Magnificent Maps
Maps are rarely just about geography…
So says the pamphlet for this is free exhibition at the British Library and – even sweeter – I had the afternoon off work to have lunch with a pal and to see it.
There are plenty of early maps of the world with beautifully-inscribed names and others which were displayed to convey their owners’ power. There were re-imagined maps of London as well as UK county and parish maps and a lovely Victorian schoolroom map of Europe with the names of countries and places carefully picked out in clear font. Some of those names and places shifted in early 20th Century Europe and then shifted right back again as the century closed. There were great propaganda maps, too.
The BL has a splendid philatelic collection too, displayed in pull-out glass cases. I could do with some of those at home to put things in.
On the way home I see a woman on the bench outside Tesco’s clutching a can of Special Brew and carefully writing inside a birthday card. In the next street to mine, the kids from the flats rush out into the road (no checking for traffic – they rush fearlessly out). Chasing and chasing one another, bikes flung down in the road as they rush along the pavements with sticks. I’m listening to The Smiths’ How Soon is Now.
