A review of The Times Atlas of London from John Davies, writer for Sheetlines, the Journal of the Charles Close Society.

Lovers of London and maps have been treated to several excellent publications in recent times. Simon Foxall’s Mapping London and Peter Whitfield’s London: A life in maps have been particularly well received. Now Times Books has produced yet another treat with this magnificent volume, the latest title in the prestigious Times Atlas series.

Unlike Foxall’s and Whitfield’s books, this is indeed an atlas, with 1:65,000 maps of greater London and 1:10,000 street maps of inner London. But hardly an atlas for every day navigation – and certainly not one for carrying around. The large page size (12½ inches by 10 inches), heavy paper and substantial binding create a sturdy tome weighing some 2.5 kilos. But resting securely on the coffee-table, this is a book that will be referred to and pored over with delight for years to come.

The book offers a cornucopia of maps, pictures and stories about many aspects of London, as promised by the sub-title the story of a great city through maps, history and culture.
The modern mapping is by Collins Bartholomew, another part of the HarperColllins empire, and, oddly, is the only less-than-totally-satisfactory feature of the book. Given the wealth of colour and detail on other pages, the outer London maps, in shades of pale grey, pale green and white, lack impact and, worse, lack any indication of terrain or land form.

The book is arranged in sections, starting with reproductions of famous historic maps such as Ogilby’s Britannia, Snow’s Cholera map, Booth’s Poverty map, Beck’s tube map and many others. London in Context, the next section, looks at the physical geography – with maps, old and new, charting such features as flood risk, geology and climate – and social and economic affairs, illustrated with statistics, photographs and charts. Successive sections deal with the growth of London, reproductions of historical views, a comprehensive chronology and a gazetteer of place-names and their meanings.

The main part of the book is organised geographically by borough, interspersed (slightly confusingly) with thematic features. Thus we get, for example, the sequence Croydon, Public transport, Ealing, Universities, Enfield, Roads and so on. However, the borough chapters are a delight, each a double-page spread with statistics and stories of famous residents, notable buildings and interesting events, lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs. Particularly fascinating are the series of ‘then and now’ maps and views.












A book such as this is inevitably out of date almost as soon as it appears, but care has been taken to include the very latest developments (such as Stratford City, opened just a week before publication date!) whilst a chapter on Future London describes buildings and transport links still to appear.

John Davies


The Times Atlas of London, Times Books, 2011, 304 pages royal quarto, hardback in slip case, ISBN 978-0-00-743422-0, £50