid on an attractive, muted map of central London streets, parks and the River Thames, the map being finished off with an attractive border and adornments that makes it so much more than just pins on a Google Map. If you are wondering why the Happy Potter studio tour (aka “Warner Bros Studio: The Making of Harry Potter”) is on this map, it’s not actually in central London, or indeed London at all, but is up near Watford, just beyond the suburbs of the city – trains from Euston Station will get you to Watford Junction in less than half an hour, followed by a shuttle bus that runs to the studios from there. The other key London-related Harry Potter attraction is the location of the West End play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child. This is at the brown No. 3 “Charing Cross Road” on the map. Both the play and the studio tour are very hard to get tickets for, you need to book a long way in advance. The best walk-in Harry Potter experience in London is without doubt Platform 93/4, where there is an embedded luggage trolley where you can pose for free for photographs, and a rather unusual shop right next door. See the full size map and detail here. Copyright...

We do like arty tube maps here at Mapping London and Travelzoo have obliged with this rather pretty map of 50 free things to do in this summer in London, attaching the attractions to tube stations, with the key elaborating on the station names and walking distance to the place of interest. With London’s size and diversity, such a graphic is always only going to show a small selection of things, but Travelzoo have tried to include a decent variety across the capital, from Highgate Cemetery in the north to the Horniman Museum in south London and deer-spotting in Richmond Park to the south-west. The map is not perfect to use as a tube map, nor indeed as a map of how to get from the tube station to the “thing”, but it’s a nice graphic to use as a starting point for planning a trip to London that doesn’t just involve the standard Tower of London + Buckingham Palace tourist circuit. In terms of the cartography, the map adopts the famous straight lines and angles of the official tube map, although the river gets a more natural treatment. The addition of some icon-type artwork to illustrate locations in the capital is also a nice touch. It’s not perfect – I could nitpick and say that Highgate Cemetery isn’t free (unless you look over the fence) or that the Routemaster bus is in the wrong place as you’ll need to go to Trafalgar Square and eastwards to see one in regular service these days, but that would be mean. Download the full map as a PDF from here. Map copyright...

[Updated] TfL have published a “London Digital Speed Limit Map“, showing speed limits for cars on a map of London’s public roads, for the last few years. It is updated annually, and it’s latest version has just been released. The map is a graphical representation of data supplied to digital mapping data providers, so that they can program in the correct speeds for satnavs in cars. The updates over the last few years reveal the gradual switch, in inner-city London boroughs, from 30mph (blue) to 20mph (green) limits for residential roads. In 2017 and 2018, this has resulted in a glaring hole in west-central London, where Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Wandsworth boroughs have resolutely stuck to allowing motorised traffic to travel at up to 30mph in residential areas, with a few small area exceptions (e.g. Queen’s Park in Westminster borough). This is not a particularly pretty map to look at, being essentially the output from a GIS (geographic information system) rather than a cartographically produced work designed for regular viewing. The 20/30 split is clear but the colours used to distinguish 30/40, and 50/60/National are hard to see – not that many roads in London have speed limits about 30mph anyway. The trends described above, however, are clear. Zooming in a long way helps, revealing your local familiar street network. Nonetheless, it deserves inclusion on Mapping London as it is an important snapshot of how different parts of London are evolving from car-centric design to a more inclusive street scene. Spot the Westminster borough boundary: An earlier edition of the map, from March 2017, looked like this: ..and from June 2016: As well as these official maps, OpenStreetMap contributors have been diligently adding speed tags to the roads of London (and indeed the...

Caught short on the tube? TfL publishes all sorts of maps of the London Underground network, including this map of toilet facilities at stations. This is particularly useful as no TfL train, of any kind, has toilets on board, including the new Crossrail trains now starting to appear on the TfL Rail line. As well as the Underground, the map includes the aforementioned TfL Rail, London Overground, DLR and Tramlink services, and even the Emirates Air Line. Red icons show that you need to be already on the network (i.e. within the ticket gateline) while black ones are outside. Greyed out stations have no facilities of any kind. There are a few quirks in the map – for example, it suggests that the Northern Line doesn’t stop at King’s Cross or Bank. But overall, good to see a reassuringly familiar map being lightly and effectively adapted in this way. The map shows that outer London is well served, particularly the Jubilee, Metropolitan and Central lines in north London and beyond – just as well, as it’s quite a long trip from here into the centre. Download the map If you are not on the tube, but need a bathroom break, check out The Great British Public Toilet Map, a OpenStreetMap-powered project from the Gail Knight at the Royal College of Arts. Copyright Transport for London,...

