London 2012 - Transforming the Lea Valley

In one month's time, on July 27th, just a mile down the road from where I now sit, the 2012 Olympic Games will begin.

Over the last five years I've watched as the Olympics Park has been built on an under-developed and run down part of my home town. Looking at the area now it is quite hard to remember what this area of the East End looked like just five years ago.

Luckily photographer Toby Smith has created a Google Map showcasing his photographs of the area taken in 2007. The Lea Valley Map places Toby's photos on top of Google Map's satellite imagery of the Olympic Park.

The contrast between the bleak landscapes portrayed in Toby's photographs and the shiny new stadiums in the satellite imagery helps to highlight the transformation of this area, whether if it's for the better or not.

Fly Down Your Street with Street View

In the UK British Airways are running a TV advertising campaign, 'London Calling' (YouTube link), in which a plane drives through the streets of London, passing a number of iconic landmarks on its way. The tag-line of the campaign is 'Don't Fly - Support GB'.

British Airways has also created a clever Facebook application in which users can personalise the advert by including scenes involving their own homes. To create your own advert you just need to enter a UK address (non UK residents try the postcode 'RH10 5LS').

After you enter an address the advert includes some additional scenes in which the plane travels down your street and your house can be seen through the plane's window. 

The London Bloggers Tube Map

The London Bloggers website is a directory of blogs written in and around London. The site includes a clever Google Maps interface to access the listed blogs by location.

The map uses the Google Maps API with the iconic London Underground map. If you click on any of the stations on the map you can view a list of bloggers who are based nearby. It is also possible to browse the over 4,000 blogs listed by individual underground line.

200 British Towns on Google Maps

200 Towns uses Google Maps with creative commons photographs and geo-located Tweets to provide a portrait of 200 UK towns.

You can navigate to individual towns using the alphabetised links in the side-bar or by zooming out on the map and clicking a town's marker. Each individual town page includes a Google Map showing its location, a selection of photographs submitted to Flickr taken in the town, Tweets about the location and its Wikipedia entry. 

Tracking the Tardis in Space & Time

In a piece of detective work worthy of Torchwood, Retronaut have managed to sift through thousands of old photographs to track Doctor Who's movements through space and time. Ghost's of the Tardis, 1930-2011 is a record of images of the Tardis found in photographs from the last 80 years.

The dates of the photographs help to track the Doctor in time and Retronaut have used Google Maps Street View to also track him in space. Each photograph has been superimposed on the modern Street View of the location where the picture was shot.

Some will argue that this is just a collection of old photographs of British police boxes. I prefer to believe that this is the best attempt yet to track the Doctor's movements through time & space. Well, the best attempt after the actual BBC documentaries of the Doctor's exploits in all his incarnations.

London Calling on Google Maps

With the summer Olympics and the Queen's Golden Jubilee being held this year, London is expecting a lot of visitors this summer. BBC Australia has created a great looking Google Map to help those visitors explore the English capital.

London Calling is a great way to find things to see and do in London and whilst you explore the map there are even opportunities to win prizes. Australian and New Zealand residents can complete challenges as they use the map for the chance to win a $4000 travel voucher and a brand new iPad.

The map as well as providing a great guide to London also looks great as well. The map uses the Styled Maps feature to give the map tiles a nice sepia tone. The information windows are also very unique. They include a circular smaller map to give the illusion of a cut-out in the window to highlight the location of the map marker beneath the window.

Via: The Google Geo Developers Blog

2012 London Olympics Torch Relay Maps

The Olympic flame is today being handed to the organisers of the London Games at a ceremony in Athens. The flame will arrive in the UK on Friday before it starts on an 8,000 mile journey, in a 70-day relay, to arrive at the Olympic Park in Stratford, London in time for the start of the 2012 London Olympics.

Follow the Flame with Figures is a Google Map and calendar of the Olympic torch's route around the UK, created by the UK's Office for National Statistics. The map shows the route that the torch relay will take and includes a calendar function to see where the torch will be on a particular date. The map includes a postcode search function to find out where and when the relay will pass a particular location.

The map also includes data from the Office for National Statistics. Users can click on every stop on the map and find out some key statistics for that area, such as unemployment, population etc.


The Official 2012 London Olympics website has a Bing Map of the Olympic Torch Relay Route.

The official map allows users to zoom in to see the detail of the route street-by-street. It includes a postcode search function to find out where and when the Flame will be near a location. You can also use the map to find the locations of evening celebrations, which take place at the end of almost every day of the relay.


