westeros - british cartographic society · visit the bcs website at winter 2013 / maplines • 5...

Winter 2013 – £3.00

Working in the BodleianLibrary page 13

FOSS4G showcasesmodern maps pages 8-9

Mapping the fantasyworld of

WesterosSee page 4

The Art of Globe-Makingpages 6-7

Winter 2013 / Maplines • 3Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

First of all, on behalf of all the team here atMaplines HQ, may I wish you a very merryChristmas and best wishes for the new year

ahead. It does not seem like five minutes since I waswriting that very greeting in last year’s festive issue buthere we all are again, sipping mulled wine and watching twinkling lights as we sit down in front of thefire to do the Maplines quiz.

I am really interested in the articles we have for youthis issue. In particular I am fascinated by the fantasymaps produced for the television series, Game ofThrones (see pages 4 and 5) and the graphical innovations that can now be incorporated with moretraditional cartographic techniques. It is great to seegood cartography being employed in all industriesand given the current boom in gaming and consolesoftware, who knows where this may lead us.

When I stopped to think about other fantasy maps Ihad seen, I realised that I have seen more and moreof them appearing in all sorts of places. For instance,just last month, the curtain at the Palace Theatre inManchester was covered in a fantasy map of Oz togive viewers an idea of where the play Wicked is set.

And of course the map of Middle Earth is now wellknown by many thanks to the successful trilogy ofLord of the Rings films. Are there opportunities for themapping community to influence the creation of thesemaps? And if so, how best can this be achieved without treading too heavily on the creativity that isclearly being put to good use?

Of course, that is not all we have for you this issue.We have a great piece from Roy Perry who describesin detail how the much loved Perry Maps of theChannel Islands came into being (see page 10), aswell as a fascinating insight from Peter Jolly into themap archives in the Bodleian Library (see page 13).Naturally, there is plenty more for you to get yourteeth into and if you are still agonising over that lastChristmas present to buy and have a very large andvery full piggy bank to hand, then look no further thanthe Bellerby Globe on pages 6 and 7!

Seasons greetings to you all,

AdamOn behalf of Martin, Mark and Adam.

2 • Winter 2013 / Maplines Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

From the Editors

As the celebrations for our50th Anniversary slowly winddown, it is probably a good

time to reflect on the past year,which I honestly think we can sayhas been a most memorable one.As I look back now at all the eventsthat have taken place this year,they reflect a well-supported Societythat continues to grow and flourishin what are still difficult economictimes, and in a culture where “joining” is perhaps not as popularas it once used to be. And yet, theBCS is obviously doing somethingright as our membership numberscontinue to increase, with over 90new members this year, taking ourtotal up towards the 700 mark.

So what is the secret of our success?!From a personal point of view, I thinkit is that we are an “inclusive” Societythat has something to offer everyoneacross the whole spectrum of thecartographic and map-makingcommunity. There are groups westill need to connect with and part ofour strategy in the coming year willbe to reach out to these. Indeed we are in the early stages of negotiation over a joint event to beheld in the Spring. These are excitingand challenging times for Cartographyand I would like to encourage you totell us what you want your Societyto be doing. We cannot afford torest on our laurels in the comingyears and if there is an area that isunder-represented or you feel needsthe Society to focus on, then pleaselet us know.

So, what were the highlights of thelast year? I think that all who attended

the Michael Palin talk in July at theRGS will agree that his talk wouldbe hard to beat as the supremehighlight. Michael is an amazingspeaker, the sort you could listento for hours, and his presentationwas stunningly illustrated with somefabulous photos. The Black CountryWeekend was another very successfulevent, combining cartography withsocial and industrial history to greateffect – and to see the recreatedPortland Vase was the icing on thecake. The Annual Symposium inSeptember proved to be extremelypopular this year, with over 150delegates signed up, a very fullprogramme and the coup of gettingthe heads of the five major UKmapping organisations together toreflect on the last 50 years and dosome crystal ball gazing about thefuture. Jack Dangermond’s talk wasextremely well received and was atour de force from one of the biggestnames in the cartographic and GISworld. As I write this, it is just priorto Nicholas Crane’s talk after ourAGM, effectively the culmination ofour 50th Anniversary celebrations.And in amongst all of these we havehad BCS stands at various eventsthroughout the year both at homeand abroad at the InternationalCartographic Conference in Dresden.We have run 13 Restless EarthWorkshops for schools and, perhapsmost importantly, published our50th Anniversary Book.

Looking forward to 2014, this pastyear is going to be a hard act tofollow, but our programme of eventsis starting to take shape already. TheHistorical Military Mapping Group are

planning a weekend in Lincolnshirelooking at major anniversaries ofthe Second World War; RestlessEarth continues apace with another14 workshops planned for thisacademic year; we are planningto deliver the successor to our“Better Mapping” training day; andplanning for our 51st Symposiumin late June is well underway.

Finally, may I take this opportunityto wish you all the very best forthe Festive Season. Eat, drinkand be merry, and prepare for agreat 2014 with the BCS.

Pete JonesBCS President

Notes from our President

ContentsThe Magazine of the British Cartographic Society (Registered Charity No. 240034)

Volume 19, 3rd Issue – Winter 2013

Maplines Regularsp.14 Omnium Gatherump.19 Corporate Newsp.19 BCS Adminp.20 Quiz

Also in this issue. . .p.08 FOSS4G 2013 Reportp.13 Working in the Bodleian Library

Advertising in MaplinesConsider this a shop window to promote your company, event,course or publication to the mapping community.

To submit editorial, contact the Editors:[email protected]

For display advertising, contact Sharon Robson:[email protected] or +44 (0)1438 352617

All photography and illustrations in this issue have been providedto Maplines by the article authors unless stated otherwise.

Frontcover Images: ©2013 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved.HBO® and related service marks are the property of Home Box Office,Inc. Distributed by Warner Home Video.

Editorial Contact Details:Senior Editor: Martin Lubikowski Editor: Adam KingEditor, Design & Production: Mark [email protected]

Deadline for copy for the Spring 2014 edition is 14 February 2014.

The views expressed in Maplines are those of the Editors andContributors and not necessarily those of the BCS.

© The British Cartographic Society 2013

Publishers: PV Publications Ltd2B North Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG1 4ATwww.pvpubs.com

Printing: The Manson Group, St Albans

Westeros: a map in motionDepth and astonishing detailof a fantasy land has madefor a truly accomplished map.

4

From Stokey to HarrodsPeter Bellerby has risen fromfrustrated buyer to successfulglobe-maker – no easy task!

6

The Lone CartographerAn insight in to the history ofthe Perry Maps tourist guidemaps from Roy Perry himself.

10

We need a new Arno Peters!Have cartographers failed toinform map producers aboutappropriate projections?

16

If you would like to sponsor the MaplinesQuiz please contact the Editors.

Jack Dangermond believesWeb Cartography is extendingthe reach of mapping.

18The Future of Cartography

From concept to completion tookaround two years. A team variedfrom twenty to twenty-five peopleworking on building the map. As adevice for reminding the viewerwhere the families are and what rolethey play, the map does thisextremely well. The viewer really doesget a feeling that they understandthe places and the hardships thatthe population faces in those landscapes. The identity of the royalfamilies and the complex humanstory is played over and overagain to an evocative theme tune.

