Not so much strange, as bad

One of my favourite websites is hosted here on WordPress. Strange Maps is always a delight and frequently interesting and educational.

I came across a pretty strange map myself the other day, though in truth this map of the UK is not so much strange as bad.

It’s from an independent travel agency in a small English market town which in fairness should remain anonymous. It’s been painted on the window. I assume that the white lines are meant to represent sandy beach resorts. The white triangle and white circle on the left are all that stands out in a picture of Big Ben while the semi-circular blobby thing on the right represents the giant ferris wheel which is the London Eye.

What is impressive is just how bad the map of the UK is. I found myself saying – “look at Wales! – no look at East Anglia! – no look at Cornwall! – Berwickshire! – the Mull of Kintyre! – Devon!” before just getting out of the car and photographing the dratted thing in a spirit of awe.

In fairness, it would have been painted freehand in reverse on the inside of the window using glass paint or blackboard paint, but why on earth whoever did it didn’t get hold of a real map of the UK, reverse it on their PC and copy it I’ll never know. For a freehand reverse image it probably isn’t that bad.

I do apologise for the quality of the image – it’s a bugger photographing images on glass, and I was taking the one I take to railway stations to a railway station at the time.