City of Women London is an interactive, digital map which has renamed well-known London Underground stations after significant women and non-binary people.  

The digital version was built using UCL’s Memory Mapper, an open-source spatial storytelling tool, developed by The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA).  

This collaborative public history project celebrates women’s role in London’s history, and aims to inspire those who live and work in the capital today.  

The project was led by writer Reni Eddo-Lodge and actor Emma Watson, in collaboration with writer and activist Rebecca Solnit, Transport for London (TfL), Haymarket Books, and interdisciplinary researchers at UCL.  

The digital version, led by Dr Leah Lovett (UCL CASA), allows people to learn more about each person and their lives. The online map is made up of featured biographies and interviews with contemporary women and non-binary people.

 

Text: Our hope is that the interactive map will invite a deeper exploration of local heritage and the layered history of this city. With Memory Mapper, we are also handing over the tools for people to map the stories of places that are significant to them

While the three project leads selected the individuals represented in the map, it is intended to serve as a starting point. The goal is to encourage people to think about cities’ hidden histories, and to tell their own stories too.  

UCL’s Leah Lovett reflects, “Our hope is that the interactive map will invite a deeper exploration of local heritage and the layered history of this city. With Memory Mapper, we are also handing over the tools for people to map the stories of places that are significant to them.”  

City of Women London, which has been running since early 2021, shows clearly how technology and tools developed for academic research can be applied in community projects. It’s already being used as a teaching resource in schools.   

The focus is now on delivering engagement and outreach, with a programme of talks and workshops, and a series of interviews by schools with living people on the map now available online.  

The print map is published by Haymarket Books and the digital map is available for anyone to access. Please contact Leah Lovett to discuss opportunities for engagement activities.

Further resources

Contact

A smiling person with short brown hair and high cheekbones looks away from the camera to their right.
Leah Lovett

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis

Click to email. l.lovett@ucl.ac.uk

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