0:00:10 > 0:00:13Picture yourself on a winter's evening in London.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16You're trying to find your way to the nearest underground station,
0:00:16 > 0:00:20the smog is swirling around and half the street names aren't on your map.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24That's what it was like in the 1930s if you didn't know London well.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35Then this came along, the A to Z Street Atlas of London.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39Cheap, comprehensive, essential to urban survival.
0:00:39 > 0:00:46Created in 1936 by a determined woman called Phyllis Pearsall, it transformed travel in the capital.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49Since then, millions of copies have flown off the shelves.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54Today I'll bet you can find one of these in every home and business in London.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05How many appointments would I have missed but for this map?
0:01:05 > 0:01:07It's been a real life-saver.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10But what I want to know is who is it for?
0:01:10 > 0:01:16Is it the ultimate street map, and why is it that some roads marked on it don't actually exist?
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Say, that's a swell map!
0:01:47 > 0:01:54For many people, Phyllis Pearsall's A to Z is the very definition of a map.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57It's an extremely practical guide to London.
0:01:57 > 0:02:04Every street is marked, the lettering is spread out to give an idea of the street's length,
0:02:04 > 0:02:09there are house numbers, and all the major landmarks are clearly on display.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11You simply can't go wrong.
0:02:20 > 0:02:26Abbeville Road, SW4, the very first street name in the very first A to Z.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30I'm going to make a journey the whole way from Clapham here
0:02:30 > 0:02:34in south London to Upper Holloway in north London, to be precise, to 2H,
0:02:34 > 0:02:41page 49, Zoffany Street, the very last name in Phyllis Pearsall's A to Z of 1936.
0:02:43 > 0:02:49On the way I'm going to try and find out whether the A to Z is completely
0:02:49 > 0:02:56accurate, if it's good design, and who gets the most out of it.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05Phyllis Pearsall, Mrs P as her employees came to know her,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09was born in Dulwich, south London, in 1906.
0:03:09 > 0:03:16She grew up wanting to be a painter and she studied art history at the Sorbonne in Paris.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20But it was when she returned to London in the mid-1930s that she spotted a
0:03:20 > 0:03:25golden opportunity to transform her fellow Londoners' lives.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32What Mrs P realised was that the available maps were basically, well, rubbish.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36She found herself getting lost on the way to dinner parties.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41The problem was that these maps were based on Ordnance Survey mapping from 1919.
0:03:42 > 0:03:49The lettering was too small to read, not all the streets were mapped, and if you wanted number 17
0:03:49 > 0:03:53you'd no idea which end of the street to start.
0:03:53 > 0:04:00And London was changing rapidly, so in 1935 Phyllis Pearsall decided to set things straight.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02Her plan was simple.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06From five in the morning until eleven at night
0:04:06 > 0:04:13she would walk around London, noting down the names and positions of every one of the capital's streets.
0:04:13 > 0:04:19In the process she found herself uncovering the very roots of London,
0:04:19 > 0:04:24the oldest streets, evoking a past when London was very different.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27History frozen in street names.
0:04:27 > 0:04:33Nothing survives of rural London except memories held in a handful of street names.
0:04:33 > 0:04:39Milk Street, Carter Lane, up there where carts once rolled, from Addle Hill, right here. "Addle"
0:04:39 > 0:04:46comes from the Old English word "addler", meaning "stinking urine", or "eddle", meaning "liquid manure".
0:04:46 > 0:04:48So Addle Hill was the hill of cow dung.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51On the way to the Stock Exchange, watch your step.
0:04:56 > 0:05:02It took her about a year of surveying to cover the 23,000 streets London then had.
0:05:02 > 0:05:08In all, she walked over 3,000 miles, a monumental task.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12So what on earth motivated her to do it?
0:05:12 > 0:05:18It surely can't have been as simple as getting lost on the way to dinner parties.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Sarah Hartley is Mrs P's biographer.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24She had an incredibly
0:05:24 > 0:05:26challenging personal life.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28She's just seen her mother die in Bedlam
0:05:28 > 0:05:31in the most terrible circumstances.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34Her father was actually a map maker himself.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37He set up one of the biggest map-making companies in London, Geographia.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40He'd walked out on the family.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42He was a tyrant, he was a bully.