“When you play thegame of thrones you winor you die. There is nomiddle ground.”– character, Cersei Lannister

The fact that the title sequence isnot static, it moves, swivels andchanges direction gives the maplife. The camera glides above,along and through the differentcities and reveals their strengthsfrom the landscape in which theyreside. A seal in each city, provides a key to help the viewerremember which family lives inwhich city. Only after a while doyou realise how adaptable the mapin the title sequence is. It reflectsthe Houses in that particularepisode, enabling the map to changeview when new characters areintroduced. The sword sounds remindyou of the death and honourbound between each family. Thealliances depicted in the seriesflow and change in the same wayas the map changes and flows.The rich visual detail is a real treatand means that even non-fantasy fans can feel involvedwith the characters, bewilderingcities and devastating eventsthroughout the series.

If that has whet your appetite,then do catch-up on DVD seriesone & two. Series three is currentlyon Sky Atlantic and will be comingto DVD in the UK on Monday 24February 2014. A joyous return toTV of an extraordinary fantasygenre and beautiful map making!

By Caroline Robinson,Clear Mapping Co

For more information about AngusWall and the Game of Thrones titlesequence visit: www.artofthetitle.com/designer/angus-wall andwww.artofthetitle.com/title/game-of-thrones

• All images are ©2013 Home Box Office,Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and relatedservice marks are the property of Home BoxOffice, Inc. Distributed by Warner HomeVideo. Game of Thrones Seasons 1 and2 are available on Blu-ray and DVD now.

Game of Thrones

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk Winter 2013 / Maplines • 5

The beginning credits arewrapped in the myth andlegend of a world built from

the mind of George R. R. Martinand his popular series ‘Song of Iceand Fire’. Written in 1996, the storyinvites you into a fantasy worldwhere seven noble families fight forthe throne at King’s Landing, theheart of Westeros. A large, strongfamily with Lord of Winterfell (SeanBean) at the head is the first familyto be introduced. Overhanging thefamily is a threat from the LandBeyond the Wall, giving the place asense of peril and inevitable doomfrom the North.

“Winter is coming”– character, Ned Stark

Eddard “Ned” Stark, Lord ofWinterfell, then becomes embroiledin rescuing the King (Mark Addy).Leaving his home of Winterfell,Ned then reluctantly travels toKing’s Landing to help prop up theKing and his hard-fought Throne.

The mythical land of Westerosstarts with the fabulous title sequence

by Angus Wall (Creative Director)and the team at Elastic. If youhaven’t seen it already, then docheck out the introduction to thestory online on YouTube. Thestartling depth and integrationwith the storyline is what makesthis fantasy map so accomplished.Maps in the book translate well tothe moving image medium and havedrilled down the essence of the map.

“Basically, we had an existingmap of Westeros and a xeroxedhand drawn map of Essos – bothdone by George R. R. Martin –and I took those into Photoshopand played with their scale untilthey lined up perfectly. The actualdimensions, the locations andtheir placement, and the differentterrains are all based strictly onGeorge R. R. Martin’s maps. Itwas really important that we stayas absolutely true to the books aspossible because of the ardentfans out there.”– Angus Wall

The beautiful map sequencestarts with emblems of the four

most prominent Houses or royalfamilies forged into the bladesforming the Astrolabe around aflaming sun. This sits in the sky ofa bowl-like map and is returned towithin the sequence. The camerathen flies over the skyline ofKing’s Landing with a bird’s eyeview. Rising from the floor are keybuildings in the story with thecrest of the House; the castle, thetown and the port all rise-up fromwhat seems like a mechanicalchocolate box, with all the cogson show.

“Art Director Rob Feng referencedLeonardo’s machines which havea timeless sense of design. Wewanted the title sequence to berooted in the world of the show,which is a technically unsophisticated place, but to alsohave a complexity that gives it life.It’s definitely not contemporary!Everything is made of wood,metal, leather, fabric, all naturalmaterials. . . stuff you could seehuman hands hammering out andmoulding.”– Angus Wall


Mapping the fantasy worldof Westeros

swooping over the map’s skyline, it heads towards King’s Landing and. . .

The camera glides above the intricately designed map of Westeros before. . .

the moving image medium is shown to full effect as cities rise from the map

The title sequence of the ‘Game of Thrones’captures in astonishing detail the history, cultureand prominent landscapes of the fantasy worldof Westeros in one glorious moving map.

“The original plan, hatched in apub in Kings Cross was to makejust two, one for Dad and one forme,” says Peter Bellerby. “It wouldprobably take three, maybe fourmonths and cost a few thousandpounds. After all how difficult canit be to make a ball and put amap on it?”

Yes, well, indeed. I havedesigned basketballs and thedreaded football in a previous lifeas a product designer. Drawingthings to go in a round shape isfraught with difficulties andmatching the seams, well that’s awhole other story.

“So firstly I had to license a map.From a reputable source. It hadincorrect capitals, most of thenames in the Middle East wereeither rubbish or incorrectlyspelled or positioned. In the endwe changed everything. Then, Ihad to find a friend to write theprogramme to morph a rectangularmap into ‘gores’ – the triangularshapes that fit onto a sphere.”

Trial and error is a wickedprocess

So, no cartographic skills and noformal training as a designer?Kenneth Field would surely cryinto his favourite pint. Peter, however, began to appreciate thecomplexity of what he was tryingto achieve.

“Then came making a ball. This wasthe beginning of my introductionto the world of tolerance. I foundseveral companies prepared tomake a 50cm sphere mould, butthe moulds were neither round,often had plateaus on and werefar from accurate. Now, I knowthat the actual globe is not exactlyround, but that’s not really thepoint. In the end we relied onFormula 1 fabricators to make ourmoulds. The reason being thatwhen you have a tolerance (error)on a sphere, you might as wellmultiply this by Pi (3.14159 etc). Ifyou can imagine sticking 24 piecesof map on a sphere and each oneis 0.1mm too small you have a2.4 mm gap to contend with.”

Ah, yes, sometimes the only wayis to print out what you think isthe perfect design only to find thatthey don’t quite join-up the wayyou imagined. Trial and error is awicked process.

“Goring the globe (applying themap) was something that tookeighteen months to perfect. Noneof the other globe-makers seemedto worry about it. Latitude linesthat don’t match is a personalpassion. There are makers whooverlap gores to the extent thatthey wipe out entire countries.Some makers even have latitudelines that look like they have beendrawn with a ruler after the maphas been pasted on they are sostraight. There just seemed littlepoint in spending two yearsresearching a project only to produce a poor quality finish.”

The attention to detail and qualityhas paid off. Now the globes arereaching out and popping-up, well,all over the globe. From Hollywoodmovies to TV productions, theyare spreading the word aboutgreat cartography. The cute minidesk globes can be viewed atPeter’s website contact below. Sosave up your pocket-money, theyare so much more worthy than myfabric footballs.

• Prices start at £999. Currentlythe largest models go up to£59,000. The Mini Desk Globecan be purchased online or in theUK at Harrods. All the largerglobes currently are only availabledirect from the studio atwww.bellerbyandco.com.

