Colourful and easy to use, Bartholomew’s maps became a trademark series. The maps were popular and influential, especially for recreation, and the series sold well, particularly with cyclists and tourists. To begin with, Bartholomew printed their half-inch maps in Scotland as stand-alone sheets known as 'District Sheets' and by 1886 the whole of Scotland was covered. They then revised the maps into an ordered set of 29 sheets covering Scotland in a regular format. This was first published under the title Bartholomew’s Reduced Ordnance Survey of Scotland. The half-inch maps of Scotland formed the principal content for Bartholomew's Survey Atlas of Scotland published in 1895. Bartholomew then moved south of the Border to the more lucrative but competitive market in England and Wales, whilst continuing to revise the Scottish sheets. This Bartholomew series at half-inch to the mile, covered Great Britain in 62 sheets in the 1940s, Bartholomew’s first to cover Great Britain at this scale (their previous series covering Scotland and then England and Wales). The series provides an attractive and useful snapshot of 1940s Britain. By this time, Bartholomew had altered the range of information on their maps compared to the 1900s. There were more categories of roads, Ministry of Transport road numbers were added, and new recreational features such as Youth Hostels and Golf Courses. Bartholomew’s topographic information was gathered partly from original Ordnance Survey maps, and partly from information sent in to Bartholomew from map users. One important user community for Bartholomew were cyclists. From the 1890s, Bartholomew entered into a formal relationship with the Cyclists’ Touring Club, then numbering around 60,500 cyclists, proposing that club members supplied Bartholomew with up-to-date information. In return, Bartholomew provided the CTC with discounted half-inch maps. The relationship worked very well, turning CTC members into an unofficial surveying army, feeding back reliable and accurate topographical information which Bartholomew would then use to update their maps. You can read more about this and see selected letters from cyclists at: http://digital.nls.uk/bartholomew/duncan-street-explorer/cyclists-touring-club.html.

Usually Bartholomew made revisions the sheets right up to the time of publication, so the date of publication is the best guide to the approximate date of the features shown on the map. You can view the dates of publication for the series at: https://maps.nls.uk/series/bart_half_great_britain.html

This dataset contains a sample of 10,000 (3.5%) out of a total of 285,846 text sequences extracted from the 1891–1896 Map of London by the Ordnance Survey (OS).

The methodology used for the automated recognition, linking, and sequencing of the text is detailed in the article Recognizing and Sequencing Multi-word Texts in Maps Using an Attentive Pointer by M. Zou et al., 2025.

Description of the content

The map is drawn at a scale of five-feet to the mile (c.a. 1:1,056). The text on the map is an invaluable source of information about the Greater London in the late Victorian period. It includes the names of streets, squares, parks, watercourses and even some estates ('Poplars', 'The Grange', 'Arbutus Lodge'). In addition, the map contains many details of the function of buildings and economic activity, such as factories ('Sweet Factory', 'Crown Linoleum Works', 'Imperial Flour Mills', 'Lion Brewery'), warehouses or commercial infrastructure ('Warehouse', 'Jamaica Wharf', 'Rag Store'), offices ('Offices'), etc. The map also mentions public buildings such as schools ('School Boys, Girls & Infants', 'Sunday School'), hospitals or clinics ('St. Saviour's Union Infirmary', 'Beulah Spa Hydropathic Establishment', 'South Western Fever Hospital'), railway stations ('Clapham Station'), post offices, banks, police stations, etc. Other social venues are also mentioned, such as public houses, i.e. pubs ('P.H.'), clubs, casinos, and recreational areas (e.g. 'Cricket Ground'). Special attention is given to churches, with a regular count of the number of seats (e.g. 'Baptist Chapel Seats for 600').

In addition, the map provides details that can be of great interest in the study of everyday life in London at the end of the 19th century. For example, there are numerous mentions of 'Stables', 'Drinking Fountain's or 'Urinal'[s]. Fire protection infrastructure is highlighted, e.g. fire plugs ('F.P.') and fire alarms ('F.A.'). The map also includes information on elevation (e.g. '11·6') and flood levels (e.g. 'High Water Mark of Ordinary Tides').

A list of abbreviations used in the Ordnance Survey maps, created by Richard Oliver [1], is made available by the National Library of Scotland (link).

Organization of the data

The data in 10k_text_london_OS_1890s.geojson is organized as a regular geojson file.

Example structure

{ "type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [ { "type": "Feature", "geometry": { "type": "MultiPolygon", "coordinates": [[[ [x1, y1], [x2, y2], ...]]] }, "properties": { "label": "Oxford Circus", } },

... # Further text sequences            

] }

Image documents

The original map document consists of 729 separate sheets, digitized, georeferenced, and served as geographic tiles by the National Library of Scotland [2].

