Remember "L" is for "Labour", "L" is for "Lice".
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Mapa mundi, Piccadilly Circus
In the circular underground concourse of Piccadilly tube station (serving the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines), I came across this lovely period piece; a map of the world showing the time as the planet spins. Looking at the borders, this is a post-war work, fascinating for cartographers, geographers and political historians. In the photograph below, I've just focused on Europe - from the Atlantic to the Urals (and yes, there's Chelyabinsk!). Click to enlarge image. "Gdansk" is also "Danzig", though "Wrocław" is just that. Germany is represented by just Hamburg, Berlin and Munich (no Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Dresden, Leipzig or Stuttgart). But then just look at Russia! Places that were no more than glorified Gulags - Syktyvkar, Vologda or Ukhta - getting namechecks, while Glasgow or Manchester don't. Says something about filling blank spaces on maps, it also says something about the Soviet sympathies abounding in post-war Britain.
Remember "L" is for "Labour", "L" is for "Lice".
Remember "L" is for "Labour", "L" is for "Lice".
Mapmaking and geography always seems to be influenced by the political climate of the time - I still remember how we were told by our Geography teacher not to call our country BRD (abbreviation for "Bundesrepublik Deutschland", "Federal Republic of Germany") because this abbreviation was used in the GDR. It never made sense to me as a child, I just found it annoying that I had to write the full name of the country each time and couldn't use that handy abbreviation...
ReplyDeleteThank you for looking for Chelyabinsk, I wonder what made you look for it ;-)