By Caroline Robinson,Clear Mapping Co

The art of globe-making


Stoke Newington is differentnowadays. I sound old andgrumpy when I say that,

when I lived there and was muchyounger, Stoke Newington was thereasonable face of dirty, dingyHackney. Now, the place is vibrantwith artists and great places to eat;you could almost believe you werein the middle of the much moreposh Islington or Muswell Hill.

A new and exciting globe-makingbusiness began with research inthe sitting room of Peter’s house,in 2008. The initial idea was toonly look for and purchase a niceglobe. After not finding one, Peter

decided to tackle the problem bydesigning and making a globe forhis father’s 80th birthday himself.After a two year search, Peter couldn’tfind a modern political globe, whichcould withstand gentle, practicalusage. So, he made his own.

Globe-making I hear youcry, surely not?!

Surely that art has died with theomnipresent Map That Shall NotBe Named? Who in their rightmind would start a business making highly-skilled, labourintensive, designer globes in arecession-ridden Britain?


Globe-makers– From Stokey to Harrods

Globe-maker Peter Bellerby has risenup from frustrated present-buyer to

designer/maker of deliciously decadentmoving globes for the famous WestLondon department store, Harrods,

explains Caroline Robinson.All images are copyright © Jamie Smith and Peter Bellerby

Above: How difficult is it to make a ball and put a map on it?Peter had to overcome many obstacles before achieving his

“perfect” globe. Inset: The Britannia Standing Floor Globe.

Other category winners includedCharley Glynn of Ordnance Surveyfor his London Galaxy, Ollie O’Brien(University College London) for hisBike Share Global web map application and Christopher Wesson(Ordnance Survey) for a static map(PDF format) showing the migrationof post-accession EU citizens to theUK. John Nelson of IDV Solutionscame away with the People’s Choice,voted for online by the global

community for a ‘spoof’ map showingthe Global Sharknado Threat. Quitesimply, it was eye-catching cartography and a terrific piece ofwork. Other notable mentions shouldgo to Anna Butler for London – ByHand; a beautiful map drawn byhand and based on OpenStreetMapdata. It’s simply not possible toname every winner, runner-up or,indeed, the mass of great work thatformed the gallery that didn’t win butis worthy of mention.

I mentioned the gallery wasexperimental, so how do you organisesuch an installation? Well, the callfor maps was fairly standard butparticipants submitted their workusing an online form. We collatedthe work behind the scenes andused it in a number of ways. Wetook screen shots and sampleimages at several resolutions aswell as capturing short clips of liveweb maps and then built severalways to view the gallery. First of all,we were extremely grateful to ourfriends at CASA who loaned us theiriPad wall. Barry Rowlingson builtthe backend to allow us to show amoving patchwork of the entries. Itwas a terrific way to showcase the

work and provided a great focalpoint. We also created a 20 minutevideo of the entries that splicedtogether static images, animationsand captured video. This wasshown on three large plasmascreens throughout the venue andlooked superb! The video was alsoposted on YouTube(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub9ggTAWbPc), which allowedpeople beyond the confines of the

conference to view the work. Thegallery itself lived online and links forvoting for the People’s Choice awardwere placed here to allow voting.

The winners of the awards wereannounced during the closing plenary and they received anengraved crystal globe and a certificate. Runners-up alsoreceived a certificate.

The future of cartographyhas already arrived!

Overall, the conference was ahuge success. Over 860 peopleattended and were treated to 200workshops, sessions andkeynotes. The entertainment wasterrific and the event raised aconsiderable amount of money forOSGeo as well as MapAction.The map gallery has beendescribed as a ‘phenomenal success’ and a part of the legacyof the event. Wired magazinepicked up on the map gallery andthis provided additional exposureto key audiences. I was privilegedto be able to contribute to theevent as organiser and curator,which also positioned BCS and

ICA as key to the idea of ‘quality’in map-making. We set a newstandard for how map galleriesshould be run at conferences anddeveloped a way for a globalcommunity to not only share butalso participate in the event. Ittakes considerable effort to organisethem to run this way but the benefits are there for all to see. Igenuinely encourage you to takea look at the gallery. Be impressed.This is the future of cartographyand it’s already arrived!

The next FOSS4G conference willbe held in Portland, Oregon in theUnited States and certainly hassomething to live up to given thefantastic response the Nottinghamlocal organising committee havereceived for their efforts. I’d like tothink we might also take somepointers from the event as welook to develop our ownSymposium; inspire greaterinclusivity and relevance andupdate how we showcase our ownawards. Food for thought.

By Kenneth FieldFOSS4G 2013 Map GalleryCurator, Redlands CA

FOSS4G 2013


About a year ago, I was askedby Steven Feldman(KnowWhere Consulting),

Chair of the 2013 FOSS4GConference, if I’d be interested inorganising and curating a map galleryand awards for the event. I jumpedat the chance. The conference wasbeing held in my home town ofNottingham, UK and it was an honourto be charged with helping out mygeo-friends in this way. Drawingupon experience of being both aparticipant and organiser of suchevents, the challenge to help makea truly memorable conference wastoo good to pass up.

I worked closely with Rollo Home(Ordnance Survey) and BarryRowlingson (Lancaster University)to organise what started out as anexperiment but ended up as a triumphant centrepiece to the conference. The map gallery wassupported by both the BritishCartographic Society and InternationalCartographic Association to get the

gallery up and running and it wasimportant for the organisers toestablish credibility for the awards.By teaming with BCS and ICA wewere able to provide that certaingravitas to the gallery.

The age of hangingposters on boards is gone

We decided early on to go for adigital gallery, meaning we weren’tgoing to have walls pinned withpaper maps at the conference. Thiswas initially controversial but, in thenew age of cartography, I felt thatgiving space to new map-makersand focusing on digital media seemedappropriate. Paper isn’t dead butthis conference, probably more thanmany, demanded the map gallerymove with the times. This was certainly an experiment in the sensethat having an entirely digital gallerywould be technically challenging butthe age of hanging posters onboards is gone. Cartography needsto move on and be able to provide a

platform for people to share theirwork that resonates with those whoare making maps.

We’ve had over 70 submissions,which comprised web maps, videosand static maps (in PDF form). AndI have to say that, as someone whooften bemoans the lack of qualityin modern cartography, I was hugelyimpressed. There were some trulyimpressive maps and, on the whole,the collection represents a time-sliceof map-making that showcases thestate of the art as it stands. Sure,the tools to make maps are progressing at an astonishing rate,and maps will mature and becomefar more nuanced as products, butthis is where we are at currently.

I invite you to head over to theFOSS4G Map Gallery(http://2013.foss4g.org/conf/gallery)and take a look for yourselves. You’llfind one or two maps you may haveseen before and a whole load youhaven’t. There are maps made bypeople you’re no doubt familiar withand many more from names you’reprobably going to hear far more ofin the coming years.

An astonishingly simpleweb map

There were a number of prizes onoffer for entrants to the map gallerycompetition. The categories of bestdata integration, best softwareintegration, best cartographic display, best static map (digitaldisplay), best anti-map, best webmap application and most uniquemap were judged by an independentinternational panel of map experts.The results were announced duringthe closing plenary on Saturday21st Maptember (yes, the month ofSeptember was hijacked becauseof the sheer number of geo-eventstaking place in the UK).

