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Old London Maps
View old maps of London
as it was in the early twentieth century, pre World War 2. The map
below shows the greater London area, divided into a grid of over
100 squares, each numbered on the map and linked to a page
showing detailed large scale street maps of the area within the
grid square, including detailed maps of
Central
London. The areas are also listed in the index below the map.
Clicking on a name in the list will also take you to the page of
maps of that part of London. Each map shows large scale detail
of London, its streets and buildings as they were in 1940.
Although the London scene as shown on the maps will have changed over the past half century,
many of the streets and major buildings remain virtually unchanged. |
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To view a detailed street map of any part of London, as it
was in 1940, click
on a numbered square on the map below.CLICK A MAP
The maps
on this website have been reproduced with the permission of
Collins Bartholomew
Historical Background to
London Maps
The maps on this website are derived from old maps of
London published in 1940 by John Bartholomew and Son
Ltd of Edinburgh and London. The printed maps of the
whole of the Greater London area were on a scale of four
inches to the mile, with additional maps of the city of
London on a larger scale of ten inches to the mile,
showing great detail of the inner London streets,
buildings and landmarks of the time, i.e. in the very
early stages of the Second World War, just prior to the
sustained bombing of London during the Blitz, when,
beginning on September 7, 1940, London was bombed by the
German Luftwaffe for 57 consecutive nights, resulting in
the destruction of more than one million London houses
and around 20,000 civilian deaths in London alone. So
the maps shown here represent pre-war London. During the
war and in the post-war period, many changes have taken
place, great developments in industry, housing and
communications. Old heavy industry has largely been
replaced by new service and technological industries and
the whole of Greater London has seen the expansion of
built up areas. On the other hand, despite the effects
of the blitz, many of London's historic buildings and
streets remain much as they were, and much of our great
architectural heritage has been preserved and the
essential traditional character of central London
retained. So while some areas will have changed greatly
in the intervening years, other areas, particularly in
the City of London and the inner city, are still fairly
well represented by the old maps. |