As London swelters a heatwave, people in search of a cooling waterside stroll might notice that London doesn’t apparently have many rivers. There is of course the mighty River Thames, and a few others here and there visible. But there are many more that you don’t just come across – they are just hidden underground. The book London’s Hidden Rivers, which launches this week, is the third in a London waterways trilogy of water-themed books by David Fathers, following a guide to the Regent’s Canal and to the River Thames. Like the others in the series, the book is full of attractive maps showing the route of the rivers (here shown as pipes) and the nearest walking route (shown with red dots). It is also crammed full of interesting tidbits about the rivers themselves, and indications of their existence on the surface, such as nearby roads with appropriately watery names. Other landmarks that are positioned on or near the route of the culverted water channels are also mentioned, with attractive sketches showing them in context. There are twelve subterranean rivers featured – some are quite famous, such as the River Fleet (of Fleet Street fame) and River Tyburn, while some, like the River Neckinger (which drains the low-lying area around Bermondsey), or the River Peck (Peckham is named after it) are less well known. The visual contents page (with a map showing the position of all the rivers in the book) is rather wonderful. A Londoner, seeing the contents page, might suddenly realise they are probably closer to a river than they thought. The clear and attractive maps, and consistency and attractiveness of presentation make this a lovely book just to idly read through, or alternatively it is an ideal guide book to walk...

We normally feature “modern” maps on Mapping London, however this map despite being also known as the Map of Early Modern London, is certainly not new. It was first printed from wood blocks in 1561, the extracts here are from a 1633 edition which has been digitised at a very high resolution as part of the “MoEML” (Map of Early Modern London) project at the University of Victoria in Canada. It is commonly known as the Woodcut Map or the Agas Map, after Ralph Agas, a local surveyor of the time, who had created a similar map of Oxford, but it is now believed he was not involved. Its formal title is “Civitas Londinum”. The MoEML project has also carefully catalogued the building and other London objects that appear on the map – these appear as categories on the map key and can be highlighted on the map from there. For example, a number of the City of London’s many Victualling Houses (aka pubs) can be toggled on and off. Above is Bishopsgate, now home to Liverpool Street Station and the eastern part of the City of London or “Square Mile” (which essentially *was* London back in 1633, along with Westminster, a village beside the Thames.) Below is a larger extract from the full map, and at bottom is what is now Clerkenwell, just north of the City. View the full, high resolution map here. Thanks to Kim McLean-Fiander, of the project, for letting me know about it. Reference: Jenstad J. (n.d.). The Agas Map. In J. Jenstad (Ed.), The Map of Early Modern London. Retrieved June 07, 2017, from...

We’ve long been fans of artist Stephen Walter’s monochromatic cartographical style and have featured numerous map-based artworks by him over the years. It’s been interesting seeing his style subtly evolve, from intense and slightly angry detections of “seas” of houses and caustic comments, to the slightly more restrained, but still very distinctive, style of his more recent works, including this piece, “Mayfair & St James”. The work covers the opulent Mayfair and St James’s districts of London, in Stephen’s forensically detailed “sketching” style but with the addition of gold leaf to highlight certain roads and park areas. The glint of the gold leaf adds an appropriate sparkle to the map of the area. Stephen has also extensively written labels vertically, with lines of letters falling down. This helps with the annotation of the area and is a rather pleasing style that makes it feel less like just being an intensively detailed map. The vertical writing, and level of detail, ensures this is a work that people will spend quite a bit of time looking at. The work is co-published by by TAG Fine Arts and Shapero Modern and the work is available in an signed and numbered edition of 75 from the two galleries. Thanks to TAG Fine Arts for inviting Mapping London to the London Original Print Fair, where this work was...

