NEW MAP: Women’s History London Map

This new map has conveniently arrived on our shelves just in time for International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day.

Explore London through the lens of women’s history. This Women’s History London Map highlights 50 statues, sculptures, blue plaques, gravestones, buildings and monuments – dedicated to women such as Millicent Garrett Fawcett, ​​Virginia Woolf, Aphra Benn, Ada Lovelace and Phillis Wheatley. 

With an introduction and descriptions by Katie Wignall, author, city history tour guide and Londoner, and original photography by Jo Underhill, the map guide is a companion to begin exploring the lives of some of London’s most impactful women, and to inspire the next generation to continue their work.

Women’s History London Map is available now for £9.95

Map of the Month: London National Park City – Greater London Map

Our Map of the Month for April 2022 is the London National Park City- Greater London Area Urban Nature Map by Urban Good.

See London differently and explore its open spaces. This map is a resource to encourage more awareness and more action for people and nature, to help put nearby nature in everyday lives. 

It shows London: the world’s first National Park City. The massive map includes all of the parks, woodlands, playing fields, national nature reserves, city farms, rivers, lakes, and all the spaces that contribute to London’s parkland. Some of the most iconic walks through and around London are drawn, such as the London Loop and Capital Ring, along with symbols marking places to swim outdoors, climb peaks, pitch a tent, or go sailing.

Continue reading Map of the Month: London National Park City – Greater London Map

5 Favourite Outdoor Swimming Spots in London

Do you live or work in London? In town for a visit? Do you enjoy swimming outdoors and are looking for new places to swim? The new guidebook Outdoor Swimming London takes you on an aquatic tour to bring you 140 best wild swims, lakes and outdoor pools, all in or within easy reach of the capital. 

John Weller and Lola Culsán share five of their favourite places to swim on the periphery of London: all accessible by tube, train, boat or bike. Perfect for an adventurous day out.  

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London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City

London Clay is an exploration of the stories that make a city. Written in rich and vivid prose, Tom Chivers leads us on a journey to find the source of his memories, and to discover lost rivers, secret woodlands, the marshes and islands long buried beneath the city he loves.

Here, Tom explains the importance of mapping in his work:

Continue reading London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City

Black London: London’s Black Events

London is a city justly proud of its cultural diversity, yet for too long tourists and Londoners alike have had to rely on guides focusing on its white history and landmarks. Now Black London allows us to see this familiar city anew, gathering together the places that tell the story of its Black inhabitants, stretching back to Tudor times.

From Cleopatra’s Needle sitting on the Victoria Embankment, carved in Egypt three and a half thousand years ago, to the Black Lives Matters mural in Woolwich, the city is rich with features that symbolise its Black history.

Here are places worth visiting and revisiting. Get your bearings, revise your history, and be inspired by the work of some remarkable individuals who made London a truly global, modern city.

As well as historical information and recommendations on where to go, there are lots of Black events in London throughout the year. Here are some dates for you to add to diary from Black London by Avril Nanton & Jody Burton:

Continue reading Black London: London’s Black Events

Where is Drury Lane? Getting lost in London by Jon Woolcott

I’m not a practical man: simple DIY tasks fox me, I don’t enjoy ladders, electricity makes me jumpy. I’ll call for technical help when my printer runs low on toner. I have a handyman on speed-dial, a capable wife, and a nearby younger brother for whom these tasks hold no terrors. But for all this I find that one science, or sort of science, Geography, is my friend. It’s not all Geography – specifically it’s a sense of place. My sense of direction, if not exactly unerring, is well attuned to the compass points. I know where I am, and mostly, where I’m going. I love Ordnance Survey maps, whatever their scale, not only for their solid reliable practicality, but for the way they situate me so completely in any landscape, and for their often remarked-upon beauty. I can spread a map on the floor and pore over it for hours, bum aloft, tracing footpaths and rivers, marvelling over contour lines marking hills and steep sided valleys, wondering over derivations of village names, imagining the lost settlements marked in that ghostly gothic script. In short, I know my way around, and I am glad of it.

Continue reading Where is Drury Lane? Getting lost in London by Jon Woolcott

Stanfords sponsors free ‘Earth Photo’ exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

Image: Rosamund Macfarlane. Eagle Huntress Receiving– Altai Mountains, Mongolia

A shortlist of 50 exceptional photographs and films that document the earth in all its diversity, will be presented at the Royal Geographical Society in London from 23 July to 21 September 2018 for the inaugural Earth Photo exhibition. Continue reading Stanfords sponsors free ‘Earth Photo’ exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

Five examples of how the map of London isn’t always as it first appears

Artist and cartographer Adam Dant surveys London’s past, present and future with his beautiful, witty and subversive cartographic pieces. His astonishing maps offer a compelling view of history, lore, language and life in the capital and beyond.

To celebrate the launch of ‘Maps of London & Beyond’ we asked Adam Dant to give us Five examples of how the map of London isn’t always as it first appears. Continue reading Five examples of how the map of London isn’t always as it first appears

Stanfords Staff Selects: London Fiction

Here at Stanfords we sell maps and books from all over the world, but sometimes there is no place like home. We currently have a buy one get one half price offer on a selection of our favourite London books, gifts and guides. To give you a real taste of this wonderful city, here is some of our favourite London fiction: Continue reading Stanfords Staff Selects: London Fiction

Five reasons to climb trees by Jack Cooke

What better way to explore the city than through its canopy of trees? Jack Cook, author of The Tree Climber’s Guide tells us why we should leave terra firma every now and then and take to the trees: Continue reading Five reasons to climb trees by Jack Cooke