Santa's Lap: Illustrated Maps Of London Boroughs
Every day until Christmas we will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won’t already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we’ll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings…
These beautiful maps are crafted by Mike Hall, who intends to illustrate all 32 boroughs plus the City of London. So far, he's completed Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Tower Hamlets. Camden's coming soon.
Mike explains the creative process:
Each map is a detailed depiction of the major streets, neighbourhoods, parks, waterways and buildings in each borough, and the decoration of each is inspired by the decorative antique English county maps from the 19th century. The maps, illustrations and decoration are all drawn by hand on paper and coloured digitally, and take roughly a week's work to complete.
You can buy any of the borough maps mentioned above, and many other impressive London illustrations, through Mike's Etsy site.
Note: the physical maps are much larger than reproduced here.
Last Updated 08 December 2011