Last modified: 13 November 2026
The most famous plate in the County of London Plan, prepared for the London County Council in the middle of the war by J. H. Forshaw and Patrick Abercrombie. Instead of streets it shows London as it was lived in: a mass of rounded “communities”, each with its own name, shopping streets (blue dots) and town hall (red), separated by open spaces, railways and industry. The West End and the City glow in the middle; the river and the docks run east in black. The look of it gave the plate its nickname, the “potato map”. Wandsworth Common is the long green shape between Wandsworth, Earlsfield, South Battersea and Balham.
The map. Plate C.3 of the County of London Plan (Macmillan, 1943), by J. H. Forshaw, Architect to the London County Council, and Professor Patrick Abercrombie. It simplifies the Plan’s survey of communities and open spaces. The key distinguishes the central communities around the West End, central communities with a high proportion of obsolescent property, suburban communities, town halls, main shopping centres, the main industries, wharves, warehouses and railways, open spaces and large institutions, and waterways and reservoirs. The red line is the boundary of the County of London.
Why it matters here. The Plan argued that London should be rebuilt as a set of recognisable communities, each kept apart by open space. Wandsworth Common appears as one of those green separators.
This copy. As shown in the online viewer of Antique Maps & Prints, put together from the viewer’s tiles. The County of London is sharp; the outer edges of the sheet were only available at a lower resolution and are a little softer.
See also. The Royal Commission on London Traffic street plan, 1905, an earlier vision of London’s future.
Maps of this age are out of copyright. Prepared by Philip Boys, with Claude.
Build 1. Source: Antique Maps & Prints.