Londoners will be very familiar with the crowded London Underground services and their famous diagrammatic Tube Map, but might be less familiar with another public transport network – boats on the River Thames. Yes, you can commute to work by catamaran – as long as you live and work close to the river. London’s river services are underused, certainly compared to most other modes of transport in the metropolis, so you have a good chance of a seat, even at at the height of rush hour. Travelling with a view, and much faster than on buses through clogged up streets – what’s not to like? You can even use your Oyster card or contactless card to pay for the River Bus services (RB1-6) – these are the ones shown with solid lines on the map. Transport for London has produced the map we feature here (see larger version), as part of its London River Services booklet. There is also a simpler dedicated map, without the details on tourist attractions. We like the pseudo-tube-map styling, although it could of course be simplified even further, with the Thames just being shown as a straight line. The inclusion of isometric squares showing the major landmarks near each pier is a nice touch. TfL has never really decided whether its river services are for tourists or commuters, but this map should satisfy...

Following a data release of Southwark’s publically maintained trees a couple of years back, the Greater London Authority recently published a map which shows street trees (trees along roads and public paths, and trees in public open spaces, such as small parks and other minor green areas). Each borough has its own tree database and not all boroughs have, at the time of creation of the map, supplied their data, so the map is a little incomplete (for example, it includes Islington and Tower Hamlets, but not Hackney which lies between the two, except alongside TfL-managed “red route” roads). Still, it has good coverage in many parts of London and reveals interesting patterns, not only in planting patterns differing coverage across different streets, but also the variation of species – for example, the red dots in the extract below show lines of pear trees in Marylebone. In total, there are currently 700,000 trees shown, out of a total of around 8 million across London (including those on private land, in forests, and in major parks not managed by the councils.) The GLA has published the underlying data on the London Data Store as a huge CSV file, along with notes about the collection process. 25 of London’s 32 boroughs released the data in a form which was easy to map, so for 7 borough the map remains largely blank. Within each borough, the level of detail, and the scope of the trees recorded varied. Boroughs can be reluctant to release such data, as tree damage and ownership disputes can arise from such datasets, but it’s great to see this information, showing the greening of what can be a gritty urban streetscape, being made available to all. See the map here. Download the data here....

A new flagship Lego store opened in London a few months back, in Leicester Square. Since the launch, there has been an almost continuous queue to get into the shop, let alone to buy anything. This is mainly because of the amazing Lego sculptures that adorn the shop. To one side is full-size section of a tube carriage, in which you can sit surrounded by lego characters bigger than yourself. On the other side, is a large model of the Elizabeth Tower (aka Big Ben), while adorning the staircase up to the first floor is a mural of central London, showing the Thames, various skyscrapers and other landmarks in lego form. But the most exciting creation, for Mapping London, was a large map of the London Underground in Zone 1, made entirely of – you guessed it – lego. The station circles and lines are translucent, and the map shows pulses of coloured lights showing the movement of tube trains, the stations lighting up as a train arrives. Landmarks are also included on the map. A close-up look reveals the individual Lego pieces. It’s really rather impressive. The Lego Store is on Leicester Square, opposite the M&Ms Store, we had a 10 minute wait to get into the store on a rainy weekday evening, but you likely don’t have to queue if you visit on weekday...

Cycling in London is on the increase, however it can be tricky to discover the best routes for cycling in London – the ones that use proper infrastructure, or avoid busy roads, while still getting you from A to B in an efficient manner. Cycling maps are tricky to do – on the one hand, you can try a purely geographic approach, but this tends to results in huge maps showing the entire road network, 90% of which is of not of interest (though see this nice example.) There is an alternative approach – taking the famous tube map, with its straight lines and bright colours (see this prototype). But, above ground, such a simplified representation is difficult to follow. The Route Plan Roll Cycle Map has a good attempt at merging the two main mapping styles together. It essentially is the Tube Map for cyclists, with straight lines representing the main dedicated, protected and otherwise signed routes in inner London, – but in centre of the capital it switches to a geographic map, to help navigate where the various Cycle Superhighways converge and tourists on bicycles, unfamiliar with London’s geography, are likely to be. The transition between the two types of mapping is handled well (see below). Routes are coloured by their status – being part of the Cycle Superhighway or Quietway networks or a key radial or orbital route. The lines are then infilled according to the level of protection they offer – the solid colours showing the “gold standard” fully protected ways. Key parks and the ever-important River Thames are included. The fonts used are similar to those on the familiar London “tombstone” maps and are nice and clear. This is probably the best London cycle map we’ve seen, as it...

