At The Knowledge Newsletter, Cabbieblog‘s author “Gibson Square” has an excellent history of the A to Z Street Atlas, a publication with which visitors to London must be familiar. Apparently the idea for it came to Phyllis Pearsall in 1935 when she found herself unable to get to a party because she couldn’t find the street on any map. Reflecting on her problem she decided to tramp the 3,000 miles of London’s streets, identifying them all, and then founded a company to publish the resulting atlas. Armed with an A to Z you can now find your way to any London address.
But hasn’t its time almost expired? I find that young people today appear not to know how to read a map. They’ve never needed to. If you want to find your way somewhere nowadays you use SatNav if in a car, or your iPhone if on foot. This may not be so convenient if you are hiking the Appalachian Trail, but Ms Pearsall, trying to reach her party, would nowadays have no difficulty. When I was at school map-reading was a skill we were taught, as part of geography probably, but also during that farcical military training we were forced through. Just looking at a piece of paper we could identify dead ground (which has the tendency to make troops on the other side of it appear to be nearer than they really are. With your Ordnance Survey map in hand you can work out the range perfectly*.)
One wonders if London taxi drivers are going to be let off their famous training: “The Knowledge”. Basically aspiring cabbies ride around town, usually on a scooter with a clipboard on the handlebars, repeating Ms Pearsall’s quest, but with the aim of internalizing the whole thing, so that when you get in a taxi and say where you want to go, you don’t then need to ask whether the driver knows the way. He does. Better than anyone. But are there any moves to allow SatNav to become a substitute for the Knowledge? I’ve no doubt there are arguments to be made against permitting that, but with the recent rise of internet-based freelance “taxi” services, this must be something that is being debated.
One of the interesting things in the Newsletter is the noting of publishers’ tendency to introduce deliberate errors into their maps as a means of checking up on unauthorized reuse. I have an old Colorprint™ Atlas of New York City Five Boroughs which has one of these intentional(?) errors just nearby. The bit of Chittenden Avenue which I’ve highlighted in yellow doesn’t exist, and as far as I can tell from examining the terrain, never did exist. The maps say they are © American Map Co., Inc., N.Y. with no date showing anywhere in the book which sold for 50¢.
I do still consult this book and the Atlas I own, and even from time to time a globe. This is really not necessary: but old habits die hard. With Apple Maps, Google Maps, Google Earth and so on no one need be lost ever again — unless you can’t get cellphone service, or your battery has died, which I guess happens from time to time. Does this mean Atlases are on the way out as a category of printed book? No doubt.
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* This is of course why organization which created the series of maps is called Ordnance Survey. Ordnance is artillery, and the maps were created specifically so that you could land cannonballs accurately on the heads of your enemies. The agency was established after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 so the Scots were their earliest enemies in this context. Should this be an issue in this week’s election?
Thanks for mentioning The Knowledge Newsletter.
The old chestnut about the demise of The Knowledge can be summed up with a couple examples, as I explained to Roff Smith when he was researching a piece for the National Geographic.
When gentlemen have enjoyed supper at their club with their old regimental chums, they need a taxi to take them to the station. As they can generally afford to live in East Sussex, their station, Victoria, is only six minutes from Pall Mall where most of the clubs reside. Depending on which entrance they want, they ask for The Shakespeare, Old Gatwick, or Hole in the Wall. Show me a Sat Nav which not only has that database but can be programmed in seconds, and I’ll buy shares in it myself.
Also actors don’t want to arrive at the front of the theatre. They want the stage door. And yes, we have to learn those too, they’re not always easy to find.
This excellent unbiased article about London cabbies can be found on line at:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/special-features/2014/08/140808-london-cabbies-knowledge-cabs-hansom-uber-hippocampus-livery/
I’m glad to hear the Knowledge is in good nick. Living as I do in a part of Manhattan which is a bit off the beaten path (as you can see from the little map in the post) I am used to having to tell taxi drivers how to get here, and then, after we’ve arrived, how to get back downtown. Is there any move to have SatNav in London cabs though? I haven’t seen it in a New York cab (I think).
Many London cabbies (myself included) use the A-Z Navigation Master which was designed for London – thanks Mrs. Pearsall:
https://www.navigationmaster.com/_homePage
It draws a line from one’s position to destination, as we say ‘on the cotton’ the shortest route as the crow flies. This is invaluable to find the shortest route or the smallest street in London’s labyrinth of over 20,000 roads.
A traditional satnav would be hopeless, you need to make up your own mind as to the route, taking into consideration road works, incidents (we get a lot nowadays with police taking meticulous details when a crash has occurred), time of day and generally one’s experience.
No machine, however clever its designers, can cope with all that information as trials between cabbies and satnavs have proved.
Thanks for the clarification. What you say makes perfect sense, and it’s good to see the skill element in at least one job still withstanding the challenge of new technologies.