0:05:42 > 0:05:50Despite his behaviour, Phyllis adored him and wanted to prove that she could impress him.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54But she also had difficulties in her own marriage.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57She'd walked out on her husband, a fellow artist, in Venice.
0:05:57 > 0:06:04She'd come back to London, she was on her own in a bedsit, and she decided, "This is what I'm going to do."
0:06:04 > 0:06:07"I'm going to take my father on at his own game."
0:06:07 > 0:06:10How quickly did the business take off?
0:06:10 > 0:06:13She went to WH Smith
0:06:13 > 0:06:18and she waited to see the buyer for at least...
0:06:18 > 0:06:20It was about five days she'd keep going back and forth.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23And in the end the buyer said, "Who's this woman?"
0:06:23 > 0:06:25"Who's this secretary that's haunting the place?"
0:06:25 > 0:06:30And she went in to see him with this humble little book and said, "Well, it's my own work.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32"I'm sorry about the bled edges.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34"It's not as great as it could be."
0:06:34 > 0:06:38I think he was so impressed he ordered 25 copies there and then.
0:06:38 > 0:06:44She went back to her bedsit and took a wheelbarrow from the pub next door
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and delivered her copies to WH Smith.
0:06:53 > 0:06:5870 years on, the A to Z is Britain's bestselling atlas.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03But how good IS it for getting around the complexities of the capital?
0:07:04 > 0:07:08My journey is going to take me all over this great city.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13Right now I'm on my way to London's Docklands, a place where the old
0:07:13 > 0:07:18street names sit alongside dozens of brand-new ones.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20This is Canary Wharf, one of the newest
0:07:20 > 0:07:25areas of expanding London, a city which now covers 610 square miles.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31When Mrs P set off each morning, her surveying kit was pretty basic.
0:07:31 > 0:07:39I've got my apple, I've got my kicked-in map bag, so I'm ready to conduct my own Mrs P-style audit.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45I'm going to check out a route from Canada Square
0:07:45 > 0:07:51through the old docklands area to Billingsgate fish market and a place called Blackwall Basin, then down
0:07:51 > 0:07:57Preston's Road and Manchester Road, and finally out to the River Thames.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01The problem I've got is that this part of the city is a multilayered
0:08:01 > 0:08:06and ever-changing labyrinth of tower blocks and cul-de-sacs.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13London round here is much more massive than the A to Z suggests,
0:08:13 > 0:08:17but so far so good in terms of street plan.
0:08:17 > 0:08:24Now, if I look up as I walk along here I should see the edge of
0:08:24 > 0:08:27the Millennium Dome. And there it is.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34The one thing the A to Z can't map is volume, and cities are full of volume.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36Just look around Canary Wharf.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41These immensely tall buildings can't be shown on a map that's two-dimensional.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44Down there, there's a road called East Road running along
0:08:44 > 0:08:51above the water, but there's another walkway directly underneath it, and the lower walkway can't be shown.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54All you can see is a single layer of the city.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58So it is a limitation of a two-dimensional map like the A to Z.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Just coming out of Churchill Place, and according to the A to Z
0:09:05 > 0:09:10I should be able to see Billingsgate fish market over on the left. There it is.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16This roundabout ahead of me should be water, but I can't see it.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20If the A to Z's right, Blackwall Basin should be over there.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24These maps may not show you all the different levels of London...
0:09:24 > 0:09:29..but what the A to Z can do is produce wonderful surprises, and this is one of them.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32I'm only a couple of hundred metres from the tallest buildings in Canary Wharf,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36and I've suddenly been confronted by a scene of utter tranquillity.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42Over there is a row of beautiful painted houseboats, below me are the serene waters of Blackwall Basin,
0:09:42 > 0:09:48behind it a rather grubby Millennium Dome, and over on the right here a lovely area of undeveloped land,
0:09:48 > 0:09:53a green space that hasn't been covered in £1 million flats.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Now, I should be able to walk from here
0:09:56 > 0:09:59eastwards down to the shores of the River Thames.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01But I've got to get down here first.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12Every night Mrs P took her sketches home to her flat in Horseferry Road
0:10:12 > 0:10:15and hid them under her bed.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Then, when she'd finished one part of London, she sent
0:10:18 > 0:10:24her notebooks to her father's most trusted draughtsman, Mr Fountain,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27and he set about transforming them into maps.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34As soon as I get round this corner I should be able to see
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Preston Road dead ahead. That looks like it.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41It's so adaptable, the A to Z.
