Oxford : mapping the city

Author / Creator

MacCannell, Daniel author

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Physical

Summary

Over the past four and a half centuries, the magnificent city of Oxford has been mapped for many reasons, few of which have involved the mere finding of one's way through the streets. Maps were pro...

Over the past four and a half centuries, the magnificent city of Oxford has been mapped for many reasons, few of which have involved the mere finding of one's way through the streets. Maps were produced as part of schemes to defend Oxford from rampaging Roundheads, raging floodwaters, the ravages of cholera and the insidious grip of the demon drink; to plan the new canals and bridges of the eighteenth century and the railways, tramways and suburbs of the nineteenth; to determine and display changes in the city's political stature under the Reform Acts; to aid police enforcement of laws against homosexuality; and even to plan a Soviet ground assault on the heart of the British motor industry. As home to one of the world's oldest and greatest universities, a renowned cultural and scientific centre, and sometime royal capital, it is unsurprising that Oxford was the first British town to be included in map form in a tourist guidebook, as early as 1762, and one of just three inland towns mapped by French invasion planners in the Seven Years' War. For the first time, this lavishly illustrated volume brings together fifty-nine of the most remarkable maps and views of the city and surrounding area that have been made since 1568.

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