Maps

The Map Collection is situated in the Small Hall, Ground Floor Library, North Block, Senate House.

The collection is wide-ranging in scope, totalling approximately 67,000 sheets. It includes various Ordnance Survey series, most notably 1:10,000 maps covering all of Great Britain , 1:2,500 maps for Greater London and 1:1,250 maps for Central London . It also features early maps and facsimiles, town plans and thematic maps for Great Britain and foreign countries.

Read / Download Subject Guide (PDF)

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Access and opening times

From Monday 14th June the Map Collection will be available by appointment. If you require information or wish to make an appointment to view items from the collection please contact the Information Desk, Main Circulation Hall 4th Floor, South Block or email shl.userservices@london.ac.uk. This will enable us to offer an improved service by ensuring that the items you require are available when you visit.

The maps, with the exception of wall maps, are for reference only. A photocopying service is available. Photocopying legislation must be observed at all times. Maps may not be photocopied on the self-service machines. Please ask a staff member to arrange for copying on your behalf.

Note on the catalogues

The majority of the post-1850 maps (British and foreign) can be searched on the main catalogue. See the Guide to searching for maps in the library's main catalogue.

Other maps can be located using the card catalogue in the Map Collection.

Apart from details of maps in the collection, the card catalogue also contains details of atlases and gazetteers held in the Geography and Environmental Studies collection and also maps held in other parts of the library. Entries for selected maps contained within books are also included.

Cards are filed by area, then by scale or date. Please, note, that from 2003 onwards, the card catalogue has ceased to be kept up-to-date and the material obtained after that year can only be located on-line.

Special Collections

Of relevance to the Map Collection there are a number of significant collections in the Senate House Library, including the Goldsmiths' Library (early general and thematic maps of Britain and some overseas countries), the Bromhead Library (maps of London), Wyatt Bequest (a collection of early and modern maps of Buckinghamshire), E.G.R. Taylor Collection of Historic Printed Maps (mostly 18th and 19th century maps of European countries) and the Eliot-Phelips Collection (maps of Madrid and Spain).