0:10:41 > 0:10:47The streets I've been walking along are new, built over what were once docks.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Preston's Road, though, is over a century old.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54The A to Z makes it all look completely seamless.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Here's the roundabout on Preston's Road.
0:10:57 > 0:11:03There's Marsh Wall, that's East Ferry Road, so this must be Manchester Road.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05And it is. There's the sign.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Just up Manchester Road, on the left, must be Stewart Street.
0:11:10 > 0:11:15Under Mrs P's direction, Mr Fountain broke with mapping tradition.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20He widened each street and then spread the name along its entire length.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23The A to Z revolutionised the image of the capital.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28Streets - and street names - had never looked so clear.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33Brilliant. I've been walking for half an hour, and the A to Z has led me the whole way
0:11:33 > 0:11:37from the heart of Canary Wharf down to the banks of the River Thames.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41Every street was in the right place and it was correctly named.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46It's a remarkable testament to one visionary woman and an awful lot of legwork.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00So, the A to Z won't generally get you lost.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04But what sort of picture of London does it give?
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Does it provide enough information?
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Is it pleasing to look at?
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Do people like using it?
0:12:11 > 0:12:16It's a map entirely focused on streets, on how to get about.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22The size of parks, whether an area is busy or peaceful, is there a pub on the corner?
0:12:22 > 0:12:24It gives you none of those things.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26So how good a design is it?
0:12:28 > 0:12:30It's not a masterpiece of modern design
0:12:30 > 0:12:35in that amazingly funky graphics, but it's a masterpiece in the more important way.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40One of my definitions of good design is "the ordinary thing done extraordinarily well."
0:12:40 > 0:12:43You buy this for London, Birmingham, Manchester,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45it doesn't matter where, and you feel you possess the city.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50There's a compulsion to own A to Zs, and people buy more than are functionally necessary.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54You don't just have one A to Z, in my experience people have lots and lots and lots.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02One of the great things about modern design is it made quality democratic.
0:13:02 > 0:13:08And with the A to Z there's no way of distinguishing Hackney Marshes from Kensington Gardens.
0:13:08 > 0:13:09And I love little details like this.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13There's the arbitrary announcement of offices somewhere down here.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16There are offices everywhere else, but they're not
0:13:16 > 0:13:20indicated, but offices here. A bowling alley there.
0:13:23 > 0:13:29When you get used to living with the A to Z, and any city dweller does, it's the way the roads dominate.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32In fact, looking at the A to Z of London, the roads...
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Jamaica Street is given far more prominence than the Tower of London.
0:13:36 > 0:13:41It does suggest that movement is a human priority.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44It's not about settlements, it's not about the analysis of districts,
0:13:44 > 0:13:50it's about how parts of a huge, heaving metropolis are connected to each other by these roads.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54And it's beautifully drawn - Blackwall Tunnel flyover here.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58And it suggests a dynamism which, of course, is a bit of a deceit,
0:13:58 > 0:14:03as those of us who have been stuck in the Blackwall Tunnel Approach know too many times.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08But, you know, as I said, it's a work of art, because it presents an ideal view of the city, not a real one.
0:14:15 > 0:14:21Question - if a cabbie doesn't know the street you've asked to be taken to, what does he do?
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Answer - he takes a crafty look in the A to Z.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26Hello. Dahomey Road, please.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37The A to Z is the foundation of the Knowledge, the vast collection
0:14:37 > 0:14:42of streets and routes, an area roughly equivalent to
0:14:42 > 0:14:49a six-mile radius of Charing Cross, which all 21,000 London cab drivers have had to learn by heart.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57Malcolm Linskey runs a leading Knowledge school in north London,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01where new recruits fill their brains with hundreds of street names.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04..leaving the right at Salamanca Street, right out of Embankment,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08comply Lambeth Circus, leave by Lambeth Bridge, comply Millbank Circus, leave at Horseferry Road...
