Britain's National Atlas: Review

L. Dudley Stamp reviews The Atlas of Britain and Northern Ireland (Clarendon Press, 1963), calling it a landmark in British cartography. He traces national-atlas efforts from the British Association’s 1938 committee through wartime interruption, unsuccessful requests for Treasury support and the Ministry’s National Planning Series, before private enterprise produced this atlas under D. P. Bickmore’s direction, assisted by D. A. Shaw. Its 200 pages of coloured maps cover the United Kingdom, mainly at 1:2,000,000, with regional enlargements and smaller distribution maps. It maps contemporary resources, leaving historical geography outside its scope; data chiefly come from the 1951 population census, 1955 agriculture and fisheries statistics and 1954 industrial statistics, with later figures for rapidly changing subjects. Stamp approves its preference for physical quantities and employment over monetary values. He praises original thematic treatments and specialist contributions, including the country’s first complete drift map, while questioning some contributor credits and the durability of fold-out source notes. He finds the pervasive circular symbols capable of conveying broad patterns while requiring effort to interpret detail. His principal criticism is that some maps attempt too much, particularly regional sheets combining relief, elevation and land use. Despite these reservations, he calls the atlas “monumental” and strongly recommends it for private and institutional libraries.