Custom Wall Maps

[MacB]

We have poster wall maps of the world, Europe and the UK up on walls in the house and they've always proved great for the kids. So I was thinking it would be nice to have one of the local area, with our postcode at the centre, help me explore by bike and help the kids learn the locality. I rang the OS and they recommended using one of their licensed 'partners' and gave me three contacts. Having perused the websites what I want is no problem, can choose my scale and the type of detail to appear on the map............but the price!!!!! I mean I thought it would be a bit more, I wasn't expecting the sort of £3.95 we paid for the standard wall posters. But these are like £100 upwards.

Has anyone done anything similar and, more importantly, found a source that's a bit more reasonable £wise?

[Chris N]

OS Select, available direct from Ordnance Survey for £15.
OsSelect-Ordnance Survey
Just ink jet printed but on good quality paper and available flat or folded, 1:25,000 or 1:50,000.

[hellymedic]

Why not get a folded OS Select map of your area for £16, unfold it and mount onto a board yourself?

[Cyclops]

You can also buy unfolded, laminated OS Select maps for about £30

[andygates]

Odd that OS weren't able to mention OS Select because that is indeedy the thing to get.  Order here:
   OsSelect-Ordnance Survey

[corshamjim]

I bought one for my Dad so he could record his walks on Dartmoor.  I was really pleased to find you can (just) get the whole of Dartmoor on one sheet.

[redshift]

Why not get a folded OS Select map of your area for £16, unfold it and mount onto a board yourself?

We used to have one wall of the landing dedicated to a map made up in this fashion, 1:50,000 of the North West of England, out as far as the wall allowed.  Sadly, we had to get rid of it since we needed more bookshelves.

[robgul]

... if you know anyone that works at the local authority that looks after "highways" ask them if they can help 

Rob

[MacB]

Thanks folks they look great, don't know how I missed that.

Do these include street names?

[red marley]

No. As far as I am aware OS Select only allows 1:25k or 1:50k scale mapping. Even at 1:25k you will not get street names.

You could go for the do-it-yourself option and tile together the relevant Ordnance Survey Street View maps available under the OpenData scheme. The cartography is not as nice as the Explorer and Landranger series, but it does include street names. Getting poster size prints of high resolution images in now pretty cheap (I have an A0 map on my wall that cost about £12 to print on high quality glossy paper).

[MacB]

Aha, thanks Jo, I've just ordered the relevant streetview at the 1:10k scale. Once I've got this then I can just cobble together what I want, put it on a memory stick and then find a printer that'll do A0...I hope I've got that right.

I think I'll also order one of the OS ones as well.

[MacB]

Ok, I've got a couple of humungous downloads that have given me a whole host of TIF files, the OS site suggests that you use some sort of GIS software to make your own map from it.

Anyone got any recommendations for free GIS software, so far I've found Map Maker Gratis

[MacB]

Road Runner, that's really kind of you and I may well take you up on that. At present I want to have a go myself, especially having downloaded 2gb+ of data. I'm now seeing potential for printed stuff for other rides not just doing the wall map for local use.

From what I can see I can mess with the TIF files anyway but use of GIS software will allow for personalised mapping design of the sort I'm looking for. The OS downloads included the reference point files as well so should be compatible with most GIS stuff. I plan on having a good read about GIS, the OS site offers instructional info as well Then see where I get to.

If I register an epic fail on all of this then you'll see a begging PM arrive from me  thanks again it is a great offer....Al

[CAMRAMan]

OS Select, available direct from Ordnance Survey for £15.
OsSelect-Ordnance Survey
Just ink jet printed but on good quality paper and available flat or folded, 1:25,000 or 1:50,000.

I've done the same thing. One caveat: The quality is not as good as the printed versions. It's not greatly inferior, but noticably so.