Mapping out locations close to my heart and the most iconic smart buildings in London

I’ve always been fascinated by maps. As some of you may be aware, I’m a geologist by trade and I would challenge anyone not to be impressed by the beauty and deep understanding portrayed in William Smith’s geological maps, which like many others – from the Mappa Mundi to Harry Becks’ map of the underground – can rightly lay claim to having changed the world.

I guess my penchant for all things cartographical has been lying dormant in recent years; however, during the first lockdown in the spring of 2020, my interest was rekindled. Like many I’m sure, the lockdown restrictions meant that my regular walks were the highlight of my day as I discovered many hidden local routes that I didn’t even know existed. How could all of these local points of interest and meaning have remained invisible to me? To make sure that I would no longer be in the dark, I took a subscription to the Ordinance Survey and proceeded to explore every footpath, bridleway and hidden track within a 5-mile radius of my home.

I have lived (on and off) close to my current home all my life and consequently, have built a mental library of locations, buildings and landmarks that mean a great deal to me but feature on no known map. So, I had the idea to create a personalised local map that was special and meaningful to me and my family.

I thought long and hard about how I wanted the map to look and was drawn (no pun intended) to the cityscapes of Stephen Wiltshire. Some of you of a certain age may remember Stephen from his appearance in an episode of the acclaimed TV series Q.E.D in the early 1980s. Autism wasn’t as widely understood as it is today and to see a boy, half my age, with severe learning difficulties creating incredible drawings with such detail, speed, and accuracy, had a profound affect on me.

For my project, I wanted to combine Stephen’s spirit and style with my local environment, but as I don’t possess an ounce of his artistic talent, I thought long and hard about who I could team up with to create my map.

Navigation Through Isolation

Fortunately, the answer lay in an artist, specialising in fine graphic art: Guy Watts. Guy, who lives in Frome, Somerset accepted the challenge and in May 2020, walked two circular routes with me and my wife – taking photographs and making notes of all the points of interest that meant something to us. Guy only works in black and white ink, but I persuaded him that a little colour would enhance the end result and provided him with two very fine (0.13mm) and expensive blue and red pens.

In addition to recreating scale maps of our two circular walks, Guy drew small cameo images of each of our special places, all set in the local, watery, Colne Valley landscape. Called ‘Navigation Through Isolation’, the two maps exceeded my expectations. They are things of beauty that also tell the story of our lives and the changes brought about by the pandemic.

The success of Navigation Through Isolation got me thinking about other opportunities to combine buildings and places that mean something to me with bespoke maps and artwork…

Celebrating LMG’s excellence

Over the last 15 years, LMG has been involved in the design, build and renovation of some of the most iconic buildings in London including: Churchill’s Old War Office, the former HQ of the Metropolitan Police at Great Scotland Yard and the old U.S. Embassy. We use smart building technology to breathe a new lease of life into these famous landmarks and extend their usefulness far into the future, which is a great source of pride for us all.

We therefore decided to commission Guy to complete a bespoke map of the cities of Westminster and London featuring thirteen of LMG’s most famous projects, framed by The Thames and its plethora of hidden tributaries.

Guy and I kicked off the project (working title Q.E.D but yet to be officially named) with a walk taking in all the key sites on a beautiful day in mid November. Looking at his work schedule and the time required to complete the detailed drawing, some 300 hours, we are expecting the finished piece to be completed by the end of April.

As I’ve already experienced, the creative process is both interesting and enjoyable, so I’d like to share it with you, along with additional insight about the buildings and the project challenges they posed, by producing a short series of blogs over the coming months.

So, watch this space…