0:15:08 > 0:15:12I'm very fond of the A to Z, primarily because you see what you get.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17The street layout on it is as is on the street. Other maps are around.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22They have their own virtues, but nothing as clear cut and as precise as the A to Z.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24And how many streets are there within the six-mile radius?
0:15:24 > 0:15:30I'm not sure whether anybody's actually counted them, but we estimate about 17,000.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32..left Greycoat Place, right Artillery Row, Buckingham Gate,
0:15:32 > 0:15:38left and comply Queen Victoria Memorial, leave by the Mall, left onto Marlborough Road...
0:15:38 > 0:15:40Would you say cabbies have a different kind of brain,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43a brain that can absorb all of this cartographic information?
0:15:43 > 0:15:46There is a theory that there's a part of the brain called the
0:15:46 > 0:15:51hippocampus and it actually expands to absorb all this information.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55And apparently, with cab drivers, they tend to have a big hippocampus.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58No-one's quite sure whether they start off with big hippocampuses
0:15:58 > 0:16:00or it develops because of their Knowledge training.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04..forward over Marlborough Street, left Stafford Street, right Dover Street, left Hay Hill, right
0:16:04 > 0:16:08Berkeley Street, right Berkeley Square, leave by Davies Street...
0:16:08 > 0:16:10There is a saying on the Knowledge - if you get into trouble
0:16:10 > 0:16:14- using the backstreets, resort to your oranges and lemons.- What's that mean?
0:16:14 > 0:16:19Well, if you look at the map you'll see that all the primary roads are coloured orange or lemon,
0:16:19 > 0:16:25so in other words if you're in trouble with your Knowledge, the way out of jowl is to use the main roads,
0:16:25 > 0:16:27which are colour-coded orange and lemon on this.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30So it's part of the Knowledge lingo, if you like.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33..right onto Park Street, forward into Portman Street,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37forward Portman Square, forward Gloucester Place, bear left Park Road, right St John's Wood Circus,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40leave by Wellington Road, forward Finchley Road...
0:16:44 > 0:16:47Cabbies aren't the only ones concerned about getting
0:16:47 > 0:16:52to exactly the right place with the minimum of delay.
0:16:52 > 0:16:59The emergency services rely on the A to Z to get them through when they're responding to a 999 call.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Mrs P had an early reminder of the importance of diligent map making.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06A doctor claimed that one of his patients had died
0:17:06 > 0:17:09after he'd gone to the wrong address due to an error in the A to Z.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13In fact, he'd just looked it up incorrectly, but the point went home with Mrs P, and thereafter
0:17:13 > 0:17:17she impressed upon her staff that lives depended upon them.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29How effective is the A to Z as a guide when you have to get
0:17:29 > 0:17:32to your destination or call-out address as fast as possible?
0:17:32 > 0:17:34- Does it work?- Very effective.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36You can identify tiny roads.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41A lot of blocks of flats are actually named on the A to Z, as well, which is quite handy.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45What about the house numbers being in there too? Does that help, knowing which end of the...?
0:17:45 > 0:17:49I use the house number. And also, when you get the job in the MDT, because the house numbers are
0:17:49 > 0:17:53there, the triangle would actually be approximately where that number is.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56But I always use the numbers, especially on a long road.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00You don't want to be spending half an hour going up and down it.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02- Amy, have you been drinking tonight, then?- Yeah.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04Yeah? How much have you had, roughly?
0:18:04 > 0:18:06'I think the A to Z's excellent.'
0:18:06 > 0:18:09I've got one in my car and I use it all the time.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11But no, it's a good mapping system.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18So thanks to a combination of GPS and the A to Z, Amy is rushing off
0:18:18 > 0:18:22to hospital within minutes of the 999 call being made.
0:18:23 > 0:18:30Today a copy of the A to Z is as vital a piece of life-saving kit as a respirator or a shot of Adrenalin.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38Unless, of course, you're a courier.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40Alpha 44.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Alpha 44, go ahead.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Brand-new day, brand-new problem.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Couriers depend on the A to Z to deliver their packages,
0:18:49 > 0:18:55so I'm wondering what happens when the address a courier wants goes missing.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58It's 8.30 in the morning, and I'm on courier duty.
