Images, Maps and Audio Visual material

Our map collections are extensive selection of printed and manuscript maps and plans relating to London and surrounding areas. They include the Metropolitan Maps Collection, which originated with the library and record office of the London Country Council, later amalgamated with the Middlesex County Council to form the Greater London Council. Also present are the colelctions formerly held at Guildhall Library Prints and Maps section, which include material gifted or purchased over a period of more than a century.

Maps can also be found across the archive collections as they would have informed the activities of many organisations, for example estate maps in diocesan, family and livery company archives. We continue to develop these collections and at present, hold over 65,000 maps including Ordnance Survey, parish and ward. We've written articles about some of the collections highlights, and you can explore our collections on the London Picture Archive, as well as in our Collections Catalogue.

Highlights of the collections also include:

• 'Panorama of London', by C.J. Visscher (c.1616)
• 'Civitas Londinium' commonly known as the 'Agas map' due to its incorrect attribution to Ralph Agas (edition published c.1633, documenting London in 1561)
• 'General Views of London', by Wenceslaus Hollar (c.1657)
• A detailed plan of the Dock Yard at Deptford and the surrounding area, by Thomas Milton showing vessels and river traffic [c.1770)
• 'Insurance Plan of the City of London', by Charles E. Goad Ltd (c.1880s)
• 'Facsimiles of Ordnance Surveys', by Alan Godfrey (range 1865-1913)
• 'Bomb Damage Maps', by London County Council (c.1940s)