As a large city, Liverpool has seen a great many maps and plans made of it. Some of these maps show the wider area around the city. They may include areas as far afield as North Wales or Manchester, Lancaster or Chester.
Old maps are a great way to research the history of a place. They record changes in the landscape, like long-gone roads or new areas of houses for a growing population. Some show a familiar Liverpool, but look closer and you'll see all kinds of details that you may have missed. I recommend looking at some places you know well, such as the parks and streets you knew as a child. See if you can spot your old haunts!
Don't forget to check out the Interactive Maps, including the History Map which shows the sites that have been written about on this very website. It has a modern basemap with historic features laying out the things you can see in the landscape today.
There are other old maps of Liverpool dotted around the Internet, usually on national archives websites:
- A Plan of Liverpool, with the environs, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, accessed 16th October 2025.
- Map of Liverpool and its Environs (Southampton, 1874-1893), British History Online, accessed 16 October 2025. An excellent, very detailed map.
- 'Sheet 106', in Map of Lancashire (Southampton, 1846-1873), British History Online, accessed October 16, 2025. Not as detailed as the above map, and not as nicely scanned, but still of interest.
- Lancashire Old Maps, Cartophilia, accessed 16th October 2025. A huge list of Lancashire maps, though some of the links are now broken since they went through a redesign a few years back.
You can buy many of these old maps of Liverpool as high quality prints from the Liverpool History Book and Map shop. At the shop you can also buy notebooks, postcards and canvas style prints of some of the old maps.
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Mapping the history of Liverpool
Old maps, interactive maps and the historic landscape of Merseyside.
Buy maps
Many of the maps on this site can be bought as high quality prints, either as paper or ready-framed.
You can also buy notebooks, postcards, greetings cards and other map-printed items!
Go to the shop to find out more
The book
Liverpool: a landscape history is a book about Liverpool and Merseyside from the very earliest days to the 21st century.
You’ll learn about everything from the Calderstones to the Capital of Culture.
Signed copies are available direct from me, the author, in the shop.
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A set of three matching Cassini maps from three different periods, designed to appeal to anyone who wants to discover the hidden history of their local landscape.
- Cassini Old Series Maps first published between 1805 and 1874
- Cassini Revised New Series Maps first published between 1896 and 1904
- Cassini Popular Edition Maps first published between 1919 and 1926