The overall winner was an astonishingly simple web mapshowing the shafts of sunlight thatalign with the streets of Manhattan,New York City on each day of theyear. Called NYCHenge, the workwas a beautiful example of modern,interactive cartography, which wassimple, innovative and informative.


If Carlsberg didmap galleries. . .

Above: The iPad wall loaned toFOSS4G by CASA.

Left: The FOSS4G Map Galleryshowcases some truly impressivemodern maps – head over tohttp://2013.foss4g.org/conf/galleryand see for yourselves!

Main image, far left: Theengraved crystal globes from theFOSS4G Map Gallery awards(with Steven Feldman).

I had a great deal of help with road andarea names from parish constables(an official, not a policeman). Anotheraspect of the publication that Iwanted to emphasise was the useof the page map reference byadvertisers to locate their premises.This has been so successful thatthe map ref is still widely used in themedia, by the police and judiciary.The strip at the base of each pagemeant that premises on the pagecould advertise there.

I was aware that the A-Z title wasa registered trade mark so I avoidedit’s use. It was a real pleasure toundertake this research myself,especially when I found a newname for a road.

Finding a publisher

With much of the drawing and indexcomplete by August 1967, the nextstep was possible: to find a localpublisher. I went first to GuernseyLithoprint Ltd who were scepticalabout the idea but offered me £115plus 5% royalty for the publishingrights. I was convinced that thebook of maps would sell well sowent to see The Guernsey Press.The offer from them was identicalbut with a lower royalty. DiscouragedI took a while to consider the options.I could not afford to publish it myself.

With the map content finalised andthe index being typeset I added othermaterial which would be useful tothe reader. Details of road trafficregulations, place names translatedinto English and further indexes toplaces of interest, schools,churches and States departments.The publishers set to the task ofselling space to businesses in anew publication – not an easy task.I chose a finished size for the bookthat would fit easily into a coatpocket – or under a policeman’shelmet! The map went on sale for4/6d and was accepted well.

New cartographic challenge

In the following year, the publishersasked me to create a similar map ofJersey. I went over on my own duringthe Easter break and found some kindpeople who would accommodate

me for two weeks. Research inJersey was with assistance from theplanning authorities and a fullground survey carried out. Here Ialso chartered aircraft to fly overlarge estates and took photographs.The larger Channel Island differedfrom Guernsey by having a networkof numbered arterial and distributorroads. In addition, all roads wereclearly named on site. Since thiswas a commission I was able toleave the payment of royalties to theStates of Jersey to the publishers.At no time in either island wereOrdnance Survey maps copied.

The Jersey map was published witha promotional flourish and my wifeand I attended the launch and signingsession, which was covered by localmedia. Many requests were madefor a map of the whole of the islandso I set about pasting individualpages on to large sheets of card,taking great care to maintain scale.The result was published as a wallmap for each island.

One of the first operators to usethe wall map concept was the StJohn’s Ambulance Rescue Servicein Guernsey. A large version ofthe map was printed on magneticplastic sheet and installed in thecontrol room. Each map page hadlights which indicated an emergencyand the response situation.

Another island, another map!

In 1970 I visited The Isle of Wightand toured bookshops, counciloffices, etc. to see if a map of theisland was needed. It was and I

had access to a wealth of material.On my return to Guernsey I talkedto the publisher and he agreed tofind a person to sell space anddistribute a map.

The guide came to life slowly sincemuch more time was needed to carryout research and drafting the pages.The island benefits from one ofthe best network of footpaths, trailsand bridle paths in the UK andthis gave me the opportunity toadd these details to a map whichwould be widely used by walkers.Two aerial reconnaissance flightswere made from Sandown Airfield.By now a roll-on, roll-off ferry hadmade it easier to take a car and ahigh speed hydrofoil also operatedfrom Guernsey.

A complete re-draw of the mapson tracing film was well received.At the start of Perry’s Guide Maps©,it had been decided that a revisededition would be published everythree to four years. In 1971, I surveyed the rest of the Bailiwickand added Alderney, Herm andSark to the book. The Isle ofWight publication was launched atthe County Press in Newport andattracted attention from publicservices as an information source.

A royal tour

I had been self-employed since 1972and four years later we opened abookshop and design studio. Touristand wall maps were produced andI took on my first UK mainlandchallenge – a guide to part of WestGlamorgan. I pasted a very large

History of Perry Maps


Imoved to Guernsey in 1962 andsoon started to explore the interesting and numerous

network of roads and lanes.Discussions with historians seemedto indicate that the network had comeabout due to laws of inheritance.Following the death of a landowner,the children were assigned property,not in one plot but in a number ofholdings around the area. Eachwould inherit the same proportion ofarable, grazing, unworkable andbarren land such as furzebreak.Moving between these plots causedthe development of tracks, laterlanes and roads. In early times, thepaths took the name of the owner ora geographical description.

Mapping an island

I have long been an admirer of thecreator of the London A-Z©. PhyllisPearsall walked and cycled manymiles to create the atlas, which firstwent on sale in 1936. It is claimedthat she travelled over 3000 milescompiling the index of 20,000 roads.The cartography was undertakenby others, however.There were no detailed sectionalmaps of Guernsey in 1967 so itshould not take me long to coverthe 1000 or so tracks, lanes androads on the island. I would haveto find a basic map to copy – onethat was out of copyright. In my

spare time, I set about a surveywith the help of records held bythe Priaulx Library, parishes andthe Cadastre (Rating) department.The latter had a set of surveymaps prepared by the OverseasSurvey for the States of Guernseyto a scale of 1:2500. My map wasto be 1:16000 or approximately 4”to the mile. Since that time smallscale adjustments have been madeto ‘go metric’. I had purchased anout-of-copyright detailed map; a1906 Ward Lock guide. Guernseywas different then with few housing schemes.

The next step was to decide howto divide the island into pages.Guersey is roughly triangular inshape and it proved to be a realchallenge ensuring that the rectangular map pages fitted without large amounts of seabeing shown. I also decided tohave an overlap between adjacentpanes but not on those which facedeach other. The page layout wasinscribed on a copy of the Ward Lockmap and a grid of 4x6 applied toeach page. A similar gridded pagewas pencilled on to a large sheetof drawing card. The exact contentsof each small square were transferredby eye or pantograph to the card.This scaling up ensured accuracybut allowed some licence to widenmain roads for the inclusion of names

within the road boundary. Copiesof these rough pages were takento the area involved where a thoroughwalking survey allowed ‘post 1906’features to be added. Back hometechnical ink pens were used tocreate the road outines, in varyingwidths. My only qualification forthis work was an O-Level inTechnical Drawing.

Problem for early typesetters

The next step was to add namesto the roads, lanes and areasfrom the rating and historicalsources. Instant lettering wasused for the first edition but latermaps were hand lettered. As eachpage was completed the roadindex was compiled in typescript,the PC age being some 20 yearsin the future. No map of the islandhad ever contained a detailedindex and the plethora of Frenchnames led me to create a novelway to place the names in alphabetical order. I used the corename with the prefix out in front.This did cause an interestingproblem for early typesetters butis more accepted today.