There’s a tube strike on today, with many tube stations expected to be closed. The inner city and central London are likely to be hardest hit, with stations closed in most in Zone 1 and all inside the Circle Line’s loop. Usefully, TfL recently published this map, which shows the central part of the Tube network (zones 1 & 2) with numbers between stations indicating the amount of time it takes to walk that section along the street network, at an average pace. There are some large numbers in places, many due to the obstruction of the River Thames and the fact that the map is not particularly geographically correct, but in general it shows small numbers between most stations. Inevitably, with a tube strike, the bus network will be overloaded and slow, and the roads will be completely clogged with people deciding to drive – so don’t think the taxi or Uber networks will be as useful as they might normally be. So, maybe walking is the way. (One curiosity of the map is that it does assume use of the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels, but not the Rotherhithe Tunnel – despite appearances, it does allow pedestrians and has a pavement – however the omission is perhaps understandable as it is a very unpleasant route to take, particularly as the Victorian-era staircases have remained closed after damage in the Second World War, meaning the pedestrians have to stay beside the traffic in the tunnel for a long period.) You can see the full map and download a printable PDF here, or find out more about walking options in central London. Map © Transport for...

From British Gas comes this lovely map of a walking trail in central London, that highlights many of the streets and locations that are still lit by gas lamps in London – it may come as a surprise to many people, but there are many gas lamps still in the oldest parts of London, lit by a gas supply rather than electricity. British Gas may just be one of many UK fuel companies these days, but it retains a historic duty – a small but dedicated team at the company are in charge of maintaining and repairing the gas lamps. Londonist created a fascinating short video showing the team at work, last year. From the company themselves: There are 1,500 gas lamps left in London which British Gas’ team of five lamplighters look after. These historic lamps stretch from Richmond Bridge in the west to Bromley-by-Bow in the east. The oldest lamps are in Westminster Abbey and the newest lights up a popular retail store in Covent Garden. Many of the lamps survive from the Victorian era.   The earliest lamplighters lit each lamp by hand at dusk every night and extinguished them at dawn. The role of the lamplighter has evolved since then and now they can be found making their way around London on scooters.   When tending to the lamps the mechanisms have to be wound up and checked, the glass polished and the mantles replaced. They may also require repairs if damaged by a lorry or building work around them.   Iain Bell leads the team of lamplighters at British Gas. He says: “People love historical dramas which may be a reason why more and more people across the world have taken an interest in what we do. There are...

Tower Hamlets council, one of the 32 London borough councils, has produced this simple pictorial map as part of a consultation for “Tower Hamlets 2031”, setting the “local plan” for urban realm policy for the next 15 years. The map appears on various advertising panels throughout the borough at the moment, and also appears on their website. It is purely an illustrative graphic of the present day Tower Hamlets, with the consultation documents themselves containing many much more detailed (but less pretty) maps of current and planned designations. We really like the map being simple and attractive, it showcasing the many famous buildings in Tower Hamlets, both old (Tower of London, Chrisp Street Clock Tower) and new (East London Mosque, Canary Wharf) as well as highlighting the three city farms and other larger green spaces in the borough. It also shows the extensive canal network, basins and docks that are a key part of the borough’s fabric and the focus of its regeneration work. If every borough had a map like this then it would show just how interesting (almost) every borough in London is, rather than the traditional focus on the tourist hot-spots in Westminster, Camden and the...

Welcome to the Mapping London Christmas List 2016! Not long now until Christmas Day – if you are having a last minute present crisis, our list includes direct links, so you can browse, order, sit back and relax in the knowledge that the present selections for your London map geek friends (or yourself!) are all sorted.     Books     London: The Information Capital – The ground-breaking book on data, graphics and maps about London, by Mapping London co-editor Dr James Cheshire, has been recently published in a softback edition and is currently available for the bargain price of just £10.49. See our review or get it on Amazon.     Curiocity: In Pursuit of London – This huge, whimsical and alternatively focused compendium of London was published earlier this year. See our review or get it on Amazon.     Where the Animals Go: Tracking Wildlife with Technology in 50 Maps and Graphics – The second book by James is newly out. Find out, in a series of stories, maps and graphics how animals migrate and move through the world. Yes, there is a London map in it! Guess which creature it features? Get the book on Amazon.     The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps: 1939-1945 – We’re highlighting this one as it’s been a consistent best-seller with readers of Mapping London since it was released just over a year ago. A weighty tome reproducing the detailed, carefully coloured maps of districts of London, showing the damage wrought by the Blitz of London and other attacks during the Second World War. The maps were painstakingly drawn for the London County Council, shortly after the war’s end. See our review or get it on Amazon.     The Great British Colouring Map: A Colouring Journey Around Britain...

