Site Guide

Welcome to our website!

At stanfords.co.uk we carry the world’s largest specialist catalogue of maps and travel books.
Our newly designed and unique navigation menus are simple to use and let you get straight to the product you want directly from the home page.
Graphic features let you see mapping detail and map coverage, as well as the usual book covers and product images.
Products are quality graded, so you see the best items first. With over 150 years of experience, you can rely on us to be good judges!
The expertise of our staff extends beyond their knowledge – they have travelled extensively and explored for themselves - you can read about their adventures in our We’ve Been There articles.
Our friendly customer services send personal emails to confirm the progress of your order, dispatch the stock efficiently (usually within 48 hours and often on the same day), and are always there to answer any queries on the telephone or by email.
Wherever you choose to visit, we hope you’ll come back to see us soon.
As St Augustine said, “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page”.

Navigating the site

There are three ways to find the products you’re looking for on the Stanfords website:

Text Search

Terms entered in the text search box at the top of the screen search within:

Product name/title
Author name
Publisher name
Catalogue number
10-digit ISBN code (for books)
Sheet reference number (for maps, charts and topo guides)
General words likely to be found in product descriptions
Location (if this matches a location in the Navigation Menu you will be taken to the same page that would appear if you had selected that location from the Navigation Menu, if it does not match such a location, results will show for where that name appears).

If the products you are looking for are not presented to you immediately you can refine your search using the links on the right.

These are broken down into:

Product types that contain stock that matches terms searched
Places that have items associated to them matching the terms searched
Other pages from the site that contain the terms searched (e.g. articles or promotional pages)

*Please note, on the homepage regions and cities contain a reduced list of location for the sake of speed. On selecting a country further locations are made available in these fields, so if you're trying to find the location by region or city immediately and its not there, please try drilling down instead.

Upon making a selection the menu will refine itself to show further selections that can be made in red.

On choosing a location:

Other locations that can be drilled down to are shown in red
Product types that are associated to that location are shown in red
Products that are not associated to that location are removed from the menu
Locations that are contained in the first location selection, but not within your later refinement are shown in grey (e.g. Europe>France>Paris will show inner regions of Paris in red, and other French regions and cities in grey)

On choosing a product type:

Locations that do not have stock of that sort associated to them are removed

As you make refinements you will see the text below the menu show how many products matches are made. Please note, these are not only individual items but may also relate to a series containing many individual items.

Once you are happy with your selection press Go.

The next page

A new page loads showing all the stock at the required level of refinement.

If you have chosen a large location, you can continue to drill down using links on the right under ‘Refine your search’. The most popular locations are shown here, but others are available upon opening the navigation menu again, either by clicking on it or by clicking the link ‘Explore more places’.

If you have chosen a location and no product type, the most popular product types are shown on the right and, again, more products are available from the navigation menu – opened either by clicking on it or by clicking the link ‘Explore more places’.

If you have chosen a product type and/or a location, you can continue to refine the products into a particular sort. For example, under Guide Books you can choose from a long list of different kinds of guidebook, the same is true for Maps & Atlases, while under Stationery you can select from the various varieties we stock.

Beneath ‘Refine your search’ are more links useful for a ‘Related search’. These no longer drill down, but instead move you to a location’s neighbour or larger location in which it is contained (e.g. on a France page you will see links to Denmark, England, Europe, Germany, etc.)

Menu Links

Underneath the Navigation Menu are a number of links to particular pages. A Home link can be found here and you can also navigate back to the homepage by clicking on the Stanfords logo.

A link to the Business Mapping site (great for planning applications, architectural drawings and much more) is also found here.

Other links here will take you to various areas like our New in Stock and Offers catalogue pages.

At the bottom of the site are a few more links to take you to information pages where you can find details on Stanfords’ history and how to contact us.

At the very top of the site on the right are links to Your Account, Your Basket and Log In/Log Out. On the left is a link to a Text Only service.

Graphic Features

To make sure we provide the customer with as much information as possible to make the right choice when buying maps and travel books, we complement our textual descriptions with images:

Map and Book Covers and Product Pictures:
On the product page you will be able to see what the map, book, or product looks like.

Cartography Samples:
For maps, especially when there are so many to choose from, it is essential for the customer to see a sample of the cartography used. A small sample of representative cartography from the individual map or atlas or from the map series is shown on the right side of the webpage (A larger version can be seen by clicking on the image).

Grids:
This is probably the most important graphic feature in our website. Especially in the case of very detailed maps, like the Walking & Detailed Topographical Maps, where in order to choose the right map it is necessary to have an index diagram or grid that shows the coverage of each sheet.
Grids are associated to map series. When you navigate to the map series, you will find an image of the grid (click the image to view a larger version). Some of our grids are very detailed so they might take a bit longer to load but once a grid is open, you can decide which map you need and click on it from the panel on the left side.

Availability

See information about the availability of products.

Shopping Basket

By clicking on ‘Buy’ you add the item to the shopping basket. You must have your cookies enabled as otherwise the shopping basket will not remember what you have previously placed in it and if you go on to buy something else, you will find the basket empty when you return to it. For more information on cookies and privacy, see below.

If you choose to continue shopping, you can check how many items you have in the basket and their cost by looking at the basket icon in the top-right of the webpage. Clicking here brings you back into the shopping basket.

The shopping basket will show the products you have placed in it with a first calculation of postage. In this first screen you can change the number of units of the same product you want and then recalculate postage and total cost before proceeding to the check out.

If you click through to the next page you enter our Thawte Certified Secure part of the website. You will be first asked to enter the billing address details. These include an email address. It is very important this is entered correctly because when we receive the order, an automatic e-mail is sent to you to confirm receipt of the order and a second email is sent when the goods are dispatched. We will not use your email in any other way, unless you subscribe to the newsletter of your own accord.

If different from the billing address, you then enter the delivery address details.

The screen that will follow is the order summary where all the details of the order are laid out for you to check before you proceed to enter your credit card details. If you don't feel comfortable about submitting your card details online, you can print this page and either call our fulfilment department on 00 44 (0)20 7836 1321 or send them a fax, writing the payment details at the bottom of the page, on 00 44 (0)20 7836 0189.

Delivery Service

Read about Stanfords Delivery Options and Charges

We produce a newsletter which we send out regularly, packed with the latest news about new maps and travel books, our promotions, events with authors and lots of features on travel issues and ways to explore different parts of the world. Sign up to our newsletter here.

Cookies and Privacy

Read about our Privacy Policy.

Accessibility

Stanfords are committed to website accessibility. The Stanfords website has been constructed to meet the level 2 recommendations made by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to achieve a combination of an "A" and "AA" rating. This site adheres to W3C standards for XHTML 1.0 strict and is validated to CSS2.

What else are we doing to be accessible?

Meaningful links titles and page URLs are created throughout the site.
These are used to aid readability, especially for visually impaired people using screen readers to access the site.
Cascading Style Sheets or ‘CSS’ are used throughout the site to layout all content which aid accessibility by screenreaders.
All images related to the content on the site are supported by alternative text or ‘alt text’ which can be accessed by screenreaders.

Other info

Site Guide Overview

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