Where the maps go
When maps leave me, they take on their own life. People buy them for all sorts of reasons – gifts, nostalgia, local pride, or simply because they like having a way of seeing all of the drinking potential in their area.

Of course, most maps go to the area they’re for, but I’ve sent maps all over the UK and to places much further afield. Australia, America, Canada, Europe. It’s always nice to think that my creations are being appreciated around the planet.

Bespoke Maps
Occasionally I’ll get a pub/bar owner or regular person asking if I can add their premises or garden shed pub to a map. Now that I print my own maps, I can do this, and I haven’t been charging any extra for the additional work. But I’m thinking about changing that it’s more of an available feature, for a small additional cost.

Sometimes I’ll offer to make a bespoke version if I know it’s going up in a pub. I’ll usually add a custom symbol to match their branding if they’d like it.

Random Applications
I have been asked if I’ll sell versions on mugs, tea towels and t-shirts etc. They just wouldn’t be legible if I tried that. But occasionally I allow people to go off and have unusual versions made themselves. Oner person made their Bingley area of the Bradford map into a t-shirt print, and another person also in the Bradford area, had the map made into wallpaper for their office.

On show in pubs and bars etc.
I’ve sometimes offered a map to a pub or bar, and occasionally they buy them out of the blue. There are probably quite a few up in places that I have no idea about or won’t get to visit, but it’s really nice to see them in a pub or bar, especially if they’re places I frequent.

A small number of shops have also sold my maps at different times too.

Museums & Libraries
Leeds Central Library have various editions of my Leeds maps. On their directory I’m lksted as an author. Which will be the only time that ever happens.

The Leeds Museum Discovery Centre also have my maps. I had to fill in various paperwork for them. It was as if to ensure they were stolen Egyptian artefacts or something. All good for their Social History Collection though.

Reviews and comments
I’ve had a almost entirely great reviews on eBay and Etsy. Although one woman did review the Harrogate town map in 2024 with three stars, saying “not worth the money I’m afraid”. I’m not sure what the issue was. Did she think she was paying for the paper rather than the time and effort taken to create it?

I’ve had a huge number of good comments via Facebook as well, that would have taken much longer to compile.

Barry Cryer
The late writer and comedy Legend Barry Cryer was born in Leeds so I contacted his agent after I made the Leeds Bygone map in 2015. I offered a free copy, for a bit of nostalgia for his home city as he might remember some of the lost places. (I was just being nice as I’d heard him on the radio as I was working on it one day.)

After speaking to him earlier in the week, he received all three types of Leeds poster and he called me to say they were “magnificent” and that he was going to frame the Bygone one. And in typical style he made me laugh by saying “I could get pissed just looking at it”.
I said I’d be using that line.