Tripline has about three pages of animated localised maps that its users have created of the torch relay route through their neighbourhoods and towns. 

There are too many maps to list them all. If you want to know if someone has created a map for a particular area just click on the Tripline link above, which will take you to the search results page for 'Olympic Torch Relay'.

Silicon Alley & Roundabout on Google Maps

Made in NY is a Google Map of New York's digital industry. The map shows the locations of over 500 homegrown startups, investors and coworking spaces across the city.

It is possible to refine the companies shown on the map by 'Digital Companies', 'Investors' and 'Coworking / Incubator Spaces'. As well as their locations being displayed on the map the companies are also listed in the map sidebar.

If you are currently looking for work in New York's tech industry then check out the companies listed in the sidebar. Those companies that currently have positions available are indicated with a 'We are hiring' link.


Tech City Map is a visually striking Google Map of the technology companies and startups in east London.

The map shows the locations of London's silicon roundabout area. The 'show networks' option on the map allows users to visualise the connections between the over 800 companies. If you click on an individual map marker there is also an option to view the latest Tweets from the selected tech company.

The Eurozone Crisis on Google Maps

In Spain the unemployment rate is a staggering 25%. Geografia Operativa has created a Google Map to show the areas that have the lowest rates of unemployment. The map acts as a guide to where unemployed Spaniards are most likely to be able to find work.

The map shows that Andalusia is resisting the downturn, with an unemployment rate lower than in Norway, as are cities such as Bilbao, San Sebastián, Majadahonda, Alcala la Real, and Palma del Río.

Via: Blog Idee


In the UK the Guardian has created a Google Map of Repossessions in England and Wales. This map shows which local authorities in the two countries have the highest repossession rates of people's homes.


CNN has created (a fairly ugly but still useful)  map that allows users to view a number of different economic indicators for the Eurozone countries.

The map allows the user to explore Unemployment Rates, Youth Unemployment Rates, GDP, Growth and the Debt of each of the Eurozone countries.

Find an Apartment with Google Maps

If you are searching for an apartment in the UK then Cravify is a good place to start.

This Google Maps application allows you to search for flats by price, number of bedrooms and by the date the apartment was listed. The markers shown on the map include the price of the rent and the number of bedrooms which allows you to quickly find apartments you could be interested in.


If you are searching for an apartment in the U.S. then you could use MyApartmentMap.

The application allows you to search for apartments by price range, number of bedrooms and within a set distance of a given location. The markers displayed on the Google Map display the price and number of bedrooms of the listed apartment.


Padmapper is another great resource for finding an apartment in U.S. cities.

The application displays apartments listed on Craiglist. It is possible to refine the apartments displayed on the map by price, number of bedrooms and by number of bathrooms.


Apartment List is another real estate search site that uses Google Maps to help you find a new apartment.

You can search for apartments on Apartment List by location, price range and number of bedrooms.The advanced search options also let you refine the search results by your choice of amenities.

Cussing London on Google Maps

Ed Manley, a researcher at University College London and author of the Urban Movements blog, has analysed Tweets in London looking at the prevalence of swearing on Twitter.

Manley looked at the swearing patterns on Twitter by time (swearing seems to get more popular the longer the day progresses) and geographically. A Google Map of the spatial patterns of swearing in London can be viewed on The Guardian website.

The map shows that swearing is less prevalent in the centre of the city and more widely practised in London's outer boroughs.

So do Londoner's swear more at home than at work?

Manley thinks not.You can read his theory about why swearing is more prevalent in some boroughs that others on the Urban Movements blog.

Is East London Dead on Google Maps?

With East London about to host the 2012 London Olympics Dazed magazine poses the question 'Is East London dead?'.

The magazine argues that East London has been a centre of cultural activity with a vibrant grassroots, underground creative scene. With The Secret History of East London Google Map Dazed are trying to build a crowd-sourced memory map of East London's cultural scene. They are asking readers to post a memory to the map of a music, art, fashion or film related event or happening that they have taken part in, in East London.

Users of the map can browse the submitted memories by location and can use the time-line slide control to refine the results shown by date.

Creating a memory map of the East London cultural scene is a great idea. Looking at the number of events added for 2011 and 2012 I think we can also safely say that East London isn't dead yet.

The Civic Crowd is a Google Maps based application mapping amazing citizen-powered initiatives and ideas in the UK.

