A welcome to the Atlas of Britain

Summary

E. G. R. Taylor reviews the Atlas of Britain, published by Clarendon Press and directed by D. P. Bickmore and M. A. Shaw, praising its cartographic design and printing. Its 200 full-page colour plates and gazetteer with National Grid references present geographical, geological, biological, economic and demographic information. Taylor recommends overlaying thematic maps of transport, industry, housing and labour to examine the London–Liverpool commercial and industrial corridor, peripheral industrial centres and population patterns. She recounts the British Association’s atlas project, initiated in 1938 and terminated in 1940 over military security concerns, and advocates providing the new atlas in reference libraries, Parliament and local planning departments.