Information about places of interest, museums and art galleries for both central and outer London, including a star rating system to highlight recommended visitor attractions. In addition to a map of the London Underground (central area), a West End Theatres map and a West End Cinemas map are also featured within this atlas. Magnificent! The map I’ve been using all my life, now in crystal clear form on my phone. Being able to rotate the map to any angle is a total winner. I’ve now retired my battered and beloved paper A-Z as a result.”

In one scheme, the letters JIHGFEDCBA represent the digits 1 to 9 and 0, so that HFD would be 357, indicating a publication date of March 1957. This seems to have been used on all the company's folding maps, and possibly also those in book form. in 1972, the company name was changed from Geographers' Map Company to Geographers' A–Z Map Company.The Geographers' A–Z Street Atlas and the story of how Phyllis Pearsall came to write the first edition covering London were featured in a 2005 episode of Nicholas Crane's Map Man TV programme. This revealed that, on all their maps, A–Z print a non-existent trap street so that they can tell if a map has been illegally copied from theirs, a technique used by several publishers of reference works (see fictitious entry). Suddenly, large chunks of the population had free access to a zoomable, scrollable map of the capital, on a device half the size of the smallest A-Z. Better yet, inbuilt GPS furnished us with a little blob, to indicate current location. You could even get a street view and satellite view. A-Z (now owned by Collins) have kept up by releasing their own apps ( iOS/ Android), but the paper version is increasingly rare. The map index contains over 300,000 entries with nearly 100,000 streets, over 200,000 postcodes, plus thousands of places of interest, hospitals and rail stations. All can be located on this high quality map within a few seconds using the search feature or by browsing the index.

The A to Z is a bit of an institution when it comes to London maps. It, along with the Tube Map, is probably the most famous and well known London map, and certainly the most famous atlas. We’ve reviewed a historic A-Z map of London before, but not the modern one that you will find in many bookshops, newsagents and petrol stations across the city and country. So, when this book – not a map! – the A to Z History of London– arrived in Mapping London Towers, we were curious. Mapping London’s favourite part of the book is the final section, looking at specific London locations – those which have radically changed since the first A to Z was produced. We particularly like the way the examples in this section are mapped – with an old A to Z map showing the former layout, immediately beside or above a brand new A to Z map to exactly the same scale. For example, the area around Battersea Power Station has comprehensively changed as these two maps show: John dislikes digital maps: "The apps are thoroughly inadequate. If they weren't, I would toss the paper one in the bin." He doesn't elaborate.The Geographers' A–Z Street Atlas, commonly shortened to A–Z (pronounced "Ay to Zed"), is a title given to any one of a range of atlases of streets in the United Kingdom produced by Geographers' A–Z Map Company Limited. Its first atlas, of London, was originally compiled in the 1930s by Phyllis Pearsall. The company she founded now publishes street maps of many cities and towns in the UK.