1950 ENGLISH SOUTH COAST-PORTSMOUTH-PORTLAND J&A JOHNSTON MOTOR TOUR MAP

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

1950 ENGLISH SOUTH COAST-PORTSMOUTH-PORTLAND J&A JOHNSTON MOTOR TOUR MAP:
$10.04

VINTAGE MAP- SOLD FOR £8 ONLY- NO sale- NO POSTAGE FEE FOR2ND CLASS UK.

seller\'s code: 040220154

JOHNSTON\'SMOTORING MAP OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND- BOURNEMOUTH

THISIS A VINTAGE UNUSUAL 2” TO THE MILE SHEET MAP IN ATTRACTIVEPICTORIAL BOARD

COVERS

SOUTHERNENGLAND

showing

Portlandto Bruton, Weymouth to Portsmouth, Havant to Alton, Amesbury andSalisbury to Bournemouth, all the Isle of Wight and the south coastall the way from Weymouth Bay to Langstone Harbour includingLULWORTH, SWANAGE, BOURNEMOUTH, POOLE AND POOLE HARBOUR,CHRISTCHURCH, LYMINGTON SOUTHAMPTON AND PORTSMOUTH- and on the Isleof Wight: THE NEEDLES, YARMOUTH, COWES, RYDE, BEMBRIDGE, SANDOWN,VENTNOR ST CATHETINE\'S POINT AND NEWPORT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ISLAND.

NUMBERAND NAME:

“ JOHNSTON\'S

NEW

2MILES TO 1 INCH

MAP

BOURNEMOUTHAREA

W&AK JOHNSTON LTD., LONDON AND EDINBURGH. 4/6d”

DATE

There is a code 1/50 on this map. Thisis not dated and that must be deduced from details:

TheFront cover looks 1930s-1950s, It shows an idyllic road throughrolling farm landscape with a

farmhouse and some trees, it isstylised and “poster like”. It looks like War Art or certainlyart from the

period 1930-1950. It is in full colour. The road is anochre colour, the scene is bucolic and summery- it

is somewhat empty-silent, no people, like some aspects of a Nash painting. The image iscertainly

lithographically printed.

TheMap: Railways as a clue to age: The entire network of The Isle ofWight is shown including the

line to Freshwater at the west end ofthe island- This did not operate, I believe, Post war. The St

Lawrence branch line is also shown. On the mainland the network isfull- that of the Southern Region

before the mass closures,including the Brockenhurst line through the New Forest, theSouthampton

water line down to Fawley, Alton to Fareham, Alton toWinchester, the Wylye Valley line north east

from Salisbury,Bovington Camp Railway and Bournemouth to Wincanton via Blandfordand

Sturminster

Newton.

OtherClues: the ferries to the Ile of Wight are shown to Fishbourne Cowesand Yarmouth- but not to

Ryde.Roads have their MOD numbers- A and B.there are no motorways or dual carriage ways. The

code at bottomright is 1/50.

AGECONCLUSION: This is a series printed before and after the War. The OSbase map is series 4/5

and remains unaltered. The essentially 1930smap is revived after the War and here printed in the

Winter of1949-50 (this I assume from the Code 1/50). Also 4/6d is a heftyprice for a Pre war map,

and also reasonably expensive for the periodsuggested 65 years ago.

ASPECTSFOR THE MOTORIST:

Thereare telephone call boxes marked for the Royal Automobile Club and theAA. The former are

marked R and the latter are marked A. they are inremote places- not in towns, and are planned to

supplement theGeneral post office boxes. This was a time when 4 phone box typeswere to be seen :

GPO, Police, RAC and AA. Members were issued with akey for the Motoring Club boxes- some, as at

Shaftesbury on thismap, are very close together showing that the RAC and AA were infierce

competition.