Users of the map can search for initiatives on the map by location and by type of project, for example, education, enterprise, housing etc. Projects are displayed on the map by categorised map markers and it is possible to click-through to read more details about each project.

Users can 'Appreciate' individual projects or ideas to show support for an initiative. It is also possible to 'Volunteer to Support' a project and specify the type of support you offer from within your personal profile.

If you know of a project that hasn't yet been mapped it is possible to add it by completing a short form.

The British Library Sounds on Google Maps

The British Library Sound Maps is a nice collection of Google Maps featuring audio recordings in a number of different categories.

Users can explore traditional music on the Music from India and Traditional English Music maps. The Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust map features a number of first hand oral accounts from survivors of the Holocaust.

The British Library collection also includes sound maps of wildlife recordings and British regional accents and dialects.

In addition The British Library is currently working with the BBC on the Listening Project. The Listening Project is attempting to build a unique picture of life today by recording intimate conversations between close friends and relatives throughout the UK.

Mapping the Fonts of London

London Typographica aims to photographically record publicly available lettering and type throughout London.

The London Typographica iPhone app allows users to take pictures of fonts that they find out on the streets of London and post them to a Google Map. The map itself is a wonderful guide to the fonts used in street signs, on shop-fronts and in graffiti around the capital city.

If you click on a map marker on the map the submitted photograph of a found font appears in the map sidebar.

The Real Heat Map of England

The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change has released a real heat map for England. I say 'real' because it actually uses Google Maps to display heat use at building level throughout England.

The CEO - Heatmap shows heat demand from individual buildings throughout England and provides a range of tools to help developers and planners identify priority areas for low carbon heat projects.

The map was created using a bottom-up address level model of heat demand and does not use personal data (for example from individual household meter readings). It estimates the total heat demand of every address in England based on published sub-national energy consumption statistics.

The model seems very accurate. I notice in the streets around my location that the map shows much more energy consumption in blocks of flats than in individual homes.

Mapping the Panic on the Streets of London

In the UK a government minister responded to a threat of strike action by the country's fuel haulage truck drivers by telling the population to stock up on gasoline. The result has led to huge queues at gas stations and led to many gas stations running out of gas.

So even without an actual strike the UK government appear to have spurred panic buying and the start of a fuel shortage. As ever The Guardian has been quick to map the rising panic. It has asked its readers if they have seen cars queuing at gas stations or if they have been stocking up on gas themselves.

Here is a Google Map of the responses so far.

Strange Strolling with Google Maps

The Strange Stollers is a team of hikers, currently in training for the Oxfam Trailtrekker 2012 challenge. Oxfam Trailtrekker is a 100km trek for teams of four, over 30 hours across the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and takes place 26th-27th May 2012.

The Strange Strollers Training Map is a Google Map being used to record and document the walks that the group are undertaking in their training for the Oxfam Trailtrekker.

Using the GPS tracks, captured with a Garmin Forerunner, the map shows the routes of the group's walks. Each walk contains map markers that reveal photographs taken on the walk, which have been imported with the Instagram API or Tweets that have been imported onto the map using the Twitter API.

Car Crime on Google Maps

Car Insurance comparison website Cheapest Car Insurance has created a Google Map of UK car crime and car accidents.

One of the major factors in the price of car insurance premiums can be where you live, drive and store your car. The aim of the map is to provide a visual guide as to how high the vehicle crime rate is in your area and whether you are in an area that has a high number of road accidents.

Using the Vehicle Crime & Road Traffic Accident Map it is possible to search for any UK address (except Northern Ireland) and view nearby incidents of car crime or traffic accidents involving cars. The data for the map is for 2010 and come from the Department For Transport and the Police.

The Diamond Jubilee on Google Maps

Google and Historypin have created an interactive archive of photographs and videos from Queen Elizabeth's visits and jubilee celebrations over the six decades of her reign.

For the project Historypin want to collect as many contributions as possible, from individuals and archives all around the world. So if you have any Queen Elizabeth related photographs or videos you can add them to the Historypin - Diamond Jubilee Album.

Historypin, if you still haven't seen it, is a great collection of user submitted historical photographs and videos which can be viewed on Google Maps. One of the stand-out features of Historypin is the ability to view the photos and videos superimposed on the modern Google Maps Street View image.

Another stand-out feature is the ability to create your own album. This Golden Jubilee album is a great way to promote this feature. I'm sure Historypin will be getting a lot more UK users due to this new project.