Descriptive statistics

Total Number of text sequences: 285,846Sample size: 10,000Total Area covered: 450 square km

Use and Citation

For any mention of this dataset, please cite :

@misc{text_london_OS_1890s, author = {Zou, Mengjie and Petitpierre, R{\'{e}}mi and di Lenardo, Isabella}, title = {{London 1890s Ordnance Survey Text Layer}}, year = {2025}, publisher = {Zenodo}, url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14982946}}@article{recognizing_sequencing_2025, author = {Zou, Mengjie and Dai, Tianhao and Petitpierre, R{\'{e}}mi and Vaienti, Beatrice and di Lenardo, Isabella}, title = {{Recognizing and Sequencing Multi-word Texts in Maps Using an Attentive Pointer}}, year = {2025}}

Corresponding author

Rémi PETITPIERRE - remi.petitpierre@epfl.ch - ORCID - Github - Scholar - ResearchGate

License

This project is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 License.

Liability

We do not assume any liability for the use of this dataset.

References

Oliver R. (2013). Ordnance Survey maps: A concise guide for historians. The Charles Close Society. London, UK. 3rd Ed. 320 pages

Ordnance Survey, London, five feet to the mile, 1893-1896 (1896), https://maps.nls.uk/os/townplans-england/london-1056-1890s.html, digitized by the National Library of Scotland (NLS)

The Wildscape Atlas was a projected spin-off product from Prof. Alice Coleman’s Second Land Utilisation Survey of Britain (https://maps.nls.uk/series/second-land-utilisation-survey), jointly edited by Coleman and Geoff Sinclair, her Chief Vegetation Surveyor. Within the field maps for the 2LUSB, the volunteer surveyors initially coloured areas of 'Wildscape' as yellow. “Wildscape is mountain and moorland, heath and coast, bog and fen, all the areas that spring spontaneously to mind at the mention of nature conservation. In this country they are more often semi-natural than natural but nevertheless they are the closest to nature of all British landscapes” (Coleman, 1970). A separate survey of vegetation cover of these Wildscapes was completed by 1969 in England and 1974 in Wales which underpins the 'Wildscape Atlas'. This data has now been scanned and georeferenced and made available alongside the 2LUSB data on the National Library of Scotland. Attribution statement: Wildscape Atlas for England and Wales © Trustees of the Land Use Research Unit, 1969-1974

Scapes and Fringes are a spin-off from the Second Land Utilisation Survey of Britain (https://maps.nls.uk/series/second-land-utilisation-survey/), directed by Prof. Alice Coleman. Colman designed a general land-use model to direct and streamline the interpretation of the 2LSUB maps. The results were published in 1991 as two large 1:400,000 sheets, but the more detailed working sheets at 1:100,000 were found among Prof Coleman’s papers, and these have been scanned and georeferenced. Attribution statement: Alice Coleman’s Scapes and Fringes © Trustees of the Land Use Research Unit, 1990-1992

Scapes and Fringes are a spin-off from the Second Land Utilisation Survey of Britain (https://maps.nls.uk/series/second-land-utilisation-survey/), directed by Prof. Alice Coleman. Colman designed a general land-use model to direct and streamline the interpretation of the 2LSUB maps. The results were published in 1991 as two large 1:400,000 sheets, but the more detailed working sheets at 1:100,000 were found among Prof Coleman’s papers, and these have been scanned and georeferenced. Attribution statement: Alice Coleman’s Scapes and Fringes © Trustees of the Land Use Research Unit, 1990-1992

Georeferenced map of 'Plan of Edinburgh and Leith, from the Survey Atlas of Scotland' By J.G. Bartholomew (1912)as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project- view other versions of the map at http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned map. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-05-31 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

Georeferenced map of 'Old and New Town of Edinburgh and Leith with the proposed docks' By John Ainslie (1804) as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project- view other versions of the map at http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned map. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-05-31 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

Georeferenced map of 'he City of Edinburgh and its environs' By Robert Kirkwood (1804) as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project- view other versions of the map at http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned map. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-05-31 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

This dataset contains records of 2,147 maps and plans of Scotland held in the archive of the Stevenson engineering firm. This includes maps and plans made by the Stevensons themselves and those acquired from other sources and held with the company's archives. Although the company worked all over the world, this resource is limited to material relating to Scottish projects and places.