0:18:58 > 0:19:04I've got my walkie-talkie, my A to Z and a very fetching cycling jersey!
0:19:04 > 0:19:06All I've got to do now is collect my package.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Well I have my destination, Cassilis Road, E14.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31Now I must look it up in the index of my A to Z, Cassilis Road.
0:19:31 > 0:19:37We have a problem because the only Cassilis Road is in TW1, that's Twickenham, there's not
0:19:37 > 0:19:41much point taking my package there so I'm off to E14, the Isle of Dogs,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45and I'm going to have to use my navigational nous.
0:19:51 > 0:19:58I'm in E14, so I'm in the right bit of London, but there's absolutely no sign of Cassilis Road,
0:19:58 > 0:20:03so I'm going to have to do what people did before the A to Z was invented, which is to ask the way.
0:20:07 > 0:20:13I'm trying to reach you with a package but you're not on the A to Z, can you tell me where you are?
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Off Lightermans Road?
0:20:18 > 0:20:21OK, thanks a lot.
0:20:21 > 0:20:23Cheers, bye.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26So it does exist.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29It looks brand new, a new road, new buildings.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37The A to Z have always relied on the public to keep them up to date with new roads.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41In fact there was a time when they offered a small monetary reward.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45Clearly Cassilis Road needs to be on the London map,
0:20:45 > 0:20:51so I'm going to contact the A to Z to see if I can make that happen.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53Might make a few quid.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Well I phoned the A to Z and while I wait for them to get here
0:20:57 > 0:21:00I'm going to check out exactly where Cassilis Road goes.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07Cassilis Road ends right here, no doubt about that,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10but there's a paved road going on in this direction.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13Question is, what's this called?
0:21:15 > 0:21:17Broadway Walk.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Broadway Walk, in the A to Z.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23There is a short stub of road running off Alpha Grove.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25That's Alpha Grove just there.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28The stub's in the right place but it's called
0:21:28 > 0:21:32Bartlett Place. I could understand how Cassilis Road could have sprung from nowhere because there's been
0:21:32 > 0:21:38so much development in this part of London over the last 25 years, but what on earth is going on here?
0:21:38 > 0:21:44On the ground we've got Broadway Walk but on the map we've got Bartlett Place. Very puzzling.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49A to Z team to the rescue.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52And about time.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02John Frankel is the managing director of Geographers' A to Z Map Company.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05He has worked with them for 43 years.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Kieron Bartlett's only done 10, a youngster!
0:22:11 > 0:22:17- The GPS unit up on the roof is plugged into the laptop here so if I bring the GPS in- ...
0:22:17 > 0:22:20That's a global positioning satellite.
0:22:20 > 0:22:21That's right.
0:22:21 > 0:22:25So this van's connected to satellite and it's going to plot the line of the road.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28That's right. I've got green signals where the dots have kicked in here.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30I was just turning into the beginning of Cassilis Road.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33It's very exciting, we're about go into unmapped territory.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37Your red dots will trace out the new line of Cassilis Road.
0:22:37 > 0:22:43What I'm going to do now is draw a line over the top so when we take it back we know the route of the road.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49- So you're tracing a very fine line on top of the red dots.- Yes.
0:22:49 > 0:22:56That's just a guide that you can turn into a proper road pair of lines back at headquarters, is it?
0:22:56 > 0:23:03- That's right.- We've got the raw data and I hope we can work out the mystery of Bartlett Place.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07No mention, incidentally, of any payment for my efforts.
0:23:07 > 0:23:12All that's required now is a trip to A to Z's Kent headquarters.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16Mrs P moved the company to Borough Green in 1992.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20She came to love the place so much she had her ashes buried there.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Was Mrs P a ruthless business woman or a kind auntie?
0:23:26 > 0:23:29What was she like as a person to work with?
0:23:29 > 0:23:33She saw herself in the sporting sense as the wicketkeeper.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36If we ever needed her, she would always be there.
0:23:36 > 0:23:42She was also a very kind person and cared very much about the people that worked with A to Z.
0:23:42 > 0:23:43It's a trust company.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48She was very concerned that on her death the company would be sold so in
0:23:48 > 0:23:531966 she actually gave the shares to the company and the trust was formed.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04What would you have done if we hadn't told you that Cassilis Road existed?
