GMAP's 12 Maps of Christmas

Our 1st Map of Christmas was the iconic London Underground map from one of our directors, John Chesworth.

John said: ‘The London Underground was first mapped in 1908. In 1931, it was redesigned by Harry Beck to create the Tube map we know today for just £10, or £600 in current money. Although it doesn’t show London’s real geography, it is a great example of less is more; sacrificing the precision of geographical detail and adopting a clear visual language helps the map to communicate the key message much more effectively’

Our 2nd Map of Christmas was the map of Saint Michael's Line chosen by one of our Senior Consultants, Oliver Cook.

Oli said: ‘Saint Michael’s Line is a straight line linking various religious sites dedicated to Saint Michael with Jerusalem. This includes Saint Michael's Mount in Cornwall, Le Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy and Sacra di San Michele near Turin. Quite an intriguing coincidence, but utter nonsense’

The 3rd Map of Christmas, chosen by Coralie Mace, Consultant, was a map of Kanto from Pokémon!

Coralie said: ‘This is the map from the first generation of Pokémon games and also the first map I cared about as a child! It’s modelled and named after the Kanto region of Japan'

The 4th Map of Christmas’ depicts the advance into and retreat from Russia by Napoleon, selected by Matt Cawcutt, Director.

Matt said: ‘This is my favourite map - it combines six different sets of data: geography (rivers, cities, battles etc.), the army’s path in and out, the army’s direction, the soldiers remaining, temperature and time in relation to the temperature’

For the 5th Map of Christmas Louis Judge, Consultant, chose a map of Anfield, the home to Liverpool Football Club.

Louis said: ‘I’ve chosen this map because a matchday at Anfield is quite possibly my favourite place to be! This year has meant there has not been chance for many fans to be there, until very recently. I look forward to the day when I can go back’

Alice Thomson chose the 6th Map of Christmas with a map from her favourite coffee table book!

Alice said: ‘This is a map from my favourite coffee table book ‘Explorers Atlas – for the Incurably Curious’ by Michal Gaszynski, and Piotr Wilkowiecki, which combines really beautifully annotated maps with some great random facts!’

For our 7th Map of Christmas Joseph Murphy, Senior Consultant, has chosen a map of Dubai, where he grew up!

Joe said: ‘It is a place like no other and reminds me of my happy childhood growing up there'

For the 8th Map of Christmas Robert Chew, Consultant, chose a map of the very interesting border between Belgium and the Netherlands!

Rob said: ‘I discovered my map during a project thinking I’d done something very wrong! The map is by no means pretty, but it makes for good, but useless pub knowledge. It depicts the utterly chaotic border between Belgium and the Netherlands in the towns of Baarle-Nassau (NL) and Baarle-Hertog (BE). The border muddles through the streets paying no attention whatsoever to the built environment which results in many properties straddling nations. Historically, residents would regularly re-locate their front doors for economic advantage and move to the opposite end of the bar for extended drinking hours. Today, both countries policies are more aligned, but I like the thought of being able to sit on the same sofa as someone, in different countries'

Neil Carr, one of our Technical Consultants, chose the 9th Map of Christmas with a rare map of the village of Idle in West Yorkshire where he grew up!

Neil said: ‘When I was younger I enjoyed researching local history and the oldest map I could find of where I lived was based on a document the local library/council said I could have. The document was a draft version of someone’s research into the history of the village, I think the document itself is quite rare as I don’t think it ever got published. The map though did appear in Robert C. Allen's (1927) book History of Bolton in Bradford-dale and I assume this is where researcher sourced it from'

Alice Goddard, Consultant, chose the 10th Map of Christmas’ with a map of the famous Leeds pub crawl, The Otley Run!

Alice said: 'The Otley Run is a famous pub crawl in Leeds. Like many of the GMAP team, I did my first Otley Run whilst studying Geography at the Leeds University, where it is very much a rite of passage. It is a 1.5mile route that starts in far Headingley and ends toward the City Centre, with 16 pubs (and GMAP’s office) in between. I am certain when we next all return to the office post-Covid we will be taking a trip to The Fenton, a pub many Otley Runners don’t quite make it too!'

Our penultimate 11th Map of Christmas has been chosen by Limei Zheng, or more specifically Limei's daughter Meili, with a map of where different animals come from.

Limei said: 'This is Meili’s favourite map (at least one of her favourite maps at the moment). I bought her a book called ‘Animal Atlas’, which is a book about animals which live in different countries. She likes to look at this book and points at the maps where the animals are, and saying she would like to go there to see these animals'

Our final 12th Map of Christmas couldn't not have a Christmas element with it being Christmas Eve. It has been chosen by one of our Technical Consultants Jonathan Moore (also known as Max in GMAP) whose son watches The Grinch every night!

Max says: ‘For my map I have chosen The Fantasy World Map, which contains many Fantasy lands including Whoville from Dr Seuss’ The Grinch. I was torn between choosing the Santa Tracker map or this map which contains Whoville, as both are popular with my son. This year, The Grinch has definitely won as it is being watched every night in our household...'