Kerry Lee’s 1951 pictorial map London, The Bastion of Liberty

London, The Bastion of Liberty – Kerry Lee 1951

Name: London, The Bastion of Liberty – Kerry Lee 1951
SKU: 9611724554
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London, The Bastion of Liberty – Kerry Lee, 1951

Kerry Lee’s exuberant pictorial map celebrates London in the aftermath of the Second World War. Published in 1951 and printed by Chromoworks Ltd., it combines streets and landmarks with historical figures, decorative borders and patriotic imagery to create a very different kind of London map.

The map extends from Earl’s Court Road in the west to the City in the east, and from Lambeth north to Regent’s Park. Within that area Lee fills the capital with buildings, monuments, shops and personalities rather than treating it as a conventional topographical plan.

Its title, London, The Bastion of Liberty, reflects the post-war mood. London had endured the Blitz and emerged as a powerful symbol of civilian endurance, national identity and resistance to dictatorship. The map deliberately turns that recent history into part of the city’s visual story.

Major department stores along Oxford Street are shown alongside public buildings and historic sites, while surrounding illustrations draw attention to famous attractions and personalities. This mixture of commerce, history and civic pride makes the map a fascinating piece of mid-twentieth-century popular cartography.

Kerry Lee became known for pictorial maps in which accurate geography was enlivened by humour, historical references and dense illustration. This London map is among the best examples of that approach: informative enough to explore closely, but designed above all to entertain and celebrate the city.

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Description

London, The Bastion of Liberty is a post-war pictorial map by Kerry Lee, published in 1951 and printed by Chromoworks Ltd. Rather than aiming for strict cartographic formality, it presents London as a lively accumulation of landmarks, institutions, historic characters and visual jokes.

Map Details

Artist / mapmaker: Kerry Lee
Date: 1951
Printer: Chromoworks Ltd.
Map type: Pictorial map
Coverage: Central London from Earl’s Court to the City and from Lambeth to Regent’s Park

A Post-War Celebration of London

The map’s title is central to its meaning. Only a few years after the Second World War, London was still marked by bomb damage and reconstruction, but it also carried enormous symbolic weight as a city that had survived the Blitz.

Lee’s map transforms that history into a confident, colourful celebration of London’s survival and character.

Landmarks, Shops and Historical Characters

Principal buildings share space with department stores, theatres and famous personalities. The effect is deliberately crowded and playful: the viewer is encouraged to wander across the map and discover details rather than simply follow streets.

Kerry Lee’s Pictorial Style

Lee specialised in pictorial maps that combined geography with illustration. His work belongs to a twentieth-century tradition in which maps were created as souvenirs, educational images and decorative records of place.

Why This Map Stands Out

Most maps in the collection document how London was laid out. This one documents how London wished to see itself in the early 1950s: historic, resilient, humorous and unmistakably metropolitan.

Supplied unframed as a fine art print.