Two maps made by Urban Good and my independent imprint Map Editions received Highly Commended recognition at the British Cartographic Society awards in Edinburgh this September.
Returning to Edinburgh had a personal significance. I moved there in 2004 to study architecture and spent five years in a city I loved. It was at architecture school that I first encountered Nolli’s plan of Rome, which maps the city’s streets, squares and public interiors in remarkable detail. Its attention to shared space has a clear connection to the maps I make today.
Bristol Urban Nature Map
The Bristol Urban Nature Map was Highly Commended—the runner-up—in the Collins Bartholomew Award for Thematic Mapping & Infographics.
It brings Bristol’s parks, rivers, woods and walking routes together on one large sheet, with an illustrated atlas on the reverse. Together, they encourage people to explore the city through its nature, find different routes and make more use of the green spaces around them.
Peter Brooks of Materiality contributed local research, organised community workshops and helped develop the atlas content. He also photographed the finished map around Bristol. The award recognises a project shaped by local knowledge and a shared interest in making the city’s nature more visible and accessible.
John E Bartholomew presented the certificate, continuing the family connection to an award named after his father, cartographer John C Bartholomew. During the presentation, he mentioned buying our Edinburgh Urban Nature Map in 2021. We spoke again afterwards about it. Discovering that he already knew and remembered Urban Good’s work made the occasion particularly meaningful.
This Place Then: Shoreditch 1877
The second Highly Commended recognition was for This Place Then: Shoreditch 1877, in the Stanfords Award for Printed Mapping, presented by Stanfords CEO Vivien Godfrey.
Published through Map Editions, my independent imprint exploring cartography and printmaking, This Place Thenaligns historic mapping with the present-day city. Streets, buildings and open spaces from different eras occupy the same sheet, allowing changes and continuities to be read together. The Hackney series was exhibited at Bootstrap in Dalston throughout May this year.
These are different kinds of maps, but both aim to make familiar places worth looking at again. Recognition from the cartographic community is an encouraging endorsement of that approach, and of the research, design and collaboration behind the finished prints.
