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OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

6/ In 1857 London was the site of a new innovation - postal codes.

The city was subdivided into 10 districts (EC (East Central), WC (West Central), N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW)

Most of these codes are still used today, and the system was later expanded across the country.

Here's a street sign showing the postcode area in the no longer existent
"Borough of Finsbury"

Map of London postcode areas
Street sign in EC1 area of London
9 comments
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

7/ In 1884 an international convention met in Washington DC πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ, and the Greenwich meridian, passing through the Greenwich Observatory, was agreed to be the 0 line of longitude, the so-called "Prime Meridian"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_me

The line was also used as the basis for timezone definition, hence the term "Greenwich Mean Time"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwic

Commemorative stamp celebrating the 100th anniversary of the definition of the Prime Meridian
View from Greenwich park, through which the Prime Meridian passes
Map of the world showing the prime meridian and equator
Timezone map showing UTC timezone (the successor to Greenwich Mean Time)
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

8/ Not much later Charles Booth meticulously surveyed the demographics of London to create his famous "Life and Labour of the People in London", the first example of a "poverty map" showing the spatial distribution of poverty and inequality in the city.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_and

Whitechapel section of Charles Booth's poverty map
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

8/ In 1931 cartography changed forever when technical draughtsman Harry Beck represented the London Underground network as a schematic diagram rather than a geographically correct map.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Be

Beck's iconic style has been copied by transport networks - and others - world wide, with many, many variants.

Over the years we have had many talks at Geomob London about the Tube network, material enough for a thread of its own in the future.

Harry Beck's tube map
modern variant of the tube map in radial form
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

9/ London has evolved, and with it the maddening complexity of its
admin divisions.

"Greater London" is 32 local authority districts.

Confusingly this includes the City of Westminster, but not the City of London (why many admin maps of London have a hole at the center). Some are "Royal" boroughs, some are not.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_b

The boroughs typically have only minimal correspondence to things like postcode areas, police districts, etc.

#geoweirdness

9/ London has evolved, and with it the maddening complexity of its
admin divisions.

"Greater London" is 32 local authority districts.

Confusingly this includes the City of Westminster, but not the City of London (why many admin maps of London have a hole at the center). Some are "Royal" boroughs, some are not.

List of London Boroughs (and City of London)
Hole in the center of London due to the City of London
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ replied to OpenCage

10/ The City of London - traditionally marked by dragon boundary posts - is run by a corporation, though there is no surviving record of a charter first establishing the Corporation as a legal body.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_

Of course the Corporation does not have general authority over the Middle Temple and the Inner Temple, two of the four "Inns of Court"

It is odd historical exceptions ALL the way down.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_b

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Te

#geoweirdness

10/ The City of London - traditionally marked by dragon boundary posts - is run by a corporation, though there is no surviving record of a charter first establishing the Corporation as a legal body.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_

Of course the Corporation does not have general authority over the Middle Temple and the Inner Temple, two of the four "Inns of Court"

Map of the City of London
Dragon boundary post of the City of London
Map of the Inner and Middle Temples
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ replied to OpenCage

11/ London is sometimes still referred to as "The Big Smoke", a reference to the terrible pollution of the past, but these days the city is quite green
Indeed, it is classified as a forest.

50% of London is covered in green space, and an incredible 8 million trees are dotted across the capital.

In 2019, it was officially declared a National Park City.
nationalparkcity.london

#geoweirdness

Map showing London green space
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ replied to OpenCage

12/ In August 2004, Steve Coast, then a student at University College London (UCL - site of last week's Geomob London) started ... OpenStreetMap!

The project has come a looooong way since then (see screenshot), and is the basis for OpenCage and many, many other geospatial services around the world.

Last summer for OSM's 19th birthday @freyfogle spoke with @gravitystorm@co.uk on the Geomob podcast about the early days of OSM: thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-

Well worth a follow: @OSMLondon

#OpenStreetMap

12/ In August 2004, Steve Coast, then a student at University College London (UCL - site of last week's Geomob London) started ... OpenStreetMap!

The project has come a looooong way since then (see screenshot), and is the basis for OpenCage and many, many other geospatial services around the world.

Last summer for OSM's 19th birthday @freyfogle spoke with @gravitystorm@co.uk on the Geomob podcast about the early days of OSM: thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-

Early screenshot of OpenStreetMap showing Regent's Park in London
Early post (11 Dec 2004) on the OpenStreetMap blog by Steven Coast announcing the entry of the first street

https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2004/12/11/a-lot-happened/
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ replied to OpenCage

13/ ok, this thread of London geographical curiosities could go on for a long while, we will wrap it there for this week.

We have links to many more geothreads about border disputes, exclaves, #geoweirdness of individual territories, reverse geocoding, etc listed on our blog: blog.opencagedata.com/geothrea

If you like πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ British geographic oddities you may enjoy our threads about

Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 en.osm.town/@opencage/11213291

or

British Overseas Territories πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ en.osm.town/@opencage/11028803

13/ ok, this thread of London geographical curiosities could go on for a long while, we will wrap it there for this week.

We have links to many more geothreads about border disputes, exclaves, #geoweirdness of individual territories, reverse geocoding, etc listed on our blog: blog.opencagedata.com/geothrea

Screenshot of OpenCage blog page listing all of our geothreads
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ replied to OpenCage

16/ Ahh wait if you want to learn more about Geomob London (or other cities) please follow @geomob

The next London event will be on July 3rd as part of London Data Week.
thegeomob.com/post/july-3rd-20

Here's the summary thread of this week's event:
mapstodon.space/@geomob/112291

#geomobLON

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