London: A Life in Maps [Paperback]

Peter Whitfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2007

A city long shrouded in literary and historical mists--not to mention real ones--London seduces tourists and natives alike. From Big Ben to the grimy Victorian streets of Dickens novels on up to the sleek high-rises that dot the skyline of the twenty-first-century metropolis, the urban landscape of London is steeped in history, while forever responsive to the changing dictates of progress, industry, and culture. In London: A Life in Maps, acclaimed historian Peter Whitfield reveals a wealth of surprising truths and forgotten facts hidden in the city’s historic maps.

 

Whitfield examines nearly 200 maps spanning the last 500 years, all of which vividly demonstrate the vast changes wrought on London’s streets, open spaces, and buildings. In a rich array of colorful cartographic illustrations, the maps chronicle London’s tumultuous history, from the devastation of the Great Fire to the indelible marks left by World Wars I and II to the emergence of the West End as a fashion mecca. Whitfield reads historic sketches and detailed plans as biographical keys to this complex, sprawling urban center, and his in-depth examination unearths fascinating insights into the city of black cabs and red double-deckers. With engaging prose and astute analysis he also expertly coaxes out the subtle complexities—of social history, urban planning, and design—within the rich documentation of London’s immense and constantly changing cityscape.
London: A Life in Maps lets readers wander through the past and present of London’s celebrated streets—from Abbey Road to Savile Row—and along the way reveals the city’s captivating history, vibrant culture, and potential future.

(20071015)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Whitfield, the author of several books on maps, including Cities of the World, has produced a fascinating history of London organized around some 100 of the countless maps, panoramas, and plans created of the city over the last 500 years, going back to the earliest extant map. . . . Whitfield serves up an enjoyable mix of facts, both familiar and obscure, handsomely supported with contemporary illustrations in addition to the maps. . . . Anyone with an interest in the history of London or of maps generally will find much to enjoy. Recommended highly for public and academic libraries."--Library Journal

 

(Linda M. Kaufmann Library Journal )

"[London] provides the reader with a good understanding of the evolution of one of the world''s major cities, and includes many of the seminal maps for those interested in its cartographic history. It is a good book for just browsing the maps and illustrations, and it''s appropriate for anyone with an interest in London and/or maps. . . . A very good value."

(Peter Porrazzo Portolan )

About the Author

Peter Whitfield is former director of Stanfords International Map Centre in London. He is also the author of Cities of the World, New Found Lands, Astrology, The Image of the World, The Mapping of the Heavens, The Charting of the Oceans, Landmarks in Western Science, and Sir Francis Drake.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: British Library (June 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0712349197
• ISBN-13: 978-0712349192
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #498,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique, excellent history of London, October 24, 2007

By 

Paul Coopersmith "author of Rule of Thumb: A ... (Inverness, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: London: A Life in Maps (Paperback)

Peter Whitfield's "London, A Life in Maps" is a must-read for anyone with an interest in, and/or love for, Britain's capital city. Having lived in London for three years in the 1970's, and returned many times since, I found the maps, drawings, photos, and text enthralling, shedding light on innumerable aspects of the city that previously were unknown to me. What an incredible amount of research Peter Whitfield has done, and how brilliantly he presents it. The book would make a superb gift for any Anglophile or student of English history.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars London through the year, March 21, 2008

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: London: A Life in Maps (Paperback)

The British Library published this beautiful book of maps of London. The reproductions of maps and plans are enhanced with engravings, paintings and photographs. Peter Whitfield's commentary for each map is informative and engaging. Each map stands alone, but taken as a whole the book presents a panorama of a great city.

A few of my many favorites include:

Caesar's Camp called "the Brill" located just outside St. Pancras on the River Fleet just outside London.

Matthew Paris's 1250-54 diagram from London Bridge ('pons Lond.') and the Thames ('Tamise'), through Rochester and Canterbury to Dover, then crossing the sea ('La Mer') and reaching France.

A 1593 guide for Cuntrey men In the famous Cittey of LONDON.

Section and Plan of a Gateway to Westminster at Hyde Park Corner, 1778.

Plan of a Proposed TURNPIKE ROAD From St. JOHN'S CHAPEL, ST. MARYLEBONE into the Great North Road Near the 8 Mile Stone at Finchley, 1824.

A small sample of Whitfield's prose: "Between 1850 and 1945 London changed beyond recognition as a result of the interplay between population pressures, novel means of transport, a revolution in building techniques, and a new leisure ethos. By the early 20th century there were a variety of Londons. Buildings spread deep into the countryside until Green Belt legislation was passed to save what remained. Distinct types of suburb developed. Ramblers took advantage of the remaining commons, heaths and woods around London. And those two icons of modern London, the A-Z and the Underground map, were created."

The book is a delight to hold and to study. Even better, the British Library has mounted an interactive exhibit of 40 the 100 maps in this book. And, many of the maps are available for sale in the Library's shop.

Robert C. Ross 2008

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect combination of absorbing information and visual delight, January 27, 2010

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: London: A Life in Maps (Paperback)

Now and then, I come across a book which I quickly discover must be opened with care, and not when any other responsibilities are pressing, because it will prove almost impossible to put down. Whitfield's marvelous cartographic treatment of the history since the 16th century of one of the western world's premiere cities is just such a book. Along with chronology, maps are one of the key adjuncts in the study of history, visualizing and placing in context the relationships between events of the past. Whitfield is a well-known expert in the history of exploration and of maps, and he provides here a guided tour of London's development since the mid-16th century, when the first maps of the city began to appear. They were really "views," with elevations of buildings, and designed with a low point-of-view, not the schematic plan from directly overhead of the modern urban street map, but they get the point across: London, while already one of the largest cities in Europe, was tiny by today's standards. The Strand was almost a country lane connecting the City of the London with Westminster, upriver. Spitalfield was still the open land before St. Mary's Hospital, just outside Bishopsgate -- which was still a gate in the city walls. And because of the Great Fire and the complete loss of the old wooden city, these early maps are our best source for what medieval London really looked like. In fact, the Fire itself gave impetus to the development of urban cartography, as an aid in rebuilding the city. In addition to early plans of the major thoroughfares, certain important buildings and districts also drew attention, including Henry VIII's Whitehall Palace -- now completely replaced, except for the Banqueting Hall, by the machinery of modern government -- and the new developments at Covent Garden, Grosvenor Square, and the other elite foci of the West End which the nobility built from their estates (and from which most of them amassed enormous fortunes). The building of sprawling docks downriver to accommodate London's vast international trade were of cartographic interest as early as 1700. The volume continues through the Hanoverian dynasty and the Victorian era, following the City's ever-outward expansion, the incorporation of older villages, the establishment of entirely new suburbs, the desertion by the gentry of much of the inner city, the covering over of London's numerous small rivers, and the building of thoroughfares like Marylebone Road to accommodate the boom in commercial traffic. Many of these projects, moreover, were private initiatives, proposed with profit in mind; taxpayer-funded public works didn't become important until much later in the 19th century. Railways, factories, commercial cemeteries, green spaces, tenements, the Great Exhibition -- Whitfield covers them all. And he ends with the establishment of the London County Council, the transport revolution, and the great commercial boom that followed World War II, threatening to destroy and replace what little of the pre-modern city remained. This book, a perfect combination of absorbing information and visual delight, is almost a mandatory acquisition for anyone who studies modern British history, or who simply loves London. The city's biography resides in its maps.