Atlas of Imagined Places: from Lilliput to Gotham City

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From Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot to the superhero land of Wakanda, from Lilliput of Gulliver’s Travels to Springfield in The Simpsons, this is a wondrous atlas of imagined places around the world. Locations from film, tv, literature, myths, comics and video games are plotted in a series of beautiful vintage-looking maps. Yes. We've put together a public spreadsheet listing every location, with notes on why we chose the given location. Access it via Google Drive. Wait, you missed the home of that incidental character from Season 21, Episode 4 of Doctor Who. Please can you add it? A stunning map collection of invented geography and topography drawn from the world’s imagination. Fascinating, beautiful and an essential book for any popular culture fan and map enthusiast. We did the research by trawling through the internet and looking for books. I would then compile a master spreadsheet and Matt would do rough sketch maps and put locations down on it." From Stephen King's Salem's Lot to the superhero land of Wakanda, from Lilliput of Gulliver's Travels to Springfield in The Simpsons, this is a wondrous atlas of imagined places around the world. Locations from film, tv, literature, myths, comics and video games are plotted in a series of beautiful vintage-looking maps.

Atlas of Imagined Cities takes 14 world cities, including London, and plots the homes of hundreds of fictional characters — from Del Boy and Rodney to Count Dracula to Mrs Dalloway. The maps also pinpoint dozens of famous fictional organisations and businesses — Central Perk, Ghostbusters HQ, Torchwood, Cyberdyne Sytems, Sterling Cooper, Tyrell Corporation, to name just a few of the more famous examples. A sneak peek at part of fictional Manhattan Robert Louis Stevenson may not have invented pop culture’s vision of the Golden Age of Sail, but he certainly codified it. His classic adventure Treasure Island bequeathed to the world a romantic paradigm best encapsulated in Long John Silver, the ruthless sea cook complete with peg leg and parrot.If such thoughts have kept you awake at night, then the Atlas of Imagined Places: From Lilliput to Gotham City (Batsford Books; 2021) is just the book for you. Written by Matt Brown, editor-at-large for Londonist, and co-authored by Rhys B. Davies, this gorgeous book builds upon Mr Brown’s idea to map approximately 1,000 fictional British places, earlier depicted in Londonist’s ‘Fake Britain’ map ( more here), which now is expanded in this volume to include more than 5,000 fictional locations around the world. In addition to the maps and the accompanying essays describing the twisty logic that the authors used to finally pin point where these famous locations from fiction are (most likely) located, the Atlas also includes an extensive index along with map coordinates so it is easy to find a particular someplace on the maps (although I think you’ll agree that a magnifying glass is essential equipment for reading these thousands of entries). A map like this can never be complete. London's fictional space is all but infinite. We've started the map with over 700 locations, but much remains to be added. And on the far side of Costa Rica, we discover Isla Nublar, and the nearby island cluster known as Las Cinco Muertes – the Five Deaths – well named indeed, for here are the lost worlds of Jurassic Park, where genetically re-created dinosaurs once again rule the Earth!

Perhaps the most densely populated map is London. Whole fictional boroughs such as Walford (Eastenders) and Canley (The Bill) are served by fictional tube stations such as Hobb's End (Quatermass and the Pit) and Vauxhall Cross (Die Another Day). A constellation of famous characters fill in the gaps. Spies James Bond, Alex Rider and George Smiley all inhabit the same cluster of Chelsea streets. Phileas Fogg could pop across the road into Grace Brothers, and dalmatians Pongo and Perdita could easily be spooked by the Invisible Man.From Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot to the superhero land of Wakanda, from Lilliput of Gulliver's Travels to Springfield in The Simpsons, this is a wondrous atlas of imagined places around the world. Locations from film, tv, literature, myths, comics and video games are plotted in a series of beautiful vintage-looking maps. Explore the imagined places in Central America and the Caribbean in this extract from Atlas of Imagined Places, which was awarded Illustrated Travel Book of the Year in the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards this week. Londonist editor-at-large Matt Brown, and co-author Rhys B Davies, have taken the concept to the entire planet in their Atlas of Imagined Places. This beautiful picture book is perfect for reading before bedtime to set up your child for imaginative dreams while they sleep. Or read this book before they head off to the land of make-believe for lots of playtime inspiration. The atlas is sumptuously illustrated by Mike Hall, whose glorious maps and illustrations of London have long beguiled us.