The History of London in Maps [Hardcover]

Felix Barker (Author), Peter Jackson (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Cross River Press (February 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558594957
• ISBN-13: 978-1558594951
• Product Dimensions: 13.7 x 9.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,769,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure of history and cultural development, December 20, 2005

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The History of London in Maps (Hardcover)

One of the things that make maps so valuable is the way they communicate information about the times and the culture when the map was made that were totally unintentional by the mapmaker. Most of our culture is invisible to us. We live and move in it and the things we do, say, build, and leave behind just seem to us the way things are. And they are; for now. However, in a hundred years or even further into the future there will be aspects of our time that will seem absolutely foreign to our descendents and some things that will resonate with their own view of themselves.

So it is with the wonderful maps in this book. London has long been one of the great cities in the world and its history goes back to Roman times and even earlier. In this book we start in mid-Tudor times. It is so fascinating to see how close to the river this great city was and how small it is compared to the monster city of today. We get to see other maps leading up to the Great Fire of 1666. There we see how much of the city was destroyed and the various proposals for rebuilding and what was actually built again.

Not all of the maps are of the whole city, we see how certain key areas were designed and built. There are also interesting details of land use, in what order the countryside was swallowed into the city.

There are also health study and social reform maps especially in the Victorian era. Transportation proposals and the birth of Trafalgar Square make for interesting reading, as well. A famous aerial view done from a balloon is also included and makes for very interesting viewing.

There is such a wealth and variety that I cannot describe them all, but I consider this book a treasure. I have never lived in London, but visited it more than a dozen times and am familiar with many of the areas included in these maps and it is wonderful to learn more about the development of those areas.