ILIFFE

 Iliffe & Son Maps

This firm originated as a printing and publishing business established by William Iliffe in Coventry. Under his son, William Isaac Iliffe (1843-1917), now as Iliffe & Son, the firm branched into cycling periodicals and books relating to photography, cycling and other pastimes. In 1882 it was offering two weekly magazines – The Cyclist and The Tricyclist, as well as the monthly Wheel World. 

Its original London office was 98 Fleet St but by 1890 it was advertised at 3 St Bride St, Ludgate Hill. Iliffe was joined by Henry Sturmey (of hub gear fame) who edited the firm’s The Cyclist magazine from 1879 to 1896. For a few years the firm was known as Iliffe, Sons and Sturmey before Sturmey left in 1901 to pursue interests in the expanding motor trade. The firm continued again as Iliffe & Son at 3 St Bride St (by 1908 20 Tudor St, as Iliffe & Sons Ltd), expanding into publications for motor and air transport, such as The Autocar and The Motor Cycle. By 1926 its address was given as Dorset House, Tudor St London EC4.

In the September1886 edition of The Wheel World, one of its publications, it advertised J. Coventry & Co.’s Cyclists’ and General Tourists’ Maps, on a scale of four miles to an inch, initially for

• Liverpool & Manchester
• North Wales
• The Lake District
• Environs of Birmingham
• Yorkshire

Price1s 6d in cloth case, 2s on cloth in case; “other sheets in preparation”. Other than that Coventry’s were a Manchester firm I have no further information on these maps.

Also still published were editions of W. J. Spurrier’s Cyclists’ and Tourists’ Handbook. This was an early guide to main roads, as was his ‘Wayabout’ Map, giving their rideability. Included on the latter as ‘unrideable’ were such main routes as Scarborough to Whitby, though as the guide was originally drawn up in the ‘ordinary’ age it was perhaps a throwback to that era. In 1898 it published The Cyclists’ Route Book for Great Britain & Ireland – ‘an original description of upward of 38,000 miles of road’ by W. J. Spurrier.

Bicycle News, April 5 1890, reported:

A new map, of considerable use to London cyclists of the country around the metropolis, has just been published. It extends 250 miles north, 115 miles west and to the coast on the south and east; area 36 inches by 25 inches. The map is boldly coloured to show all the nearest main roads out of London at a glance. The names of places along the routes, with their distances from London, also the position of dangerous hills, are clearly defined, Cross and by-roads are clearly shown. Each route is quoted and numbered on the map; and a copious index is attached, giving the distance from London, places where hotel accommodation can be had, and the name and number of the route, so that any place on the map can be found and its distance ascertained at a glance. It can be obtained of our publishers, Iliffe and Son, 3. St. Bride Street, London E.C. 

During the 1890s Iliffe published the extensive ‘Way About’ series of shilling guidebooks, mostly county-based, giving descriptive tours and other information largely written by cyclists for cyclists. Each book included a county map, an uncoloured but updated version of the G. Philip map produced for them some time before by Bartholomew. 

Later publications included The Autocar road maps of England and Wales and part of Scotland in 24 sheets (on card), 8 miles to an inch, on a Bartholomew base map.

See also notes respecting Iliffe & Sons under George Philip, Letts and Gall & Inglis. The company was still publishing in 1960 on all types of motorised transport and motor sport. The Iliffe name lives on as the publishers Iliffe Media.