Here’s a rather nice map combining the famously colourful and diagrammatic tube map with Christmas tree lights, to create an infographic, “The London Christmas Map”, showing the Christmassy events happening in London. You can see a full version of the map, including a key and listings for each event and how far it is from the nearest tube station, here on the Marbles website (the map was commissioned by them). Ironically the map doesn’t include the locations of the best London Christmas lights – for those, visit Regent Street, Oxford Street and Carnaby Street. I’m sure Old Bond Street’s are also impressive! This is a really nice, clear artistic map which brings me into mind some of the decorative tube maps produced by Max Roberts, particularly his Art Nouveau one. I like particularly the ends of the lines, where the cables unravel to reveal the “plug” at the end of the line. There is also a good balance of lines and adornments, the latter giving the map a suitably Christmassy flavour. Spotted on Reddit. The author is...

This is one of seven London neighborhood maps, each drawn by different artists from the University of the Arts London and recently released by the Walk with Me project. This map, of Dalston and Stoke Newington in north-east London, was drawn by Martina Paukova. We like the distinctive shade of blue used for the map itself, with some blocks shaded in a darker blue, speckled grey, pink or yellow to provide contrast. Parks appear in purple, with very rounded corners, to contrast with the angular street network. Various animals, people and large houses are colourfully scattered throughout the map. Cats playing with balls, round blue trees, smiling post-boxes and other whimsical adornments and interest to the map. A small amount of road and park labels adds utility to the map without distracting from the visual impact. You can buy a print of the artwork on the Walk with Me website. Via LakesClaire, Stanfords and...

Tubermap is an extremely easy and quick way to find the fastest route between any two stations the TfL tube/train networks in London (London Underground, London Overground, DLR, London Tram, TfL Rail and Cable Car). Just click your start and end station, and the fastest route is instantly shown, along with transfer stations and the contactless price. Tubermap uses a modified form of the classic “Tube map” network diagram – just different enough to stand apart from TfL’s own version, but incorporating the famous 45-degree bends, Zone 1 area exaggeration and straight lines out in the suburbs: It’s a great example of a clean map and easy-to-use website hiding a complex routing system. It’s entirely powered by Javascript, with the calculations being done locally by your browser. By clicking Options you can adjust the map to show a heat-map background of times to every station from your currently selected one, and you can even miss out Zone 1 and see how the network, routing and timings change: Tubermap is brand new and in active development, with a mobile-friendly version having recently gone live – and lots of other things in the pipeline. One to keep an eye on. Try it...

Mapping London’s co-founder and “Editor at Large” Dr James Cheshire co-produced “London: The Information Capital” with Oliver Uberti in 2014. We mentioned the book on its initial release. The book has this month has now been published in a softback edition by Penguin, with some minor corrections applied. If you missed out on the book the first time, this is therefore an ideal opportunity to pick it up (e.g. here on Amazon) at a new, low price. The book, containing over 100 data maps and graphics, visualises London, its people and its data. The book runs to nearly 200 pages and every map style is different – many techniques have been employed, each aiming to best show its dataset in an original and eye-catching way. Some of my favourites are: Islington has Issues. This graphic (above, also see full online version) uses glyphs to represent each borough as a face, with the mouth, eyes, eyebrows, perspiration and general “glow” varying according to four measures of well-being. The graphic is also a map – the glyphs are arranged in three concentric circles, the innermost being an average and the middle and outer rings representing inner and outer London respectively. The boroughs are arranged approximately relative to each other in geographical space. This technique has been used in hexagonal and square forms before and I think it’s an effective way of simplifying borough boundaries (which are largely unfamiliar to most people) while preserving borough separations to show a changing picture across the capital. A single futher glyph represents the rest of the UK, showing that Londoners are generally unhappier than most. Top Crimes. The Met Police release the approximate locations and category of all crime reports in London. Crunching this data can derive information showing the...

