 Photo 1: Georgrapher's London Atlas  |
On my way out of the Gatwick
airport complex, I stopped at the recommended Texaco petrol station and Star Mart.
Apparently, I was not the first confused traveler to be wanting a map to help me get
around. In a newsstand larger than some supermarket magazine racks, were about 100
different maps of London, England, the British Isles, and Europe! I spend 20 minutes
(under the wary eye of the cashier) comparing various types and editions of maps. It was recommended (on the net) that one should buy a map based on the British Army Ordnance Survey data, but most of them claimed that "distinction," so it wasn't much help deciding. I finally ended up with the "Geographers London Atlas," a hard bound 272 page book. |
 Photo 2: London Atlas map (ACTUAL SCALE!) |
At 3.1 inches to the mile, it takes
144 pages to cover most of metropolitan London. Even at that scale, the street names are
in 6 point condensed type! The second half of the book is the street name index, also printed in 6 pt condensed! I discovered on this trip that presbyopia has set in. I can no longer focus my eyes to the tip of my nose as I used to. In order to focus on the 6 pt type, I had to hold the page at 14 inches and at that distance the type was too small to read! Apologies to those of you who have suffered from this all along, it is new to me! |
 Photo 3: Hamlyn's Ordnance Survey Motoring Atlas of Britain
|
For a map of England, I got the
Hamlyn's "Ordnance Survey Motoring Atlas of Britain."
At three miles to the inch it is a tabloid size book map that covers England, Wales, and
Scotland on 113 pages. It was OK for getting from town to town, but once in a built-up
area you really need a local map (and/or a compass). Since I couldn't positively identify 2 Bushey Way in Bromley from my London map, I needed to call Kliens' again to get directions. I found a helpful bobby (policeman) sitting in a patrol car outside the Star Mart. He showed me that not only do you have to drop the international access portion, but you must change one of the internal digits from one to zero. (Not exactly intuitive!) After calling Kliens and writing down the directions, I headed out (with a considerable amount of trepidation) onto the Motorway. |