London Mapping: Tale of a Possible Future

By Andrea Boschetti, Federico Parolotto - 29 October 2013

Of all the cartographic studies we have made using available online data - Dublin, Milan, Guadalajara, New York and Istanbul - the map of London appears at first glance by far the most uniform in terms of overall colour distribution. This even colouring speaks of a well-balanced city in terms of population density, and the distribution of public transport, services and green areas.
With 50 different non-native nationalities speaking more than 300 different languages, London is one of the global capitals of the world. Which is probably also why both inhabitants and outsiders consider it the ideal setting for architectural, literary and scientific forward thinking.
This vast city stretches over what is to all intents and purposes a large flat plain.
Seen overall, the population density map shows two main gaps: the first in what could be described as the city’s “hyper-centre”, i.e. the retail shopping area around Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street; the second, in the City to the east, an essentially mono-functional neighbourhood almost completely given over to tertiary services.
The population distribution map shows clearly how the long-standing high-end residential zones to the west continue to be the areas of highest inhabitant concentration. The more outlying lower-density areas are largely middle-class residential neighbourhoods.
The services density map - indicating hotels, restaurants, neighbourhood shops, places of entertainment, schools, hospitals, places of worship, etc. - shows an extraordinary concentration in the West End, an area traversed by commercial thoroughfares like Piccadilly and Oxford Circus, and in the City of London.
However, the striking feature of the services map is its balanced distribution over the whole urban fabric, whether low or high density. More especially, the public transport density map shows efficient coverage of the whole of inner London north of the Thames, the capital’s...