cartography on S Anand

Mapping The Red Headed League

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 10:41:06 +0800

Mapping The Red Headed League is a fascinating reconstruction of the actual places mentioned (or hinted at) by Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Red Headed League by Aman Bhargava.

We cross-reference railway timetables, scrutinize Victorian newspaper reports and historical incidents, scour government records, analyze meteorological data, and, in my specific case, pore over Ordnance Survey maps to make the pieces fit.

What struck me is how little London has changed, how much old data is available, and what love it takes to reconstruct such a journey!

I also learnt several geo-tools / services I didn’t know about:

gpx.studio - for visualizing GPS tracks on maps
openroute service - for route planning and isochrones
OpenFreeMap lets you serve custom maps on any website
Protomaps creates custom map tiles
Mapbox / MapLibre styles can be used to create 3D building styles.

US Zip Code map

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 12:00:00 +0000

US Zip Codes Map. Type in the ZIP code, and interactively see which areas it maps to.

Stand clear of closing doors

Tue, 08 Mar 2005 12:00:00 +0000

Stand clear of closing doors.

Ever wonder what the London Underground Map would look like if it were geographically accurate?

Eicher Maps

Tue, 19 Nov 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Bought one of these Eicher Maps. They’re fantastic. I sure wish I had access to the GIS on their website! Have a whole bunch of cool ideas.

The homo sapien footprint

Fri, 25 Oct 2002 12:00:00 +0000

The homo sapien footprint. Shows the population density of the world. Here’s the result at a glance. The densest spots: Europe, India, the East coasts of China and the US. The sparsest: north Canada, Sibera, Sahara, the Andes, the Himalayas, and most of Australia. via Plastic

Cybergeography

Wed, 24 Oct 2001 12:00:00 +0000

Cybergeography: the geography of the Internet.

Vespucci reached there first

Tue, 15 May 2001 12:00:00 +0000

Why is America named after Amerigo Vespucci, and not Columbus? Perhaps because Vespucci reached there first. Or perhaps he marketed America better. Ironic.