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Glasgow: Mapping the City
Maps can tell much about a place that traditional histories fail to communicate. This lavishly illustrated book includes more than 70 maps and numerous map features which have been selected for the particular stories they reveal about different political, commercial and social aspects of Scotland's largest city.
The maps featured provide fascinating insights into topics such as: the development of the Clyde and its shipbuilding industry; the villages which were gradually subsumed into the city; how the city was policed; what lies underneath the city streets; the growth of Glasgow during the Industrial Revolution; the development of transport; the city's green spaces; the health of Glasgow; the city as a tourist destination; the city as a wartime target ; and its regeneration in the 1980s as a host city of one of the UK's five National Garden Festivals.
Together the maps present a fascinating insight into how Glasgow has changed and developed over a period of almost 500 years.
The maps featured provide fascinating insights into topics such as: the development of the Clyde and its shipbuilding industry; the villages which were gradually subsumed into the city; how the city was policed; what lies underneath the city streets; the growth of Glasgow during the Industrial Revolution; the development of transport; the city's green spaces; the health of Glasgow; the city as a tourist destination; the city as a wartime target ; and its regeneration in the 1980s as a host city of one of the UK's five National Garden Festivals.
Together the maps present a fascinating insight into how Glasgow has changed and developed over a period of almost 500 years.
- GenresNonfiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2015
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19 people want to read
About the author
John N. Moore
2 booksJohn Moore is a specialist on Scottish Cartography and has published widely on the subject over a period of many years. He is currently Collections Manager at the University of Glasgow Library.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 26, 2016
Doing exactly what it says on the tin, this book has a carefully curated range of maps of Glasgow, selected to show interesting developments in the city, from the tapping of the Molendinar Burn, through the heyday of shipping on the Clyde to the Glasgow Garden Festival. The range of maps shows changes in the physical shape of the city, as it grows and expands, especially to the south and west; and changes to the social make up of the city too, charting policemen's beats, the spread of disease and the locations of post offices. The range of maps is immense, covering the city's history from myriad angles.
The text that goes along with the maps is clear and well-researched. Moore usually provides some information on the map makers as well as details of what is being shown and, where he can, providing wider social context.
This is an absolutely gorgeous book (albeit one that's too big to comfortably hold easily) with high-resolution reproductions of the maps on good quality, glossy paper. Generally each map is accorded four pages: a full-page close up of some detail on the map, and then the text over the next three pages, with the full-size map and often other close ups as well. More than once, I wished that I had a magnifying glass so that I could zoom into the detail.
It seems that mapping of Glasgow started comparatively late. Despite a blurry manuscript dating from 1596, and several naval charts of the Clyde, the first plan map of the city in the book is dated as late as 1764. The bulk of the book is taken up with maps from the 19th century, as the city of Glasgow exploded in size during the industrial revolution, with comparatively few in the 20th, although the ones that were there were fascinating, especially the post WW1 plan for "homes for heroes", the German map that could have been used in a land invasion of Britain and the radical post-war plan that would have completely reshaped the city, if it had ever been implemented.
For anyone interested in Glasgow's history and development, this is a fascinating book to browse through. I've come to love Glasgow over the years that I've lived here, and this book is a wonderful way to experience its history in a very visual way.
The text that goes along with the maps is clear and well-researched. Moore usually provides some information on the map makers as well as details of what is being shown and, where he can, providing wider social context.
This is an absolutely gorgeous book (albeit one that's too big to comfortably hold easily) with high-resolution reproductions of the maps on good quality, glossy paper. Generally each map is accorded four pages: a full-page close up of some detail on the map, and then the text over the next three pages, with the full-size map and often other close ups as well. More than once, I wished that I had a magnifying glass so that I could zoom into the detail.
It seems that mapping of Glasgow started comparatively late. Despite a blurry manuscript dating from 1596, and several naval charts of the Clyde, the first plan map of the city in the book is dated as late as 1764. The bulk of the book is taken up with maps from the 19th century, as the city of Glasgow exploded in size during the industrial revolution, with comparatively few in the 20th, although the ones that were there were fascinating, especially the post WW1 plan for "homes for heroes", the German map that could have been used in a land invasion of Britain and the radical post-war plan that would have completely reshaped the city, if it had ever been implemented.
For anyone interested in Glasgow's history and development, this is a fascinating book to browse through. I've come to love Glasgow over the years that I've lived here, and this book is a wonderful way to experience its history in a very visual way.
February 12, 2025
I read this straight after finishing its companion book, Edinburgh: Mapping the City. On the whole, I had a blast pouring over all these maps - between the two volumes, approximately 150 maps in all.
However, I did MUCH prefer the Edinburgh version. Although as a Glasgow resident, it was really fun to be able to identify the name of my neighborhood and nearby areas on maps as old as 1596 and 1693, Glasgow's comparatively less rich history is part of the reason this edition pales in comparison.
That of course can't be helped, but I would also say that the other reason is that the maps chosen for the Glasgow edition were simply less unexpected and less diverse than the ones chosen for the Edinburgh one. Many of these seemed to be essentially updated versions of older maps, perhaps with more detail - there were fewer of the really unusual maps found in the Edinburgh one. It should be noted they are written by different authors/compilators, so perhaps just a difference in style.
However, I still appreciated the author's precise eye for detail - his writing effectively highlighted or discerned otherwise very complicated (often blurred, mistyped, or poorly drafted) maps - without his guidance working through these, a few maps (particularly the early ones) would have been very difficult to decipher.
However, I did MUCH prefer the Edinburgh version. Although as a Glasgow resident, it was really fun to be able to identify the name of my neighborhood and nearby areas on maps as old as 1596 and 1693, Glasgow's comparatively less rich history is part of the reason this edition pales in comparison.
That of course can't be helped, but I would also say that the other reason is that the maps chosen for the Glasgow edition were simply less unexpected and less diverse than the ones chosen for the Edinburgh one. Many of these seemed to be essentially updated versions of older maps, perhaps with more detail - there were fewer of the really unusual maps found in the Edinburgh one. It should be noted they are written by different authors/compilators, so perhaps just a difference in style.
However, I still appreciated the author's precise eye for detail - his writing effectively highlighted or discerned otherwise very complicated (often blurred, mistyped, or poorly drafted) maps - without his guidance working through these, a few maps (particularly the early ones) would have been very difficult to decipher.
November 17, 2016
This book will of course have a limited appeal, aimed mainly at those with an interest in the local history of Glasgow, but it does what it does very well. The book is a history of the maps that have been made of Glasgow from its earliest days to the present and the stories of those who made them and why. Reading it you sometimes wish that the text gave a little more information on the 'why' rather than the 'who' but if you accept the fact that this is a history of Glasgow mapping you can overlook such a small foible.
Where this book really succeeds is in the wealth of illustrations. These are, simply put, fantastic. Large in scale, fully coloured and crammed with detail the only thing that slows you down from reading this book in a matter of hours is the time you end up poring over the maps. Picking out the details of old streets and buildings is hugely interesting and will have you constantly consulting Google Maps to see what features still remain. If you have an interest in the local history of Glasgow then you will not regret buying this book and I have no doubt you will be picking it up again and again.
Where this book really succeeds is in the wealth of illustrations. These are, simply put, fantastic. Large in scale, fully coloured and crammed with detail the only thing that slows you down from reading this book in a matter of hours is the time you end up poring over the maps. Picking out the details of old streets and buildings is hugely interesting and will have you constantly consulting Google Maps to see what features still remain. If you have an interest in the local history of Glasgow then you will not regret buying this book and I have no doubt you will be picking it up again and again.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews