Maps can now be seen on screens and there are web sites were maps can be found but for me the best map is map on paper or preferably on cloth. These can be touched and unfolded and browsed at leisure. Information about maps can be found on the web but there are a number of books which again have the benefit of being able to be looked at without any complex computer technology. Here are details of sources where more information can be found.
I paid for this book with he first cheque that I ever wrote. A superb book now really an historical reference as it is over 20 years old but still one of my favourites. I like the cover in particular with the 1:50,000 symbol for a lighthouse on the front and for a windmill on the back. The underlying map is a 1:25,000 map of around Dartford which covers the area where my parents lived before they married. In some respects this book marks the beginning of the end for a reference to printed Ordnance Survey maps as it only briefly mentions digital maps at the end. Now in 1998 with the entire country digitally mapped it is possible that there wil never be a reference map like this again.
There is barely a map at all in this book but it is a superb book about OS maps and their marketing and the markets they were aimed at. It covers Ordnance Survey map covers from the end of the 1800s to the 1970's but concentrates on the best map covers from the 20s and thirties. My favourite artist Ellis Martin has a chapter to himself. The later map covers (post 1960) are really ignored but they are pretty dull. I didn't take any notice of map covers until I came across this book. But I did not even know that such things existed. This book opened my eyes to the history of OS maps. Details about each map can be found elsewhere. Now almost out of print so get a copy quick.
An excellent history of the OS to 1991. It is full of pictures and maps and has diagrams to show the publication dates of the various editions/series of OS maps. An essential book for the map collector. It was originally publishd in hard back but is now available in soft covers..
Well this really is a superb book. There are pages and pages of different versions of the Underground Map. No - not a map at all as the book is quick to point out. The Underground map is not a MAP at all but a diagram. In this book it is refered to as the Diagram with a captial D to mark it from mere diagrams. It is history not only of the Diagram (note that D) but of the expansion of London and increasingly complex amount of information that the Diagram has to show. It is also a history of Henry (called Harry) Beck and how his obsession and commitment to the Diagram was eventually dispensed with. A really excellent book which shows how a simple map has evolved into a essential Diagram and an Icon of London. An essential read/purchase for all map - and Diagram - lovers.