Listed below are links to other map-related sites that you may find useful. Please contact the Map Librarian if you find an interesting site that could be included here.
Great Britain
Portsmouth is one of the most mapped places in Britain. Below is a selection of historic map images that can be found online. Note that some early maps show planned defences rather than structures actually built. For detailed descriptions of early maps of Portsmouth see Hodson, D. (1978). Maps of Portsmouth before 1801: a catalogue. City of Portsmouth.
In October 2020 the British Library released 17,000 images of maps and views from George III’s Topographical Collection (K.Top) on the image-sharing site Flickr Commons. You can search for specific items via Explore. Add ‘George III’ to your search term in order to bring up only maps and views in the K.Top collection. When you have found the record for the item you require, select ‘I Want this’ and then look for 'Digitised item Go', which will take you to the relevant image(s) on Flickr. [Note: since the cyber-attack on the British Library, this search option is not currently available]
An additional 32,000 images were released in July 2021, comprising George III’s collection of atlases and albums of views, plans, diagrams, reports and surveys, produced between 1550 and 1820. You can view the full collection on Flickr by visiting the Topographical collection of King George III.
16th Century
1545 [Plan of the fortifications of the town of Portsmouth]
This is the earliest map of any town in Britain to be drawn entirely to scale. [Note: The link has not worked since the cyber attack on the BL in Oct 23. Last checked Oct 24]
17th Century
c.1660-1685 [A colored plan of the fortifications of the town of Portsmouth]
c.1668 [Portsmouth]
c.1689-1702 [A large outline plan of Portsmouth Dock-yard, and of the fortifications of the town of Portsmouth]
1693 Plan de Portsmouth
18th Century
1716 A Plan of Portsmouth, and parts adjacent, finish'd in the year 1716 (Edwards, Talbot)
1725 A Survey of Portsea Island
c.1726 A plan of the town and fortifications of Portsmouth
1743 A plan of Portsmouth and the harbour (Desmaretz, J.P.)
1750 A plan of the town and fortifications of Portsmouth, with the Blockhouse Fort and the Gunwharfe (Desmaretz, J.P.)
This map can be viewed as an overlay on a modern base map by visiting the British Library's Georeferencer: https://britishlibrary.oldmapsonline.org/maps/e6bd8c80-5752-4dc5-ac3f-8024d2efe184/view
c.1750 A Plan of Portsmouth and Gosport (Desmaretz, J.P.)
1750 A plan of Portsmouth and its harbour (Desmaretz, J.P.)
1754 A geometrical plan and west elevation of His Majesty's Dockyard near Portsmouth (Thomas Milton)
1757 Plan of Gosport (Desmaretz, J.P.)
1780s A map of the encampments near Portsmouth, 1 July-18 November 1782
1797 Portsmouth
19th Century
1895 Portsmouth
20th Century
1913 Portsmouth & Southampton Ordnance Survey 1:63,360 Third Revision
1922 Portsmouth and Gosport Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 Revised: 1921, Published: ca. 1922
Portsmouth WWII Bomb Raids
Interactive map of Portsmouth that shows where high explosive bombs fell during the Blitz.
Inset map showing a town plan of Winchester
British Geological Survey Maps Portal
This excellent resource provides free access to view high resolution digital facsimiles of almost all small and medium scale maps produced by the British Geological Survey since mapping started in 1832. This is a great place to start exploring the geology of Great Britain and, when you've found a map that covers your area of interest, remember that most are available as paper copies from our Map Library (many on 4-day loan).
British Geological Survey borehole records
Free, direct, online access to the National Geoscience Data Centre’s (NGDC) collection of over a million onshore scanned boreholes, shafts and well records.
Building Stones Database for England map explorer
The BSDE data was gathered and collated by the British Geological Survey (BGS) as well as geological and historic buildings experts. This GIS application enables you to identify quarries and the building stones used in various buildings across England.
Charles Close Society Sheetfinder
Type a British or Irish address, postcode, or placename to display a list of Ordnance Survey One-Inch, 1:50,000 and six-inch County series map sheets for that location. The list often includes a direct link to that map so it can be viewed.
EDINA Services
National online services for the UK tertiary education and research community, including Digimap and UKBORDERS
Gough Map of Great Britain
Interactive version of one of the earliest maps to show Britain in a geographically-recognizable form.
MAGIC
Multi-Agency Geographic Information for the Countryside. A web-based interactive map that brings together geographic information on key environmental schemes and designations. Also regional and national static maps.
National Library of Scotland Map Images
A brilliant resource that provides free access to high quality map scans, including a comprehensive collection of Ordnance Survey maps of England, Wales and Scotland.
Old Hampshire Mapped
This interesting site presents early maps of Hampshire from 1575 to the mid-nineteenth century. High resolution map images include those by Saxton, Speed, Ogilby and Greenwood.
PhoneBooth is a project run by the LSE recreates Charles Booth’s socio-economic maps of London as an interactive digital website and smartphone app. The app enables users to plot their locations on Booth’s maps and retrieve his historic observations.
Portsmouth WWII Bomb Raids (May not work with some browsers)
Portsmouth City Council's interactive map of Portsmouth that shows where high explosive bombs fell during the Blitz.
SABRE (The Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts)
This society provides access to a variety of historic maps, including mid-20th century OS One Inch maps and 1920s Bartholomew maps.
Soilscapes
A free viewer that provides a summary description of the soils at specified locations across England and Wales.
Speed's maps
John Speed’s Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. Published in 1611/12, these maps marked the first time that comprehensive plans of English and Welsh counties and towns were made available in print. These digital images are provided by the Cambridge Digital Library.