Index sample:La Grande Route de la Corbinerie

Castle HillRuette Catioroc

Cleveland Avenue


Right: The firstmap hand drawn

by Roy Perry in1967. St Peter

Port, Guernsey,showing parking,one-way streetsetc. Digitised by

others in 1992 andnow in full colour.

The Lone CartographerRoy S. Perry provides a short history of a legendary mapping product.

map of Guernsey on to insulationboard, which was laminated withplastic and used by various Statesof Guernsey departments. Myefforts caught the notice of themedia and an article appeared inthe ‘Prufrock’ page of the UKSunday Times newspaper.

I went to the Isle of Man for a monthto see if there was an appetite fora similar product and spent several months on the outlineplan. After a number of successivevisits, I found that insufficientadvertising could be sold to coverproduction costs. The idea wasabandoned in 1993.

A planning officer from Lliw Valley inWest Glamorgan saw the Guernseymap. I travelled to Wales and surveyed the area, establishedcontacts with a publisher andprinter and eventually producedtwo editions of guide maps forSwansea and Lliw Valley.In 1978, a friend of mine showed mea photo he had taken of Her MajestyQueen Elizabeth II and Prince Philipas they toured Guernsey in theroyal car. The Duke was studyinga copy of Perry’s!

A move to Malta

Eventually my business failed andI had to sell all the rights. Thecopyright of the Wright map wasassigned to the distributor on thatisland. The Guernsey publisherswere taken over by a UK companyand they retained my services fora while to continue the up-datingprogress. Eventually, the firmrelocated. My wife had played alarge role with research for the map.Publication ceased in 1989 but therights were taken up by Studio OneLtd in 1992. They were so dedicatedto the title that they changed theirname to Perry’s Ltd and the teamnow operates as Coast Ltd inGuernsey. The maps were digitisedand produced in full colour.

Looking for further mapping work,I left Guernsey in 1990 and movedto Malta. Once again I did not havethe resources to publish but waspleased to be responsible for thecreation of three editions of separatemaps for Malta and Gozo. Surveywork in 30 degree heat added anextra dimension to the work. Theislands are 17% smaller than theIsle of Wight but have a population

which is 3.3 times higher. I soondiscovered that there are at least5400 roads! The maps were published as the RMF Road Maps,the company being the principalvehicle breakdown service in Malta.

It took a year for the survey and thefirst edition of the two maps forMalta and Gozo were hand-drawnon card. The drawings were scannedin 1993 to form the basis of a partlydigitised second edition in 1996.Full colour separations were usedfor the final pair of maps, publishedin 2000. I had moved from pen andink to computer graphics and I havetried to keep pace with advancesin programs and techniques. Ihave employed both PC and Macequipment, with Coreldraw orFreehand applications. My crowningachievement must be the creationof a large coloured wall map of theMaltese Islands, a copy of whichresides in the Edinburgh Map Library.

After 2001, I switched to villageplans and carried out work forFindern in South Derbyshire andNadur in Gozo. This last map wascompleted in 2009, despite losingthe sight in my right eye. Now Iuse Dolphin Supernova AccessSuite Speech and Magnificationsoftware to carry on mapping.

It is very gratifying to know that theoriginal three maps are still in print andhave been enhanced by the use ofdigital processes. All the revisionshave followed the guidelines I laidout in 1967, that of clarity, ease ofuse and accuracy.

At the outset, it was obvious that itwas a financial risk but I decidedto proceed because I felt the mapwould be useful, not only to visitorsbut to residents and emergencyservices. So I accepted the firstoffer. After 46 years it appears thatI was right on both counts, Perry’sGuide has become a householdname, not only in Guernsey butalso in Jersey and the Isle of Wight.I am full of praise for the publisherswho have kept the guide up-to-dateand in a consistently readable format.

By Roy S. Perry, Isle of Wight

History of Perry Maps


Above: A map of Nadur in Gozo completed in 2009

Libraries are not my naturalhabitat. However, I’ve spent afew days in the Map Room,

which is temporarily housed in theDuke Humfrey Library, a part of theBodleian. This all came aboutbecause Markus Oehrli fromSwitzerland is planning a publicationabout Deutsche Heereskarte, themapping branch of the GermanMilitary, and, in particular, about theproof sheets in a number of seriesproduced between 1941-1945. The120 or so proof sheets I found werestamped ‘Belegdruck’ or ‘Andruck’.

My qualifications for doing thiswork are very limited. I’m not alibrarian, I know very little aboutGerman military mapping in theperiod 1941-1945 and I wasadvised to give up German afterone year at school! My savinggrace? I’m a volunteer and free!

All the maps had to be broughtfrom the Bodleian Book Storagefacility in Swindon, which is huge.Now this task may sound a bit dullbut believe me it wasn’t. If, likeme, you are fascinated by maps,and I must have looked at wellover 5000, and particularly as anex-military man, there was alwayssomething of interest to see.Apart from the proof sheet stampsthere were many others from avariety of agencies, German andAllied, Geheim (Secret), UniqueCopy, Cancelled, Captured Map,Army Map Service Library,

Geographical Sec General Staff,Directorate of Military Survey, Donot return to DGC, German maplibrary stamps and occasionallyan ‘eagle’. The maps stamped‘Geheim’ were mainly of Spainand Portugal. The maps covereda large area; North Africa, Iran,Iraq, Palestine, Turkey, theBalkans, Central Europe right upto the North of Norway and theroad to Moscow, not much detailon the latter. Indeed, the mapcontent varied hugely, not muchdetail in Iran, Iraq and parts ofNorth Africa but lots of detail inCentral Europe and our own doctored OS maps were undoubtedly some of the best.

Many of the OS maps had aGerman legend and additionalmilitary symbology, which oftenincluded a square grid in a vividorange colour. The same grid was

used by German Military Groundand Air Forces, which is what youwould expect. A point well-madein the maps of the EnglishChannel but more interestingly,the aeronautical chart had a lot ofdetail removed but the railwaylines enhanced as nearly all trainsgo to London! Some of the NorthAfrican aeronautical charts hadairfield diagrams in the marginsshowing the runway layouts onthe airfields symbolised on thecharts. There were maps ofFrance, in part produced usingtraditional cartography whilst therest was produced using aerialphotography. My final thought,when the job was done, was towonder who else, German andAllied, military and civilian, hadlooked at those maps?

By Peter JollyPast President


World War II Maps

Working inthe BodleianLibrary

The BodleianBook Storage

facility has a vast

collection offascinating

maps, includingmany German military maps

from WWII.


Omnium Gatherum

Did you know?Boxing Day

Boxing Day is traditionally the day following Christmas Day, when servants and tradesmen would receivegifts from their bosses or employers,known as a ‘Christmas box’. Today,Boxing Day is better known as a bankor public holiday that occurs on 26December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day,depending on national or regionallaws. It is observed in the UnitedKingdom, Hong Kong, Australia,Canada, New Zealand, South Africaand some other Commonwealthnations. In South Africa, Boxing Daywas renamed to Day of Goodwill in1994. In Ireland, the day is known asSt. Stephen's Day or the Day of theWren. In many European countries,including notably Germany, Poland,Scandinavia and the Netherlands, 26 December is celebrated as theSecond Christmas Day.