London: A World of Eating is a little map from Herb Lester – prolific producers of quirky pocket London maps with bespoke cartography (we recently featured their Punk London map). The map, which showcases some of London’s many interesting eateries featuring food from other countries, is sold out on their own website, but copies are available from Place in Print for just £4. We like the simple green-toned map, with bright coloured buttons showing the food hotspots. As you might expect, Covent Garden and Soho form London’s biggest cluster, though King’s Cross, Brixton and Borough are three of the other areas with multiple must-visit locations – there’s over 100 in all. Like food maps? See the “Related posts” links for more great London food maps. Competition! To celebrate London’s fantastically varied cuisine, we have a competition! You can win three pairs of tickets to the BBC Good Food Show taking place at London’s Olympia exhibition hall, from 11-13 November. The tickets are good for visiting the show on Friday 11 or Sunday 13 (so not Saturday 12). We will pick three winners randomly and will post you the tickets. To be in with a chance of winning, you need to (1) be following MapLondon on Twitter, and (2) retweet our competition tweet (or this one). We’ll three winners at random and direct message you to let you know and find out where to post them to! Competition closes at 2pm on Tuesday. Good luck! Terms and conditions: This competition is only open to UK residents. The prizes are three sets of two complimentary passes to the show, for use on Friday or Sunday. The tickets do not have a cash value. There is no cash alternative. Winners will be contacted by a Twitter direct...

London’s street network appears on a new cycling jacket – when you shine a light at it! Showerspass, a Portland (Oregon)-based company, has unveiled two new versions of their Elite cycling jacket – “Hi-Vis” and “Torch” versions (each of these are available in Women’s and Men’s cuts). Both of the designs contain MapReflect, which is a rather brilliant idea for using a map design as a reflective panel. The map is a stitched together pattern featuring the street networks for various different cities, including part of London – specifically Whitechapel, Wapping and Rotherhithe in east London, as well as part of the River Thames’s most famous wiggle. You can see the London section in a couple of places – as well as on the main part of the jacket (see bottom photo), it appears on a sleeve: The Hi-Vis jackets are predominately neon green and have the map section in their side panels and underside of the sleeve in two versions – Silver Reflective, where the road/pathlines are black and the spaces between the roads is reflective, and Black Reflective, where the road network itself is reflective, on a black background. The Torch jackets have the colours reversed, so the main body of the jacket is reflective, with the street/path network overlaid in Black. These are pretty intense when you shine a light straight on! More about MapReflect on the Showerspass blog. Showerspass approached me a while ago about obtaining the map graphic, which I put together for them. It’s OpenStreetMap data (© OpenStreetMap contributors) for a number of city centres, woven together. The cities chosen include London and Portland, as well as other cities known for a strong urban cycling culture and a regular high density of streets in their...

Just in time for Hallowe’en comes Grim London, a spooky and atmospheric map of central London. Navigate around the bleak, faded map of the city you thought you knew, then type in a postcode (try WC1E 6BT) or a borough name. This loads a number of Maltese crosses for the local area – clicking on these reveals the grim history of that place. This is really well themed data map by creative agency Impero, great to see this new and impressive piece of cartography, with a suitably restrained colour palette and a Rustic fonts, faded tube roundels, and occasional missing sections of streets, add to the cognitive dissonance of the map, while WebGL fog swirls across the browser. Click the lamp and find out the scary stories local to your neighborhood. Visit the map...

The Great British Colouring Map taps into a sudden enthusiasm for adult colouring-in books, by taking Ordnance Survey maps of many classic British places, stripping out all the colour, shading, labels and above-ground contours, and inviting the reader to use their colouring pencils to shade and tone it as they please. The book, published by Laurence King in close association with the Ordnance Survey themselves, is big, and printed on suitably rough-textured art paper that is ideal for pencils. We’ve chosen to review it here on Mapping London because the centre-fold of the book, which folds out into four pages (over a metre wide – that’s going to keep you busy colouring for a while!) features central London, with the unmistakeable wiggles of the River Thames: The book cover also shows the Thames’ most famous meander. The book’s maps range from the classic Landranger “pink cover” 1:50000 maps, the more recent Explorer 1:25000 range, and also some directly derived from the vector OS Open Map Local, shown at an approximate 1:10000 scale. Outside of London, a mixture of both urban and rural landscapes are presented for your colouring pleasure, from the Norfolk Broads to Mount Snowdon. Even Milton Keynes gets an inclusion, for all of you that have always wanted to colour in its hundreds of roundabouts. You can buy the Great British Colouring Map on Amazon and at all good bookstores, with a sticker price of £19.95. Thanks to the Ordnance Survey for sending a review...