OS 1900 Text Search
The OS 1900 text search viewer allows you to search and view the distribution of any text, including features and names, from the Ordnance Survey six-inch to the mile, 2nd edition maps (1888-1913) of England, Scotland and Wales. This searches the GB1900 dataset, dating from December 2018, which includes all text (2,552,459 transcriptions) from these maps.
British Placename Mapper
A web app for exploring the location of placenames in Britain which start with, end with, or contain certain words.
More sources
Equal Earth Political and Physical Wall Map
Large, free, public domain, high resolution world maps to download in JPEG and Adobe Illustrator formats. The maps are equal-area, so continents are shown at their true size relative to each other. Usefully, the political map can be centred on one of three different regions.
World and continental scale reference maps that can be downloaded in JPG or PDF formats. Each country profile has an associated GIF map.
General country profile maps in PDF and JPG formats.
The largest crowd-sourced topographic map project in the world.
Europe
Open Maps for Europe provides free to use open data created using official map, geospatial and land information from official, national sources.
Austria
A free web application that allows you to view and print 1:50,000, 1:250,000, 1:500,000 and 1:1 million map data.
Freely search information on around 10.2 million land properties throughout Austria.
Belgium
A free web application that allows you to view standard NGI topographic maps and orthophotos.
Free access to a wide range of scanned historic maps of Belgium.
Bulgaria
http://gis.mrrb.government.bg/
Czechia
Free access to state map series, orthophotos and cadastral mapping from the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre.
France
Free access to IGN maps and aerial photography
Access a range of data from France's geological survey (the BRGM), including geological maps from 1:1M to 1:50,000.
Finland
National Land Survey of Finland
The Citizen's MapSite allows the browsing and printing of NLS topographic maps covering all Finnish regions up to a scale of 1:16,000.
Germany
Map on Demand (MoD) is a web application that can be used to create print-ready maps from the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy.
Greece
Described as a "novel digital application to view data in a 2D environment". Small scale maps with limited detail, for viewing only.
Greenland
View the Basemap and orthophoto imagery of Greenland. A link takes you to the map service where you can download free data, including vector map of towns and settlements (Basemap), PDF maps, elevation models of towns and settlements and orthophotos of towns and settlements (aerial photos).
Hungary
National Atlas of Hungary
The digital version of the National Atlas of Hungary, available to download chapter by chapter. The International Cartographic Association awarded 1st place to Vol.2, Natural Environment in the ICA Map Awards 2019, describing the publication as "A comprehensive, and detailed atlas. The cartography is lavish and sets Hungary’s natural environment in its human context. The maps are accompanied by numerous well presented graphs, text and infographics".
Iceland
All maps of Iceland's Land Survey, aerial photo gallery, height model and other land information.
Ireland
Access to publicly available spatial data fro Ordnance Survey Ireland, including aerial photography and historic 6 inch and 25 inch maps.
Netherlands
The maps focus on environmental themes, including air and water quality. This is where you can access a digital version of the 1:50,000 Netherlands soil map (Bodemkaart van NL 1:50,000).
Norway
Statens Kartverk is the principal survey and mapping organisation in Norway and their Norgeslart application provides zoomable maps for the whole of Norway up to a scale of 1:5,000.
Poland
Online mapping and data.
Spain
Cartographic viewer published by the National Center for Geographic Information (CNIG) and the National Geographic Institute of Spain (IGN).
Brings together all three editions of the National Atlas on one site. Winner of the category "Digital Products (Maps and Digital images)" at the 24th International Cartography Conference in Santiago, Chile, 2009.
Sweden
The Lantmäteriet Map Printing service allows the user to create PDF maps, with some limited customisation, at 1:10,000 or 1:50,000 for printing up to A2 size.
Switzerland
A fantastic tool for the interactive presentation of Swiss topographic maps and thematic data. The 'journey through time' option allows you to layer maps of different dates, from the mid-19th century to the present day. Maps can be even be viewed in 3D.
Mexico
Instituto National De Estadistica Y GeografiaDownload topographic maps at scales from 1:20,00 to 1:1,000,000, plus thematic maps including geology, hydrology and soils.
USA
USGS Map Locator and Downloader
High quality PDF maps of the USA, including 7.5 x 7.5 minute, 1:24,000 quadrangle series.
ENC Viewer
A seamless display of all NOAA electronic navigational charts.
Africa
Provides access to a number of geospatial tools, including Map Viewer and the Digital Earth Africa Explorer.
Asia-Pacific
Over 35,000 topographic, cadastral, aeronautical, bathymetric, thematic and tourist maps. The collection has special emphasis on Asia, Australia and the Pacific.
The majority of the maps on this site are out-of-copyright and available for download.
Japan
Web mapping application with maps from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (in Japanese).
Singapore and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia Historical Maps
Explore historical maps of Singapore and Southeast Asia. The maps have been tagged so users can search for individual features, e.g. forts, temples, compass roses etc.
Asia-Pacific
Over 35,000 topographic, cadastral, aeronautical, bathymetric, thematic and tourist maps. The collection has special emphasis on Asia, Australia and the Pacific.
The majority of the maps on this site are out-of-copyright and available for download.
Australia
Links to map indexes that provide free download of topographic maps at 1:50,000, 1:100,000, 1:250,000 and 1:1 million (coverage incomplete at scales larger than 1:250,000). There are also links to the local state mapping agencies. Queensland, for example, offers the QTopo service, with free to download maps at up to 1:10,000 scale.
New Zealand
Download free 1:50,000 maps of New Zealand in TIFF and GeoTIF formats.