Why Are Maps Still So Powerful? 19.08.14 - 9.30 p.m.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I find that by looking at a map and consciously memorising a journey, whether on foot or by car or bike, I retain a memorised map of sorts and can turn left/right etc without reference back to the map - at least for a distance. This can work even for checking a route (e.g for a car journey) in advance on the computer (Google maps etc). I suppose this is a matter of unconscious training over many years. With the OS one inch or Explorer maps it's possible to retain geophysical details as well in this way (turn left at the top of the hill etc) which I think is much more difficult with digitised versions (albeit my experience of these is limited). But, yes, hurrah for paper maps of all kinds! And thanks to posters for interesting information, e.g the various books.

I'm very much the same in being able to remember routes from studying maps. Yet my memory always has been terrible for everything else.

[Old Grumpy]

I find that by looking at a map and consciously memorising a journey, whether on foot or by car or bike, I retain a memorised map of sorts and can turn left/right etc without reference back to the map - at least for a distance. This can work even for checking a route (e.g for a car journey) in advance on the computer (Google maps etc). I suppose this is a matter of unconscious training over many years. With the OS one inch or Explorer maps it's possible to retain geophysical details as well in this way (turn left at the top of the hill etc) which I think is much more difficult with digitised versions (albeit my experience of these is limited). But, yes, hurrah for paper maps of all kinds! And thanks to posters for interesting information, e.g the various books.

Have you tried OS Getamap - for ~ £20 per annum you can have access to the full Great British (not UK) digital mapping at 1:50000 and 1:25000. I find it very useful for just looking at stuff. It has an aerial view as well. I must confess I was first made aware of it by a shameless plug by Vanessa Lawrence at the very recording that prompted this thread!

OG

[Serial_Apologist]

I have just downloaded four sections of Edward Weller's 1868 map of London showing the district of West Brompton (SW10) where I was brought up. Around 1950, as a small child, we had a piano tuner, a Mr Clapp, who at about 90 years of age could remember Redcliffe Gardens (the southward extension of Earls Court Road, now one-way southwards) as a country lane. So that would have been as a small boy himself. The 1865 OS shows this, also the posh Italianate villas of Bolton Gardens (where one day Madonna would buy a pad) edging on countyryside to the west. In 1868 the lower section of Redcliffe Gardens is shown with houses and streets filled in, although Earls Court, to the northwest, is still a tiny village, parts of which are still "villagey" to this day. This is extraordinary for me, as it shows that the house we lived in as a family must have been built in the first half of the 1860s. I also have photographic books of Kensington and Chelsea from this time, and have myself taken shots all around that district. My grandfather, who died in 1969, and whom I remember well, was only born seven years after this map was made. See how possible it is to build up a picture of the past of a place - I find this absolutely fascinating!

[clive heath]

streetmap.co.uk

If you don't feel you need the full range and cost of OS maps ( constantly updated as they are ) and if you just want local detail, try

http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=362...n,+Lancashire+[City/Town/Village]&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf

which is an example of OS detail for a walk we recently took which would have benefitted from the use of this portion of OS map in advance given that we got lost attempting to find the closest car park to the Pike. At a higher zoom level you get more detail but at a lower zoom you get non-OS approximation.

[Serial_Apologist]

If you don't feel you need the full range and cost of OS maps ( constantly updated as they are ) and if you just want local detail, try

http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=362...n,+Lancashire+[City/Town/Village]&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf

which is an example of OS detail for a walk we recently took which would have benefitted from the use of this portion of OS map in advance given that we got lost attempting to find the closest car park to the Pike. At a higher zoom level you get more detail but at a lower zoom you get non-OS approximation.

Most useful - thanks v much for that, Clive!

[AmpH]

There is also the option to view OS maps ( in 1:50000 and 1:25000 detail depending how far you zoom in ) of anywhere in the UK at Bing Maps.

http://www.bing.com/maps/

I have often printed out maps of specific areas in this way for walking , birding , orienteering etc.

[Serial_Apologist]

Orienteering is great fun here in south London. If you take a look at a map of S London you'll see why. Someone once described it as "an obstacle for north Londoners on the way to Gatwick Airport"!

[Old Grumpy]

Orienteering is great fun here in south London. If you take a look at a map of S London you'll see why. Someone once described it as "an obstacle for north Londoners on the way to Gatwick Airport"!

The whole of London is really an obstacle that those of us from the North have to negotiate in order to get anywhere in the true South of England (especially by train - crossrail should have been built North - South, not East - West IMV!).

On a geographic note I rather like the description (probably by an institute of learning somewhere in the Fens) of Oxford as "a light industrial town in the South Midlands".

OG

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The whole of London is really an obstacle that those of us from the North have to negotiate in order to get anywhere in the true South of England (especially by train - crossrail should have been built North - South, not East - West IMV!).

Thameslink?

Also the line via Kensington?

[clive heath]

e.g.Bedford to Brighton, no changes, 2h 15m ,several trains an hour.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is what I would really like.

[Old Grumpy]

This is what I would really like.

Mmmmmmmmmmm, nice!

Keep on playing the lottery

[David Underdown]

Those reading this thread may be interested in a forthcoming book by a couple of my colleagues http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/mapping-past/

[Old Grumpy]

Looks interesting, thanks for the heads up.

OG

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Definitely on my wish list.