Here's the direct links to the digital maps:<p><a href="https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/overlays/medieval-london-1270-1300" rel="nofollow">https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/overlays/medieval-london-...</a><p><a href="https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/overlays/tudor-map-1520" rel="nofollow">https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/overlays/tudor-map-1520</a><p>You have to click the checkbox "Use this overlay" to view them.
I love that we're getting digital maps for earlier eras. What stories are set in XIII or XVI London that these might help clarify?<p>A little while ago I was reading about Galois' death, and it's surprising how much* one can find online: maps taken near 1832 showing both that he didn't have to go far from the Latin Quarter to meet someone in a meadow at dawn, nor did the farmer who eventually brought him to the hospital (time recorded, ~9h30) have to travel far, either. One could probably even use a sunrise calculator to take the date and figure out an upper bound on how long he had been lying in the field.<p>(this upper bound should be reasonably tight: the point of duelling at dawn is to have it done with before the farmers get to their fields)<p>We're only missing the chat logs between ViveLaRépublique and Stephanie15 that might explain what he was doing out there in the first place...<p>* the coroner's report not only contains what we would consider relevant detail about abdominal trauma, but also contains a detailed examination of his brain and skull structure?
The main feeling I have when seeing maps like this is how incredibly small the city was compared to the present day, and how much more open natural space there must have been across the country. The UK is a very densely populated country - 277 people per km² compared to the overall European average of 72 - and I can't help hankering after a time when nature would have been much more bountiful. (That hankering is of course significantly tempered by the lack of hygiene, anaesthetics, antibiotics, cosmopolitanism, etc, etc!)
My aunt worked with Mary Lobel on the original Atlas (I inherited her copy) mainly as a "retirement project" - it was fascinating to see the research laid out on her table and the various sources that informed the whole exercise. Things like the details of a court case between neighbours indicated that XYZ street was 1 foot wider at a particular point than previously thought or similar findings.
I remember at the time wondering why they couldn't publish just the maps as they were fascinating (with the academic papers that made up the rest of the Atlas). Fortunately, a decade or 2 later that's what they did.
I was walking North through the back streets of the City just a few days ago - from London Bridge to London Wall. It's amazing that so much of my route - zigzagging left and right through various junctions and down alleys - is clearly visible on an 800 year old map. I suspect none of the buildings are the same, but the roads are still there.
There's something about Fridays and weekends at HN that always brings some form of utility for my historical BX (older version of D&D) group. Thanks for posting.
Enormously powerful but also.. enormously confusing and slow to render on a tablet. I think it should all be there but perhaps less could be shown at first? Great to scroll around in but.. laggy