A Very British Map: The Ordnance Survey Story

Rachel Hewitt: The Ordnance Survey is absolutely a great British success story, and it forms a model for many national mapping agencies around the world. Certainly the Ordnance Survey makes Britain pretty much the leading country in the world in terms of possessing accurate geographical information about itself.

Mike Parker: In some ways, the Ordnance Survey is a perfect mirror of Britain, at its best and its worst. At its best - entrepreneurial, go-getting, quietly ambitious for the country, beautiful fusion of art and science. And then it is, as an organisation, and always has been, rather stuffy, rather pompous, rather self-important. Britain in a nutshell.

Nicholas Crane: I cannot possibly imagine this country functioning without Ordnance Survey maps.