Working with the Geospatial Commission, the Geo6 organisations have produced a simplified common data catalogue providing core information on the geospatial datasets that they hold and manage. This catalogue or index of data is made available under OGL however, the underlying datasets may be available under different licences.

Geographic Coverage

England, Wales, Scotland

Additional Resources

• BGS

• CA

• HMLR

• OS

• UKHO

• VOA

Link to CSV column definitions

• Human Readable

• JSON schema

Frequency of Update

Bi-annual or sooner, if required.

Colour and greyscale OS raster mapping for UK

Click here to download the Ordnance Survey OpenData files

September 2017 OS Code-Point Open for Greater London and London boroughs are downloadable via the links below. OS Code-Point Open provides a National Grid coodinate for a point within each postcode unit (e.g. SE1 2AA) in Great Britain.There are approximately 1.6 million postcode units in the UK and each contains an average of 15 adjoining addresses. It also contains a number of columns of attributes which provide information about each postcode unit, including local authority area codes down to ward level and National Health Service. The geographic extent of the Code-Point dataset below has been limited to the Greater London area as well as extracts for the City of London and the 32 London boroughs individually. In addition to conventional CSV file format, the dataset is also available as ESRI shapefile format (.shp) for ease of use with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for visualisation and further analysis. Key attributes: postcode unit, easting, northing, NHS health authority code and administrative codes Coverage: Greater London and 33 individual London borough. Format: Comma separated values (.csv) & Esri shapefile (.shp) External link: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/code-point-open.html

This map is a mosaic image comprising of over 50 individual 1st Edition Ordnance Survey 25" to the Mile (1:2500) County Series sheets. These map cover the extent of the AHRC Deep Mapping Estate Archives project boundary straddling the counties of both Flintshire and Denbighshire. These maps were surveyed between 1869-1874. Each map sheet was georeferenced as part of the AHRC's Deep Mapping Estate Archives project in January 2022 using ESRI ArcPro 2.9.1 utilising multi-point georeferencing (around 250-600) control points as well as the spline transformation. Each map has then been mosaiced together into a single images and has been imported into ArcGIS online as a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) file and is available for public use under the Non-Commercial Open Government Licence.

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.

Variety of freely available Ordnance Survey digital mapping datasets including postcodes and administration boundaries. These datasets can be useful in helping to map a number of other datasets available on the London Datastore such as Borough or Ward level data.

The following OS products are available to download from the OS OpenData website:

• MiniScale®
• 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster
• OS Street View®
• Boundary-Line™
• Code-Point Open®
• 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer
• Strategi®
• Meridian™ 2
• OS Locator™
• OS Terrain 50
• Land-Form PANORAMA®
• OS VectorMap® District (vector)
• OS VectorMap® District (raster)

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/finder.html?Licensed%20for=OpenData%20(Free)&withdrawn=on">Click here to visit the Ordnance Survey OpenData pages

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/opendatadownload/products.html">Click here to download the Ordnance Survey OpenData files

As one of our range of backdrop mapping products, Ordnance Survey's 1:25 000 Scale Colour Raster is backdrop map data of our popular OS Explorer Map series for outdoor activities.

It provides a scanned image of OS Explorer Map that can be used with other data in a geographical information system (GIS) to visualise your own information within a geographical context.

This dataset is published as Open Data.OS Terrain® 50 is an open height dataset of contours with spot heights, breaklines, coastline, lakes, ridges and formlines for Great Britain.What OS Terrain 50 provides you withModel wind direction and lines of sightMake better decisions about where to locate wind turbines and mobile phone masts. OS Terrain 50 lets you model wind direction and lines of sight at your desk, meaning fewer site visits.Plan landscape defencesGet the bigger picture about flood risk, soil erosion and pollution. By showing steep hillside gradients, OS Terrain 50 helps you plan flood defences and safeguard the landscape.More engaging mapsWith the contours version of OS Terrain 50, you can shade in hills to show their height. This extra sense of depth is ideal for walking maps and apps.Surface model entire landscapesGet an accurate, uncluttered view of the terrain with the grid version of OS Terrain 50. Its 50 metre post spacing gives you a surface model of the entire landscape, including major roads, large lakes and estuaries.Take account of tidesThe contours dataset also includes mean high and low water boundaries.