Georeferenced map of ' Post Office Plan of Edinburgh and Leith ' By J. Bartholomew (1902) as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project- view other versions of the map at http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned from original paper map and georeferenced by The National Library Of Scotland. Digital Terrain Model. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-09-16 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

Georeferenced map of ' Post Office plan ' By W. A.K. Johnston (1905/1906) as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project- view other versions of the map at http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned from original paper map and georeferenced by The National Library Of Scotland. Scanned map. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-09-16 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

This dataset represents the complete descriptive metadata for the G Taylor and A Skinner's Survey and maps of the roads of North Britain or Scotland, 1776, a digitised collection of George Taylor and Andrew Skinner's volume of maps depicting roads in Scotland.

This dataset represents the complete descriptive metadata for John Wood's town plan maps, a digitised collection of town plan maps of Scottish towns by mapmaker John Wood (1780-1747).

The late Professor Alice Coleman (1924-2023) directed the Second Land Utilisation Survey of Britain (2LUSB) between 1960 and 1973. This was developed from Prof Sir Dudley Stamp’s first such survey (First Land Utilisation Survey, Britain, 1931-1938) Using a clear categorisation system, with brand of pencil stipulated to ensure consistency, surveyors recorded land-use by hand-colouring OS 1:10,560 basemaps for England and Wales. As well as categorising use of land across the whole of England and Wales, where necessary, surveyors included structures missing from the OS basemaps, including residential developments, reservoirs, power stations, motorways and airports. The 2LUSB comprises nearly 7,000 Field Maps and 119 Published Maps. There is also a draft Wildscape Atlas (WA) and a generalisation of the 2LUSB data named Scapes and Fringes (S+F), each comprising maps and associated papers. Through the ONS, UKCEH and Defra the maps are now all digitised and published by the NLS. ONS initiated the work, and remained the principal contact with the Coleman family. The family were very keen for the legacy to be published on Creative Commons terms. Kings College London (KCL, Coleman’s alma mater), had been foreseen by Coleman as the natural home for her material, but in the event, KCL elected not to follow this up and ceded priority to ONS. Defra agreed with ONS’ assessment of the significance of the legacy and provided funds through its Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment to allow for the material to be rescued, scanned and georeferenced. The material was transported to ONS Titchfield in two tranches by a cousin of Prof Coleman. ONS inventoried the legacy, amounting to over 10,000 items and 200+ categories. The UKCEH also recognised the value of the agricultural, vegetation and wildscape data and became a second keen advocate of having the material scanned and georeferenced. GENUSIT were appointed to undertake the scanning and the scanned images were forwarded to the National Library of Scotland (NLS) for georeferencing and publication. ONS, GENUSIT and NLS collaborated closely on QA to ensure the highest achievable standard of work. Attribution statement: The Second Land Utilisation Survey of Britain © Trustees of the Land Use Research Unit, 1958-1973

Georeferenced map of 'Plan of the City of Edinburgh, including all the latest and intended improvements' By John Wood (1831) as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project- view other versions of the map at http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned map. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-05-30 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

The Ordnance Survey Books of Reference (sometimes called 'Area Books', or 'Parish Area Books') were published between 1855-1882 to accompany the Ordnance Survey's 25 inch to the mile maps. They record acreages of each land parcel shown on these maps and usually its land use (for example, categorising this as 'arable', 'houses', 'gardens', 'woodland'). Collectively, they form the earliest, most complete estimate of land-use for the inhabited parts of Scotland in the 19th century. They also are the most complete estimate of the sizes of individual land parcels or fields across Scotland in the 19th century. Many of the Books of Reference record the names of the principal settlements and farms within each parish in a gazetteer at the end of each Book, and for each place, give references to the relevant Ordnance Survey 25 inch map these places fall on.

Landownership in Edinburgh in 1919, traced from 'Chronological map of Edinburgh showing expansion of the City from earliest days to the present.' by John G. Bartholomew, 1919, as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project - view other versions of the map at: http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_boundaries.html The data is in British National Grid. GIS vector data. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-06-01 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

Georeferenced map of 'A plan of the city and suburbs of Edinburgh' By Alexander Kincaid (1784) as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project- view other versions of the map at http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned map. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-05-31 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

Georeferenced map of 'City and Castle of Edinburgh' by William Edgar (1765), as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project - view other versions of map at: http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned map. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-05-30 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

Georeferenced map of 'The Ancient and Extended Royalties of the City & The Several Extensions of the Police and Municipal Boundaries' (1685 - 1885) as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project- view other versions of the map at http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned from original paper map and georeferenced by The National Library Of Scotland. Scanned map. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-09-16 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.