London Maps from Herb Lester Associates

Back in July 2010, I wrote about the excellent You Are Here map from Herb Lester Associates and mentioned that they were working on other London guides.

Though I've not gotten around to reviewing them until now, they actually brought out two other excellent maps late last year, with each map being even more beautifully designed than the last.

The second in the series is entitled May We Help You? and lives up to its promise of being a guide to "The best specialist suppliers in London". Though it covers such unusual services as bulletproofing, Japanese knife sharpening and taxidermy, this guide is more than a mere curiosity, offering as it does details of far more essential suppliers - from the sartorial (tailoring alterations, invisible mending, buttons, cobbler) to the practical (locksmith, umbrellas, stationery).

The third map in the trilogy, and the largest to date (at twice the size of the others), is an historic guide to London's lost gems of the 1960s. Billed as "a retrospective guide to London's shops, clubs, boutiques and sundry diversions, 1960-66", Wish you were there is a fascinating and extremely well researched insight into the era of Swinging London, when the city was perceived to lead the world in fashion and nightlife.

For more information on these maps, see the following links:

http://herblester.com/may-we-help-you/
http://herblester.com/wish-you-were-there

All three pocket guides are available to buy from select stockists, or online from the Herb Lester Associates website for just £3 (£4 for Wish you were there): http://herblester.com/buy-the-map/

Do yourself a favour and order your copies today!