The exact etymology of the term ‘boxing’ is unclear. There are several competing theories, none ofwhich is definitive. The European tradition, which has long included giving money and other gifts to thosewho were needy and in service positions, has been dated to theMiddle Ages, but the exact origin isunknown. It is believed to be in reference to the Alms Box placed inplaces of worship in order to collectdonations to the poor. In ancient,

preChristian Rome, Saturnalia was aRoman celebration during which slaveowners would switch roles with theirslaves. Gift giving was a part ofSaturnalia and benevolence to slaveswas a practice which may have influenced the later December traditionof boxing and presenting of gifts topeople of lesser status. Also, it maycome from a customin the late Roman/early Christian era,wherein metal boxesplaced outsidechurches were usedto collect specialofferings tied to theFeast of SaintStephen, which inthe Western Churchfalls on the sameday as Boxing Day.In Britain, it was a custom for tradesmen to collect‘Christmas boxes’ ofmoney or presentson the first weekdayafter Christmas asthanks for good service throughoutthe year. This ismentioned inSamuel Pepys' diaryentry for 19December 1663.This custom is linkedto an older English

tradition: Since they would have to wait on their masters on ChristmasDay, the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families. The employers wouldgive each servant a box to take home containing gifts and bonuses, andsometimes leftover food.

A Celebration of 50 years ofThe British Cartographic Society

To celebrate our 50th Anniversary the BCS has produced a book marking 50 years of mapping excellence. Travel through the past 50 years ofselected historical events illustrated by mapping

from around the world.

Available from the BCS Admin office for only £15.

To obtain your copy of this beautiful book contactRoger Hore at BCS Admin [email protected]

BCS 2014 CALENDAR OF EVENTS(As currently known. Watch this space for updates)

January2123 January DGI Global, QE11 Centre, London23 January UK GEOForum Lecture given by

David Overton, title, ‘Weaving a NewMapping Genre’ at RICS, London

FebruaryTba GIS SIG/Design Group eventMarch6 March TOSCA Soviet Intelligence Plans for

the British Isles with John Davies13 March Schools and the Great War, How

Schools Should Best Prepare,Westminster Hall

27 March The Great Arc: Military Map makers in India presented by John Keay, 7pm at the NationalArmy Museum

31 March – 2 April Bomber Command Study andVisits

April23 April Schematic Mapping Workshop,

University of Essex810 April London Book Fair 1416 April GA Conference, University of Surrey1618 April GISRUK University of GlasgowMay8 May TOSCA ‘Strangers in their own

land’: ideology, policy, and rationallandscapes in the US, 18251934Heather Winlow (Bath SpaUniversity)

14 May GeoData Dublin June21 June HMMG/DSA DDay Historical

Mapping at Hermitage2427 June BCS Symposium, Marwell Hotel,

Nr Winchester + BCS GolfCompetition

September812 October Map Curators Group Meeting,

Birmingham

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk Maplines / Winter 2013 • 15

a miscellaneous collection of people and things

Your Personal Invitation To Join TheDefence and Intelligence Community

More international: 50+ countries in attendance

More networking: new structured networkingopportunities to meet the people who matter to you

Involvement from the USA, NATO and the EU:more briefs with programmes and requirements

More end-users: 100+ technology users attendingthe exhibition

DGI 2014 Will Give You Even More:

Strategies for Data, GeoInt and CyberSecurity in Defence & Intelligence

General Richard Barrons,CBE, Commander,Joint Forces Command,UK MOD

Colonel R Thurlow, GBRArmy, Section Head(Intel & EnvironmentalDisciplines), JISR Branch,C2, Deployablity &Sustainability, NATO

Captain RN Martin Jones,Head, Joint GeospatialIntelligence Branch,UK MOD

Jim R. HillDirector, GeospatialIntelligence Directorate,Marine CorpsIntelligence Activity,USA

Col. Mark BurrowsCommander, JAGO UKMOD

Vice Admiral Robert B.Murrett (retired), DeputyDirector, Institute for NationalSecurity and Counterterrorism(INSCT) Professor, PublicAdministration andInternational Affairs,Maxwell School ofCitizenship and PublicAffairs Syracuse University

Major General J.M.C.Rousseau, Chief DefenceIntelligence, CanadianForces

Captain RN Steve Malcolm,Hydrographer of the Navy,Director, UK HydrographicOffice

Grp Capt John Rolf, Director,Defence GeospatialIntelligence Fusion Centre(DGIFC), UK MOD

Air Commodore SeanCorbett, Deputy UK Military,Representative, Chief of Staffof the UK Delegation, NATO

Dr. (Lt Col) Michael L.Thomas, C4ISR SystemsEngineer, Communicationsand Networks Division,Naval Space and WarfareCenter (SPAWAR)Charleston

AVM Jon Rigby CBE,Director Cyber, Intelligenceand InformationIntegration, UK MOD

Maria Fernandez, Director,Australia Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation

Peter Loukes, Director,Intelligence Support,Netherlands MOD

PLUS: NGA hasconfirmed participationat DGI 2014!

Hear And Learn From The Thought-Leaders In The Community:

Go today to www.dgieurope.comto find out how the DGI conference can benefit you.

Lost Rivers of London #15∙ The Falcon: the Falconbrook, or Falcon, springs on Tooting BecCommon, flows under Balham andenters the Thames at Battersea. It burst out of the pavement ofFalcon Road (named after thestream) in Clapham Junction inJuly 2007 during floods that affected large parts of England.

The last of London’s lost riversThe Falcon is the last of London’s lostrivers that we are featuring inMaplines. This series started in thesummer edition of 2008 with theStamford Brook. Since then we havefeatured all the rivers illustrated on themap, left. London is a rich and diverseplace which hides many secrets. TheMaplines team are keen to hear fromanyone who has any interesting andnot so well known facts or informationabout our great capitol city.

Lost Rivers ofLondon

Courtesy of www.strangemaps.wordpress.com

BCS AGM and talk by Nick CraneFollowing BCS’s AGM on the 25th Novemberwhere Ann Sutherland and Dr Seppe Cassettariboth received honorary fellowships, Nick Crane,the broadcaster and travel writer gave a mostenjoyable talk about his many unique journeysaround the globe. A good end to our 50th year.

rest beside the man; his projectionhas generally gone the way ofmany others – still used by a fewdedicated followers, but shunnedor ignored by the majority of othermap producers? For goodnesssake, he has even been relegatedto a note in parentheses inDodge, Kitchen and Perkins’recent book, The Map Reader.The reason we need to revisit hislegacy is the fact that cartographers,despite claiming that they hadbeen informing map producersand the wider public of the needfor appropriate projections longbefore Peters’ intervention, havesignally failed.