ThePrinciple roads are marked red, the secondary ones are red and whitedashed, and the minor roads

are uncoloured. The Map acknowledgesOrdnance Survey and states that it is produced with the

sanction ofthe Controller of HMSO and the OS. It states that all roadsuncoloured are “not

recommended” for motorists- this is a hugeproportion of the roads of Southern England- perhaps

80%.

GEOGRAPHY:

Townsare marked black and the land is graded by altitude, a little in themanner of Bartholomew\'s

1/2” maps but perhaps in a more simple manner. The map as seen here is more or less equivalent in

area totwo of the OS 1” maps; Here the OS equivalents would have been“Solent” in the East and

Bournemouth in the West.

Guessingwhether the OS master survey was series 4,5,6,7 I would notice: Noairports, no airfields either active or residual from the RAF: RoyalDockyard marked at Portsmouth- which was redacted in the War and notnamed after it. In general I conclude that this is a Pre war map or,at least a Map from a Pre War Ordnance Survey.

AMOST INTERESTING MOTORISTS MAP-

NOT SO COMMONLY SEEN

PROBABLY 1930s designed -1950 PUBLISHED

ONE OF THE EDINBURGH CARTOGRAPHIC COMPANIES –

W. & A. K. JOHNSTON.

SOUTHERNENGLAND AND ITS COAST

AVINTAGE MAP IN PICTORIAL COVERS FOR MOTORISTS

note fold andjunction wear on this very attractively covered linen backed oldmotoring map

BLACK GRID

OVERALL SIZE 34 by 24 inches

FOLDED INTO 24 sections

COVERS : 7 ½ INCHES BY 4 ½ INCHES, CONCERTINA THE MAP (NOT HINGED COVERS) BOTH IN GOODCONDITION- CARD- pictorial, full colour with a small verson of thearea map under the picture of the english countryside

Ithas the code number 1/50

MAP CONDITION

VINTAGE- BLUE BOARDS -CONCERTINABOARDS (NOT HINGED)

LINEN BACKED OR PAPER? LINENBACKED

PIN HOLES AT JUNCTIONS OF FOLDS? PIN HOLES- and fold wear as expected from a 65 year old piece

FULL LITHOGRAPHIC COLOUR? YES

EDGE NICKS: SOME

MAP CONDITION IS GAUGEDACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES :

ASNEW : AS GOOD AS A NEWLY PRINTED MAP

VERYGOOD: MINOR WEAR

GOOD : SCUFFING AND NICK TO COVER AN EDGES, MAP COMPLETE

ACCEPTABLE SOME DIVISIONS ON FOLD, PIN-HOLES SOME FOXING, SOME SOILING

POOR DIVISIONS, NEEDS VERY CAREFUL HANDLING-STILL USEFUL

DAMAGED AS STATED. BEING SOLD FOR SOME PARTICULAR POINT OF INTEREST

I RATE THIS MAP: ACCEPTABLE TO GOOD – NOTE WEAR AT JUCTIONS AND FOLDS

I RATE THE COVER AS:GOOD

Thefollowing details are not essential reading for the purchase of theitem: They are added for readers\' interest, if desired.

DETAILSOF J AND A.K JOHNSTON OF EDINBURGH

GLOBEMAKERS, ATLAS PRINTERS, CARTOGRAPHERS AND PUBLISHERS OF MAPS

FORMOTORISTS

Thesemaps are not commonly seen in comparison with ordnance Survey andBartholomew\'s:

LikeBartholomew\'s they acknowledged the use of an ordnance Survey whichwas reduced or adapted for their motoring map.

Thestandard size and format was the same as the Bartholomew\'s ½”maps. Johnston expressed the scale as “2 inches to 1 mile”

Theirgeographic colouring was a slight reduction from that used byBartholomew and the colours differed, being more high key.

Thedetails shown on the map seem to be a reduction of those found onSeries 4-6 maps of the Ordnanec Survey- some of the naming suggeststhat the master was not subject to the censorship and redaction ofthe War Years- hence Pre-war.

