The Great British Colouring Map

The Great British Colouring Map taps into a sudden enthusiasm for adult colouring-in books, by taking Ordnance Survey maps of many classic British places, stripping out all the colour, shading and labels, and inviting the reader to use their colouring pencils to shade and tone it as they please. The book, published by Laurence King in close association with the Ordnance Survey themselves, is big, and printed on suitable art paper that is ideal for pencils. We’ve chosen to review it here on Mapping London because both the front cover, and the centre-fold of the book, which folds out into four pages, feature central London, with the unmistakeable wiggles of the River Thames:

The book’s maps range from the classic Landranger “pink cover” 1:50000 maps, the more recent Explorer 1:25000 range, and also some directly derived from the vector OS Open Map Local, shown at an approximate 1:10000 scale.

You can buy the Great British Colouring Map on Amazon and at all good bookstores, with a sticker price of £19.95.

Thanks to the Ordnance Survey for sending a review copy.