This dataset is about book subjects. It has 6 rows and is filtered where the books is One-inch engraved maps of the Ordnance Survey from 1847. It features 10 columns including number of authors, number of books, earliest publication date, and latest publication date.

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)

This dataset is published as Open DataAn open dataset of all Unique Street Reference Numbers (USRNs) within OS MasterMap Highways Network, with an associated simplified line geometry representing the geographic extent of each USRN.What OS Open USRN provides you with:Essential identifiers for streetsOur Open USRN product contains USRNs across GB. They are the authoritative identifier assigned to and uniquely identifying streets and are essential for managing Great Britain's Highways. Once its allocated to a street record, a USRN will never change or be reused.Authoritative sourceThe USRNs in OS Open USRN are allocated by Highway or Road Authorities and Highway Bodies, under their statutory responsibility to maintain this information. This means you can have confidence you’re accessing an authoritative source of these identifiers.Complete USRN dataAll USRNs present in OS MasterMap Highways Network, are also included in this product – so you can be sure you’re not missing out.Share and link dataOS Open USRN will enable you to start sharing and linking together information about USRNs which you can visualise with a location.

A provisional small geometry vocabulary used by Ordnance Survey vocabularies and datasets. Likely to change when some standard way of representing geometries in RDF is agreed. @en

This dataset is about book subjects. It has 1 row and is filtered where the books is Follow the map : the Ordnance Survey guide. It features 10 columns including number of authors, number of books, earliest publication date, and latest publication date.

A link to Ordnance Survey datasets

The dataset comprises scanned images of maps and aerial photographs of the Falkland Islands. The original maps are printers films and final paper printed originals of Falkland Islands OS maps, compiled for the Falkland Islands Government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by the Overseas Directorate of the Ordnance Survey. The Falkland Islands Government retains copyright interest in the maps. There are no access or usage constraints for BGS staff for BGS purposes. The field slips of geological maps were compiled by BGS under contract to the Falkland Islands Government. Copyright remains with the Falkland Islands Government , but there are no access or usage constraints for BGS staff for BGS purposes. Access to both datasets are restricted to BGS staff.

Slick, quick vector maps for use as a customisable, contextual base, with a focus on web and mobile apps.

Benefit from unrivalled levels of detail in your web or mobile app. OS Vector Tile API contains OS MasterMap Topography Layer including building heights.

Integrate Ordnance Survey's up-to-date, detailed maps in your applications, enabling you to make location-based decisions with confidence. You can customise the content and style to make your perfect map.

The most detailed open data mapping product available, providing a backdrop for integrating and visualising analytical datasets. The product provides an enhanced level of detail for buildings - including the specific identification of functional sites such as hospitals and schools, and an extensive set of cartographic names optimised for digital styling and presentation.

This dataset is wholly owned by Ordnance Survey (OS) and licenced for use by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) via an open data licence issued by OS. OS open data products (OS OpenData) are a set of free digital maps of Great Britain, available for anyone to use, for any purpose. The maps include data on roads, rivers and boundaries. This dataset includes layers derived from those available from OS.

NOTE: This dataset is or has been derived from 3rd party data supplied by Ordnance Survey. Please follow the link provided to determine any licensing conditions and restrictions that may exist. Code-Point provides a precise geographical location for each postcode unit in the United Kingdom. It also contains additional information, for example, PO boxes and the total number of addresses, both domestic and non-domestic, in each postcode unit. Code-Point includes Gridlink® data. Gridlink is a consortium initiative involving a number of government agencies that have cooperated to improve the consistency and quality of spatially referenced, postcode-based data. For further information, please see: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/code-point.html Supplier's metadata record: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/3a8dc9d0-59d0-4306-b2d4-1af246e94774/code-point