Geographers' A-Z Map Company

Geographers' A-Z Map Company Ltd. is the largest independent map publisher in the United Kingdom providing cartographic services, digital data products and paper mapping publications (including Street Atlases, Visitors Guides, Great Britain Road Atlases and The Adventure Atlas).

The company is based in Dunton Green, Kent.

Geographers' Map Company Ltd. was established in London on 28 August 1936, by Alexander Grosz with offices in Napier House, 24-27 High Holborn. The company's most famous publication "The A-Z Street Atlas" was created by Phyllis Pearsall who took on the responsibility of creating the first edition. Spending hours walking the streets of London cataloguing house numbers, junctions and streets. The company sold every copy of the first London Geographers' A–Z Street Atlas, with her main customer being W.H. Smith and Sons.

By 1938, Geographers' Map Company Ltd. was selling 12 titles, with the maps being entirely created by skilled cartographers. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the government ordered the removal of street maps from sale so the business produced war maps for newspapers throughout the War.

By 1952 and after an aircraft accident in 1946 endangering the life of Phyllis Pearsall, Geographers' Map Company Ltd. had over 30 publications covering the United Kingdom from London to Glasgow. The 1960s saw the company move to the Sevenoaks area in Kent and ownership move to the Geographer's Map Trust.

The 1970s saw both an introduction of the now iconic A-Z to the company name.

The early adoption of technology and in particular the use of CAD/CAM Unix computers, then the Windows PC accelerated the pace of map publication that resulted in a peak in sales during 2005. Significant technological developments in the industry saw the increased availability of free mapping and satellite navigation as the demand for paper production rapidly declined - ultimately resulted in the company restructure in 2013.

Geographers' A-Z Maps digital offering is growing rapidly and is already in use by charities like London's Air Ambulance, emergency services (London Ambulance Service - (featuring in the BBC documentary 'Ambulance')), public organisations and private business, providing the familiar mapping solution at street scale.

...
Wikipedia