Books, newspapers and magazinescontinue to circulate grossly inappropriate and biased thematicworld maps; some even using the1569 Mercator projection, whichPeters had (allegedly) misused asa ‘straw man’ to attack traditionalcartography. If professional cartography has been so successfulin informing the community ofusers, why has the New Scientistjust published a double page thematic map based on theMercator projection in its 12October 2013 edition? The articleon geo-engineering would havebeen much better served had itused an equal-area projection –as it is, its format and use of colour

is more reminiscent of twentiethcentury propaganda maps than aserious modern information-graphic.If we cannot expect a respectedscience news magazine to understand and use appropriatemaps what chance have we?Sadly, the New Scientist has ahistory of poor choice of map projections, including use of non-equalarea maps, such as the worldmajor biomes. It has even falleninto the fundamental error of mapping missile ranges as perfectconcentric circles on a rectangularmap projection, ignoring what weknow about Great Circle routes(‘Why the US’s Star Wars missiledefence lives on’ 26 Sept., 2009),instead of using the correct equidistant ‘polar style’ projectionfor each launch site (see MaplinesWinter 2009, for detailed discussion of this error across theUK news media).

How do we get the message out there?

The New Scientist is, however, onlyone of many news producers thathave failed to adopt appropriateprojections. Surveys I have undertaken since the 1990s haveshown this for the UK news mediain particular, but the problem of alack of cartographic understanding is much, much more

widespread. Rendgen andWiedemann’s InformationGraphics (2012, Taschen), which‘show-cases’ best practice in IG,is illustrative of the muddle we arein. While there is much innovativedesign involving maps in this epicbook (weigh it!), the adoption ofappropriate world maps isextremely mixed; from somebeautifully crafted images fromNational Geographic (e.g. theRivers of the World poster 2007)to the grossly exaggeratedMercator-like projections used fora series of thematic maps inWired in 2008. The state of theart is mixed!

Good cartographic knowledge isfundamental to the production ofhigh-quality information-graphics.How do we get the message outthere? I think we desperatelyneed another Arno Peters – if notto lead the way, at least to provide cartographers with someone to take pot-shots at – atleast that way we might again geta little attention! Arno – I toastyour memory with a glass of redwine as I write this last sentence!

Prof. Peter VujakovicDept. of Geographical and Life

Sciences, Canterbury Christ ChurchUniversity, UK

Map Design


Many, if not most, cartographers were andremain antipathetic to Peters’

entire cartographic project, attackinghis projection as either a poor basisfor world mapping, or as simply a‘reincarnation’ of the late nineteenthcentury ‘Gall orthographic’ (thereafter christened ‘Gall-Peters’).Some even resorted to sarcasm – forexample, the tart comment attributed to Arthur Robinson thatthe continents resembled “wet,ragged long winter underwear hungout to dry on the Arctic Circle”.Denis Wood went as far as todescribe Robinson’s attack onPeters as perfidious and vitriolic.This afforded me an ideal opportunity for a caricature that Ithink Arno Peters would have founda good humoured take on the taunt– it was eventually included in amemorial section of theCartographic Journal followingPeters’ death in 2002.

As ‘bloody’ as cartographyis likely to get

Some of us found it hard to condemnhis map entirely, but we also foundthe wholesale, uncritical adoptionof his projection by the UN and byOxfam and other developmentagencies bewildering. The odd person,such as Pamela Gruber, workingfor Christian Aid, understood itsreal value – to shock (for a whileat least, until the map inevitablybecame common-place) and to forcepeople to question their views of theworld. Sadly she was in a minorityand most others simply accepted itas the ‘politically correct map’. Iattempted to walk a careful linethat acknowledged the fact thathe almost single-handedly raisedpublic consciousness of theimportance of cartography in the1980s, while, as a teacher andwriter on cartography, I sought toinform potential users of the wider

family of appropriate projections.As map adviser in the 1980s tothe World DevelopmentMovement (WDM), I convincedthat organisation to use anotherequal-area projection in its publications, only for WDM to belambasted by an aid charity forusing the ‘Mercator’ – which wasnonsense. Others, like WardKaiser and Bob Abramms, of ODTin the US, and Denis Wood in hisclassic, The Power of Maps, haverecognised the role that Petershas played in alerting people tothe potential bias in cartography.In general, however, the debatehas been destructively polarisedand as ‘bloody’ as cartography islikely to get in the modern era.

Biased maps still abound

So why raise the ghost of thePeters’ controversy again? Surelythe debate has been long laid to


Did you know 2013 is the 40th anniversary of the Bonn press conference where Arno Peterslaunched his (in)famous map projection on the world stage and also the 30th anniversaryof the publication of his book, Die Neue Kartographie/The New Cartography? While 2014is the 25th anniversary of his Peters Atlas of the World. How time passes!

Why we need

a new Arno Peters!

The Maplines team is looking for a replacement volunteer editor starting in January 2014. This isan opportunity for anyone with editorial and editing experience to make a valuable and enjoyablecontribution to the Society.

Duties include the collection and editing of material to appear in Maplines magazine, which currentlyhas three editions per year; working as part of the editorial team to coordinate the compilation ofthe magazine in conjunction with PV Publications, our production company; making a positiveinput to the future development of the magazine.

EDITOR VACANCY

Interested? For further details about volunteering for the BCS, or to apply for the role of volunteer editor,please contact Martin Lubikowski, Chair of Publications, by emailing to [email protected].

In the historic surroundings of theRAF Club in Piccadilly,Dangermond acknowledged that

cartography is central to GIS. Buthe suggested that GIS has quicklymoved from relying on a singleunderlying database to produce relatively few products, to enablingthe real-time generation of manyproducts from multiple databases.The data is coming from varioussources like social media andcrowd-sourcing – the challenge is tointegrate it and extract actionableinformation. As a consequence,Dangermond believes that Web GISwill transform cartography.

In the early days of GIS, productstended to be analytic and maps wererather basic. The objective was tocollect data once and use many times.At first this was not always possiblebut now the tools available aremore sophisticated and automatedmap generalisation is possible.Dangermond cited the recentlycompleted SwissTopo 1:25,000 scalemapping and the Dutch cadastre’s1:50,000 scale mapping as entirelyautomated processes. GIS is a meansof understanding and communicatingand the better the cartography, themore effective GIS will be.

Bring the ‘ologies’ together!

GIS has traditionally been the preserve of a few geeks working atexpensive workstations butDangermond sees WebGIS as thevehicle for change. WebGIS willbe easier, it will work in real-time,will always be available to everyoneand it will look more like social media. By transforming GIS into Web GIS,

almost anything can be integrated– processes, organisations andpeople. ‘Geography can bring allthe ‘ologies together!’. Web mapsare distinct, integrated data forsocial media and the web modelmeans there are many disparatedatabases in the cloud. Visualoverlays are easy and ‘mash-ups’will drive the emerging world ofspatial analytics.

WebGIS can integrate informationthrough dynamic linking between anobject and associated mulitimedia;with visual overlays of data usingmash-ups and through spatialanalysis modelling from distributeddatasets. It will break down barriersand work towards a commonoperating picture. But it will alsoneed a new kind of cartographyand will be powered by many otherweb services. Portals, powered bynew, light-weight metadata tags,will help users to search for andorganise content. This will enablesharing between ‘friends’ in thecloud and will encourage selectionof content from various interchangeable sources.

WebGIS will also bring 3D ‘WebScenes’ (an Esri term) and real-timemapping. We are familiar with 3Dbut real time is a new data type,which will need specialised cartography to make a real impact.

