Popular Edition
Created from four Ordnance Survey Popular Edition maps first published in 1920

By the early 1920s, London’s population was well over seven million, although a significant pattern was starting to emerge: despite this overall growth, the number of people in the city centre was declining as those who could afford it moved out to the fresh air and new houses of the suburbs. Many outlying areas such as Brentford, Hendon and Becontree saw astonishing population rises in this period. London was increasingly becoming a city of suburbs spreading out in every direction from its traditionally densely-populated centre.

If the railways were the transport revolution of the 19th century, the motor car was certainly that of the 20th. After the First World War, Ordnance Survey for the first time produced a national mapping series designed from the outset to be in full colour. The new technology was put to the test in describing the gradations of the road network with each route being coloured according to its suitability or otherwise for motor traffic. Twenty times more vehicles were registered in the UK in 1929 compared to 20 years earlier, and many of those who could not afford (or did not dare) to use a car cycled instead. Increased leisure time and rising prosperity fuelled a demand for travel. As a result, accurate, relevant and up to date maps were needed. The Popular Edition provided them.

This map shows London on the threshold of yet another great change. The roads were threatening the railways, the suburbs were drawing people from the inner city. Beyond the built-up area, villages were turning into small towns, often with nearby parks and woods for recreation, while golf courses were in some areas starting to outnumber farms. Although still surrounded by open countryside containing many reminders of its past, London now totally dominated its immediate hinterland. This fascinating map captures the point at which the motor car began to define not only the landscape but also the way it which map-makers represented it.