One Vision - A Map Restoration Part Two: The City Centre
Kevan James
May 25, 2022.
As I wrote in Part One of this project, restoration of my Father's fictional map has continued apace and I'm now about a quarter of the way through work on the 225 A3 sheets of drawing paper dad used to draw his fictional map.
The four sheets shown here represent the centre of his city; the first four A3 sheets Dad drew.
'North' is as usual on maps, to the top.
These four sheets, joined together, show the historic quarter, the area around the castle and to the north of it. To the west (on the left) is the business quarter with tall buildings and north of that, the entertainment quarter - called Camden Lock - with its clubs and bars. And in the middle, the big city park.
Below:
The original four sheets -
With the four joined together and the join lines removed, the map has been coloured more fully and some of the place and street names renewed.
On the subject of names, some were quite imaginative, others less so. Dad was a Londoner, born and bred, proudly British, so it's not a surprise to find some influence there. 'Wellesley Plaza' complete with the 'Wellington Monument' in the centre, just along the road from 'Waterloo' and it's mainline railway station is one example. He was also very fond of Paris so there is a heavy input of French names also. He also named some streets and places after a few of the people he worked with at the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS). There is 'McDonagh House' and 'Parsons Hall' to name just two - there are others. He meant no slight to anybody not named, I think it was more a case of those that sprang to mind.
The city as a whole still doesn't have a name however, as my Father never gave it one. I'm still of two minds here - do I give it a name or leave it without?
Perhaps it is something I will address later. In the meantime, just one copy of the city centre map has been printed and it is quite large at 30" x 20". It is in a frame, on my office wall and I'm really rather pleased with it. Dad would have loved it!
The temptation to add to this is quite strong but also a little impractical due to the size. One possibility (when I'm done with all the sheets) is to create a Wallpaper Map with the size of each sheet reduced accordingly. Reducing the size would mean some of the detail becomes less clear of course - it will be much smaller - but I don't think that would be too big a price to pay for what would be a spectacular wall covering.
One usually finds such wallpaper maps in estate agents but they do have other uses...
That said, anybody who fancies a high-resolution 30" x 20" fictional map of the City Centre somewhere in their home can buy a copy, which can be framed for display.
Copies are printed to order only (no stock is held), on high quality photo-paper, will be rolled into a tube and mailed by recorded delivery, so make sure somebody is in to sign for it!
Price to UK addresses, including postage and packing - £49.
Email me for payment details and postage costs to addresses outside the UK:
info@kjmtoday.com
All images copyright Terry James 1986-1990 / Kevan James 2022
Part One of One Vision A Map Restoration can be found here:
More to come later as I make progress through my Dad's map...
info@kjmtoday.com
