The first A-Z

Peter Barber writes: "Contrary to popular belief, the first A-Z map of London was actually produced in 1623, by John Norden."

Comments

[Colin]

I loved the exhibition but a didn't see a C17th century A to Z, please explain!

[Russell]

I thought the A-Z was invented by Phyllis Pearsall in the 1930s?

[Londoner]

If Phyllis Pearsall didn't invent the A-Z, why does everyone think she did?

[PeterBarber]

The London A-Z map was really invented in 1623 by John Norden who expanded a list of buildings and street names on a map of London that he had created in 1593 to include all street names. The title of the map made his purpose clear: ‘a guide for Cuntrey men in the famous Cittey of London, by the help of wich plot they shall be able to know how farr it is to any street, as also to go to the same without forder troble’.

By the 1670s London had grown so much that the street index had become a separate volume, though efforts were made to combine them on one sheet (we show and example of 1830). In the 1850s Henry Collins seems to have been the first person to have the idea of combining maps and index (to 7000 street names) in one atlas, but his maps were difficult to use because they were not consistently oriented to the North. By the early twentieth century several publishers, including Phyllis Pearsall’s father, Alexander Gross, were producing coloured London street atlases with characteristic ‘A to Z’ features such as the exaggeration of street widths to facilitate identification.

The map was reissued in 1653 and that map is on display in the exhibition. So what was Phyllis Pearsall’s contribution? In the Inter-War years, London expanded dramatically and there was a lot of updating to be done (though not quite as much as Phyllis claimed on the title-page of her first A-Z). In addition, Phyllis added ranges of street numbers on long streets. She did this by walking the streets and compiling card indexes. But she could have obtained the same results with much less effort by consulting the planning departments of the relevant boroughs. What distinguished Phyllis was that she invented the term ‘A to Z’ for a street atlas, and took greater care than her rivals to ensure that the whole of the built-up area was included in her street atlas . She also seems to have had excellent marketing skills and to have been an outstandingly good employer. But she did not ‘invent’ the London street atlas.