October 25, 2010 09:17
The story of Phyllis Pearsall and the A-Z is one of London’s most enduring and endearing myths. To take but one example, here’s the Design Museum‘s version of how, in 1935, Pearsall couldn’t find her way to a party in Belgravia so decided to make a completely new map of London, which she did by getting up at 5am each morning and walking every one of London’s 23,000 streets – a distance of 3,000 miles. The result was the A-Z, the first street atlas of London.
You’ll find this story everywhere, often repeated word for word, which is usually a sign something is up. Here it is on the BBC. Here it is in Time Out. Here it is on Wikipedia. And here’s some sap repeating it in an excerpt from a book on Amazon.
Peter Barber reckons it’s nonsense. And as the head of maps at the British Library, he should know.
‘The Phyllis Pearsall story is complete rubbish,’ Barber told me. ‘There is no evidence she did it and if she did do it, she didn’t need to.’
Barber maintains first of all that the first street-indexed map of London was made in 1623 by John Norden, but his reservations are not just academic. Pearsall’s father, Alexander Gross, had been a map-maker and produced map books of London that were almost identical to the A-Z in everything but name. They looked the same and used the same cartographical tricks. It’s Barber’s belief that Pearsall simply updated these maps to include the newly built areas of outer London and called the result the ‘A-Z’.
‘She was a great myth-maker,’ says Barber. ‘But English Heritage investigated the story and decided not to award her a blue plaque because it was not felt she’d done anything to deserve one [Pearsall does have a plaque, but it was awarded by Southwark]. It was marketing and it’s a very pervasive myth, she was a lovable character and people want to believe it.’
So did she really walk those streets or not? Here, Barber is hard to pin down. In writing he is equivocal, as the final comment here shows, but in conversation he makes his position pretty clear.
‘Pearsall was building on a body of information that had been around for years,’ he says. ‘What she may have done is be more thorough in mapping the new areas that cropped up between the wars, and there were two ways of doing this. You could either tramp the streets of outer suburbia for hours on end, or you could visit the local council office and ask for their plans. Which do you think she did?’
Posted by peterwatts1975
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[…] two machines being christened Phyllis Pearsall, in honour of the woman credited (albeit perhaps not entirely correctly) with drafting the London A-Z map, and the second named Ada Lovelace, a writer who worked on […]
By Crossrail Tunnel Boring Machines Launched | Londonist on March 13, 2012 at 14:42
Not sure if your excellent and accurate blog page will make much difference to the myth (largely drawn up and perpetuated by Pearsall herself). I have written to newspapers and magazines over the past few years pointing out that my copy of a 1925 Bartholomews Handy Reference Atlas of London should swiftly refute her claims. Despite being published in the Guardian and New Statesman, the old canard is still trotted out by lazy journalists.
I have just altered her page on Wikipedia, but I don’t hold out much hope for my changes lasting the night.
Good luck, anyway.
Allen
By Allen on October 8, 2012 at 19:49
[…] streets over 3 years] is most likely though a complete fabrication, a marketing ploy, nothing but an enduring urban myth. Angel, 21 Church Street, West Ham. Rebuilt 1910. Closed since […]
By gistofthegrist on October 13, 2012 at 23:08
I’ve just viewed the episode of Nick Crane’s ‘Map Man’ series which perpetuates the myth of Mrs P.
Why didn’t Nick Crane or the BBC delve or research further?
It’s the old adage of ‘Not letting the truth stand in the way of a good story’.
Barry
By Barry Bowdidge on May 25, 2013 at 12:31
I’ve only just heard of Phyllis Pearsall and was fascinated but then I read the wikipedia page which I now know was written by Allen and now this. I don’t know what the truth is and would like to find out but there is a nagging doubt in my mind as this is a rather familiar scenario of a few men suggesting that it couldn’t be possible that a woman could have achieved anything of significance e.g. the campaign a few years ago which tried to suggest that Marie Curie’s work was really that of her husband Pierre.
Jill
By Jill on October 27, 2013 at 08:40
If you really think gender issues have anything to do with it, you may need to seek help with the chip on your shoulder.
The fact of the matter is that we men really do quite like women.
By Simon on September 16, 2014 at 14:02
[…] written before about the urban legend surrounding Phyllis Pearsall, and her oft-repeated claims that she created the A-Z by walking every […]
By Phyllis Pearsall and searching for truth in the A-Z | The Great Wen on January 6, 2014 at 13:58
[…] Barber, former head of maps at the British Library, in an interview with the marvellous Great Wen says: “The Phyllis Pearsall story is complete rubbish. There is no evidence she did it and if […]
By The Real Story of A-Z Maps by Phyllis Pearsall Part I - Discovering London on May 20, 2014 at 06:07
Simon, who are you addressing as having a ‘chip’?
In my opinion you’ve misread in order to insult whoeveer.
The Guild Hall Map Library iis worth a visit.
By Barry on September 16, 2014 at 15:54
Jill.
As a beta-male and feminist of 40-plus years, I take your general point, but say “Not me, sister!”
I’m agin Pearsall like I was agin Thatcher – nowt to do with eithers’ gender.
Allen (and I only wrote one line on Wiki!)
By allen on September 16, 2014 at 17:12
[…] rubbish. There is no evidence she did it and if she did do it, she didn’t need to,” he said. Instead of walking the streets all she needed to do was ask London’s local authorities for […]
By A tale too astonishing to be real? | BookerTalk on March 3, 2015 at 16:00
[…] a blog dedicated to debunking it, and Peter Barber, the head of maps at the British Library, who has argued it’s more likely that Pearsall updated and improved upon other street maps already available at […]
By Demystifying the Ancient Tangle of London’s Streets – BeyondRealityNews.com on June 21, 2017 at 14:10
[…] around about which point she remembered the (admittedly disputed) story of how Phyllis Pearsall created the original London A-Z by walking around every street […]
By On Every Street: Sarah’s A-Z – A Sense of Place on August 8, 2021 at 15:56