Joining it all up

Organised through new portals, webGIS is accessible from any clientweb-enabled device enabling sharingthrough the cloud. But we need anew cartographic standard for this

architecture, argues Dangermond.Online base maps are necessary,directing us to ArcGIS online,which now has over a million mapsbeing shared in the cloud. WebGIS can also integrate real-timeinformation with a move to 3Dweb scenes from video feeds andto 3D renditions. Cartographersmust now operate in a ‘multi deviceworld’ and must integrate withother standard office applications.

An Esri research project aimed atimproving cartographic standards,the Urban Observatory, is a portalwhere you can compare 22 majorworld cities through 16 layers ofinformation criteria and statistics.‘It’s a free app’, explainedDangermond, but alas ‘there’s nostandard symbology yet!’

Initiatives like the UK’s transparencyagenda and open data help pointthe way ahead. Driven by smartersearches and the semantic web,Dangermond sees metadata asthe key. As Web GIS evolves,new methods and best practicefor websites will develop.

Cartographers at the interface

Anyone listening to Dangermondcannot help but be impressed by hisenthusiasm. Maps and geographicinformation cannot solve all theworld’s problems but he thinks theyare absolutely vital to whateversolutions are to be found. Thecartographer is the interfacebetween all that geographicallyenriched information now beingcollected and the maps that willbe used in the boardrooms orcabinet offices for decision-making.

After his talk, Dangermond waspresented with the BritishCartographic Society’s medal byPeter Jones. This has only beenawarded eleven times since itsinception in 1984 and usuallyafter lengthy deliberations at acouncil meeting. This time thedecision was unanimous andalmost instantaneous!

By Stephen Booth, Richard Groomand Robin Waters,PV Publications Ltd.


Cartographers have somuch information at theirdisposal via the web – butweb mapping has broughtwith it new challenges. ForBCS’ 50th anniversary celebrations, JackDangermond, president ofEsri, recently addressedmembers in an inspiringlecture on how GIS and WebCartography are extendingthe reach of mapping.

Future of Cartography

Iam afraid that it is that time ofthe year again when membership subscriptions are

due for renewal. Following thepractice of previous years, allthose members who pay by credit/debit card or by chequewill have received their renewal forms.

Members have the choice of fourmethods of payment:

• Personal cheque payable to The British Cartographic Society

• Credit/debit card providing thatthe standard card and cardholderdetails are listed on the renewal form.

• Bank Standing Order(Forms are available from BCS Administration Office)

• Online at www.cartography.org.uk.On the Home Page click on “JOIN”or “RENEW NOW” and on the pageshown select the appropriatemembership and then completethe online payment form.

In a bid to cut down the Society’srising postal costs, receipts willonly be forwarded when requestedand, in most cases, will be sentby email.

New MembersThe Society has the pleasure ofwelcoming the following newmembers who have joined theSociety since the publication ofthe Summer 2013 edition ofMaplines.

Corporate Members:No 1 AIDU, Google.

Educational Members:Our Lady’s Convent High School,Godalming Sixth Form College.

UK Members:Mr T J Bidgood, Mr C J Coates,Mr M Dover, Mr J Eltham, Mrs M Elvidge, Mr N T Gardner,Mr S.A. Hannah, Mr L Harvey,Miss M J Hussey, Mr S Kaczor,Mr N Monk, Ms C Pearce, Miss C Retief, Miss S Sasaki, Mrs K Vucic, Mr S Wheeler.

Overseas Members: Mr M Azrul.Mr O Essen, Mr B J Muhwezi,

UK Associate Members:Mr K N H Baker, Mr R J Karlovich,Miss A Makati.

And finallyI would like to thank all thosemembers who returned their ballotpapers; the response this year wasthe highest for quite a few years.

After the plaudits, now the plea –all those members who do not paytheir membership subscriptions byStanding Order will have by nowreceived their renewal form for2014. Could I ask that you pleasereturn them with payment soonest.It takes a great deal of time andmoney to constantly chase up latepayments and I believe that members are aware that the subscription renewal date is 1 January each year and not on theanniversary of joining the Society.

As I sit here writing my report, Ihave just heard that the Met Officeis forecasting a severe winter andI think the decision (mine!!) not tospend Christmas in sunnier climesand stay at home for a changemay be regretted in the comingfew weeks.

I would like to thank all membersfor the support I have receivedthroughout a very busy 50thAnniversary year and may I wishyou all the best for 2014.

My regards to you all.

Roger Hore, BCS Administration15 The Crescent, Stanley Common

Ilkeston, Derby DE7 6GL, UKTel/Fax +44(0)115 9328684

Email: [email protected]


BCS Admin & Corporate News

Cartography as a professionhas changed enormously ina relatively short period of

time. Digital mapping and GIS haveopened the door to many opportunities that didn’t exist just afew years ago. The scope and flexibility we have now when producing maps is amazing in comparison. Now timescales neededto produce maps are greatly reducedand efficiency levels in map production greatly increased. Muchof the demand is for instant mapping,on websites, to visualise when weare on the move, on whiteboardsetc and I would suggest moremaps are created for this marketthan for print. So are we looking atthe death of the paper map?

I am writing this just a few daysafter the Philippines was tragically

hit by typhoon Haiyan. The papermap will always be needed inthese catastrophic situationswhere there is no power orInternet connection. Some of ustook the chance in the RestlessEarth workshop at this year’s symposium to look at the planninginvolved to get aid and supplies todisaster areas; it was a real eye-opener.

I recently visited the World TravelMarket exhibition. As you wouldexpect there were maps everywhere, each country/regionwould inevitably have a map butoften simple, schematic, “designer” maps in brochures andhandouts. They will usually pointyou towards their online mappingto show resort locations, outlinetours, airport locations etc.

How we navigate our roads haschanged, but do drivers rely toomuch on their Sat Nav? A brillianttool, but I suggest always best witha printed map as back-up. For methe paper map wins on presentation;I can see the bigger picture and itdraws me in and is a more compelling read than visualisingon a screen. I am sure there willalways be a place for the papermap alongside the digital product,but maybe in more of a print ondemand solution. Maybe we needto educate users as well, to makethe best use of both?

Please send in your thoughts onthe state of the printed map.

Alan GrimwadeBCS Corporate Liaison Officer

[email protected]


Congratulations to Gerry Zierler, from North London,who was the winner of the Summer 2013 quiz.

BUSINESS DESIGN CENTRELONDON UK 28 – 29 MAY

www.GeoBusinessShow.comBUSINESS 2014

Organised by: In collaboration with:

A brand new geospatial event for everyone

involved in the gathering storing, processing

and delivering of geospatial information.

Complete the Mapline quiz above for your chance to WIN a Mini iPad

Quiz – GEO Business 2014

Can you guess the names of the ten National Parks forEngland made up from the Ordnance Survey Open Dataset‘OS Terrain 50’. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crowncopyright and database right 2013. Our winter quiz issponsored by GEO Business 2014.

Please send your entries to [email protected] the subject line ‘Winter 2013 Quiz’.

westeros - british cartographic society · visit the bcs website at winter 2013 / maplines • 5...

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