Johnston\'sdid not show milage points, which is a surprise for a map expresslyfor motorists. They do show RAC and AA phone boxes.

Thairarea maps were named after a principle town on the rough centre ofthe Map- usuallyu a town which might be described as a HolidayDestination- Hence Central Southern England is called “Eastbourne”,and the Coast of Central south Eastern England is called “Brighton”.

In1950 their prices were 3.6d for printed on cloth maps folded incovers, but examples show that this was very quickly raised to 4/6d.

Theyhad a 3 inches to the mile Road Atlas of Great Britain with 324 pagesand 27 street plans of major towns. It also included a very oldtravelling system: 36 main road “Strip Maps”. There was agazeteer and thios book sold for 12/6d. It has an 8 1/2” by 5 3/4”format.

Therewas also a “Basic Motoring Atlas of Britain and Ireland” . 48pages on the scale 8 inches to the mile. Ireland being reduced to 10inches to the mile. This atlas did have distance markers betweentowns. There were 32 pages of town plans – 40 plans in all and itcontinued the idea of strip maps for major routes of which there were52. Format was 10 3/4” by 8” and it was cloth bound and sold incirca 1948 for 6/-

Thecompany address was W. & A.K. Johnston Ltd. Edina Works, EasterRoad, Edinburgh- and they had a sub address in London at: 30 MuseumStreet London W.C.!- up near the British Museum.

Easterstreet is the Road in Edinburgh which runs between Leith and AbbeyHill or Royal Crescent, on the west of it, and about half way downits length is Edina Street- leading to Elgin terrace, and that iswhere the factory or Cartographic Office was.

Itis possible that Johnston\'s and Bartholomew\'s were cooperating to adegree for both used the OS base map, both used Geographic Colour,both were based in the same city.

THEIROLDER HISTORY

TheCompany of W. and A.K. Johnston became one of the major publishinghouses of the 19th century.

Itwas founded by brothers William and Alexander Keith Johnston, Alexander, the younger of the two, dies in 1871 having been born inthe reign of George III- 1804. They had started out as apprentices tothe Scottish globe maker James Kirkwood in his Edinburgh Globe andpublishing work shop.

Havinglearned the trade and graduated from apprenticeship, they foundedptheir own business, also in Edinburgh . The Johnstonsacquired the established Scottish printing publishing house ofWilliam Lizars, ( a business founded by WilliamHome Lizars 788–1859 a Scottish Painter,draughtsman and Engraver who had been associated with Audubon and SirDavid Wilkie). Johnstons firstprinted to order but slowly they expanding their speculativepublishing repertoire into charts, maps, atlases, gazetteers, guidebooks, and they still made globes.Indeed it was in globemanufacture that the brothers first achieved fame: for theymanufactured the first “Physical globe”, which was displayed,and won them a number of awards, in the Crystal Palace of JosephPaxton at the Great Exhibition of185-53 in Hyde Park, London.Globe-makingremained a mainstay of the business and continuedinto the last century. One source stated “on both sides of theAtlantic”, implying that they were manufactured in North Americaunder the Johnston name too.One of the Johnston\'s mostimportant map folios include the “National Atlas of GeneralGeography”, first pulled in 1843, 8 years before the Greatexhibition. Another was “The Handy Royal Atlas of ModernGeography”, a later Victorian work published in 1875. They made aseries of “Scientific & statistical atlases” such as theubiquitous star charts for schools : “Johnston’s SchoolAstronomical Atlas” which first appeared in 1877, and aStatistical Atlas of England and Wales which appeared in 1882 and forsome reason did not include their home country.

TheRoyal Atlas of Modern Geography was another standard work.
Thebusiness ran , retaining the name “Johnston\'s” until the 1960s.It must be concluded, therefore, that in the Post war Motoring age,their maps did not successfully compete with AA, RAC and Bartholomew.