Putting Britain on the map

Collection of vintage British maps | H is for Home

We’ll certainly have no excuses if our knowledge of home isn’t up to scratch any more. We recently made a bulk purchase of about 20 large vintage school wall maps. Produced by G W Bacon in the 1950s, many feature the British Isles – and cover every aspect of its geography – towns, roads, railways, population density, industries, geology, rivers, relief, contours, isotherms, isobars and rainfall.

It’s been very enjoyable sorting through them. They’re 60 years old – so slightly out-of-date in some respects, but no less interesting. It’s often the differences between ‘then & now’ found on these old maps & globes that are fascinating. The ‘traditional industry’ map illustrates this perfectly. If you click on each image you can view them in greater detail.

Vintage 'Reduced' school wall map of England & Wales Vintage 'Rainfall & Isobars' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Railway' school wall map of England & Wales Vintage 'Population' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Physical' school wall map of England & Wales Vintage 'Isotherms' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Industry' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Industrial' school wall map of England & Wales Vintage 'Contours' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Communications' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Bold feature' school wall map of England & Wales

In addition to their educational value, these vintage maps are also very decorative in terms of graphic design and colour. They look great in a library, study or office space. We’ve hung a row of them along a long hallway. We’re going to keep a few and sell a few of this particular batch. Some have gone into our antiques centre space and we’ve also listed 3 or 4 on eBay this week.

Pick of the Pads: Beetham Tower

'Pick of the Pads' blog post banner

Elle Decoration Magazine cover: September 2013

Welcome to our new blog series entitled ‘Pick of the Pads‘ where we’ll feature homes that attract us, captivate us, bewitch us… sweep us off our feet!

page showing view from Manchester's Beetham Tower in the Elle Decoration September 2013 magazine

This apartment in Manchester’s Beetham Tower does all of that in spades!

page showing living room and kitchen in Ian Sipmson's apartment in Manchester's Beetham Tower featured in the Elle Decoration September 2013 magazine

It’s a huge space, the penthouse duplex, taking up the whole of the 47th & 48th floors of the building. It’s the home of Ian Simpson, Beetham Tower’s architect.

page showing view across Manchester from the Beetham Tower featured in the Elle Decoration September 2013 magazine

As you’d expect from one of this country’s best architects, the apartment is absolutely stunning. There are scores of floor to ceiling windows allowing sunlight to stream through into double height rooms. And being so high up the views stretch right across to the Pennines!

page showing indoor olive grove in Manchester's Beetham Tower in the Elle Decoration September 2013 magazine

It even boasts an indoor swimming pool, terrace and olive grove – the trees had to be installed before the roof went on!

page showing living room area in Ian Sipmson's apartment in Manchester's Beetham Tower featured in the Elle Decoration September 2013 magazine

And of course it’s furnished with beautiful mid century modern furniture, artworks and decorative objects.

page showing the master bedroom in Ian Sipmson's apartment in Manchester's Beetham Tower featured in the Elle Decoration September 2013 magazine

For the full tour and more photos check out the September issue of Elle Decoration.

Update (3 April 2016): Here’s a new interview with the architect, Ian Simpson, in his penthouse apartment.

Subscribe to Elle Decoration Magazine