0:24:04 > 0:24:07- We would have found it.- Are you sure?
0:24:07 > 0:24:10I'm sure because we visit the area.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13So Mapman's helped you to update your map.
0:24:13 > 0:24:14In this case, yes.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21Are you trying to get the sides of the road to run parallel with our single red line?
0:24:21 > 0:24:27Yes, because we need to put text inside the road so the road needs to be slightly
0:24:27 > 0:24:29wider than the road that actually exists.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32You're exaggerating the width of the road to fit the lettering.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36Exactly. If I hit here, I'll make the edges of the roads.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38Wow, there it is.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Now I need to put the text in, turn it on its side.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50You haven't got much space to put the street names in, have you?
0:24:50 > 0:24:54No. This is a particularly congested part of London.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56When we put our text out we tend to put it
0:24:56 > 0:25:01each letter at a time to make sure it's easy to read and it looks good.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03- Quite painstaking, isn't it? - It takes a long time.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06What are you going to do about Bartlett Place down the bottom there?
0:25:06 > 0:25:09On the street itself it's called Broadway Walk.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13Is that an error?
0:25:13 > 0:25:15It was obviously an error on our behalf.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17We used to show it as Bartlett Place.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20- Why was that? - In this case, it's not an error.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22It's one of our phantom names.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24- A what name?- A phantom name.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26- A phantom name?- A phantom name, yes.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31These names are included on our mapping to protect our copyright.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34So if you had found somebody who had mapped that part of the Isle of Dogs with a place
0:25:34 > 0:25:38called Bartlett Place on there, you'd know they'd copied your map?
0:25:38 > 0:25:40- Yes, cos it's unique to our mapping. - It's a trick feature?
0:25:40 > 0:25:45In this case, the name is actually named after Kieron.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48- Kieron Bartlett?- Yes.- You're cheeky.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52You've named a road after yourself?
0:25:52 > 0:25:56It wasn't actually me who put the road in. I didn't choose the name.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Nothing to do with you at all?
0:25:58 > 0:26:01- No.- How many of these phantoms streets are there in London?
0:26:01 > 0:26:03- Probably just over 100.- 100?!
0:26:03 > 0:26:08About 100. But we try to put them in areas where they don't actually interfere with people's navigation.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10It interfered with my navigation.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13I went through major grief trying to work out what was going on.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18I was standing in front of Broadway Walk being told by you that it was Bartlett Place.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21We can only apologise on this occasion!
0:26:23 > 0:26:27Could be quite a new urban sport, pinning down phantom place names.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35It's a big place, though.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47- Is this it? - This will be the finished plot.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51I can't believe this is the latest map of the Isle of Dogs.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53This is the latest A-Z.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Mm, the smell of a new map.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59That's brilliant. And here we have Cassilis Road.
0:26:59 > 0:27:04So the blank space in E14 has been filled.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10Cassilis Road is on the map and the phantom Bartlett Place is now the real Broadway Walk.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20Last day, one last place to visit.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25Zoffany Street, the final street, the ultimate Z.
0:27:25 > 0:27:31Here it is - a charming little Victorian street built in 1887
0:27:31 > 0:27:36and named after an 18th-century Czech painter called Johann Zoffany.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Mrs P would have loved that.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Painting was always one of her great passions.
0:27:46 > 0:27:52These days, there are A-Z maps of over 200 towns across the country.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54But London remains the best seller.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00In various formats, more than 200,000 are sold every year.
0:28:00 > 0:28:07Other street maps are now available, but they all owe a debt to Mrs P's people's map.
0:28:07 > 0:28:13By the time she died in 1996, London had 50,000 streets, twice the number
0:28:13 > 0:28:21it had in 1936, and Phyllis Pearsall is celebrated as being the founder of the London street guide.
0:28:21 > 0:28:27It has saved lives and it presents itself as a golden thread in and out of London's labyrinth.
0:28:27 > 0:28:35Right now, for me today, it's got one last job to do - to lead me to 7D, page 48, home.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38Subtitles by BBC Broadcast - 2005
0:28:38 > 0:28:41E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk