Personalised Old Map of Forest Hill

Capture the unique character of Forest Hill, London, with a bespoke map that brings its rich past to life. This personalised old Ordnance Survey map offers a fascinating glimpse into how Forest Hill once looked, making it an exceptional keepsake for your home or an inspired gift for local history enthusiasts. Whether you’re commemorating a first home, celebrating special memories, or simply indulging your curiosity, this map allows you to connect with the changing landscape and heritage of Forest Hill in a truly personal way.

On your map, you’ll discover the area encompassing the iconic Horniman Museum and Gardens, which has been a community landmark for generations. The map also reveals the site of Forest Hill railway station, one of the earliest in South London, along with the surroundings of Dartmouth Road and Sydenham Hill Wood, a remnant of the ancient Great North Wood. The map traces where the Crystal Palace once stood nearby, and shows the neighbourhood that would later become home to Blythe Hill Fields, now a beloved local green space.

This map is fully personalisable to make it uniquely yours. You can centre the design on any address in Forest Hill—your home, a childhood street, or a place brimming with meaning. Highlight important locations with custom markers, whether it’s a school, a favourite park, or a memorable meeting point. Add a heartfelt dedication, commemorate an occasion, or choose your own map title and subtitle. Every element is customisable, crafted by hand to your precise requirements for a truly one-of-a-kind piece.

Your personalised map could focus on these areas in Forest Hill

• Dartmouth Road
• Perry Vale
• Honor Oak Park
• Sydenham Hill
• London Road
• Kirkdale
• Devonshire Road
• Horniman Museum and Gardens
• Perry Rise
• One Tree Hill

Each map is produced with meticulous care, using the highest quality giclée printing on archival-grade paper or artist’s cotton canvas, ensuring enduring richness of detail and colour. Choose from an elegant range of presentation options—classic wooden frames with crystal-clear acrylite glazing, or a premium float-framed stretched canvas for a gallery-quality finish. Every map is made to order, combining timeless craftsmanship with modern quality standards.

Your Forest Hill map is recreated from authentic Ordnance Survey maps dating from the 1870s through the 1960s, capturing real historical detail from the Victorian era and beyond. The OS maps were renowned for their painstaking accuracy and artistic flair, charted by surveyors using intricate methods to document every street, wood, and railway. The aesthetic charm and extraordinary precision of these historic maps make them both visually striking and deeply informative—an ideal way to celebrate Forest Hill’s history and your place within it.

Please note you are purchasing a fully customised old map. Modern landmarks, such as your house, may not have been built yet! You can contact me to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.

Generally, larger maps look much better than smaller maps, because you can enjoy all of the smaller details. If you need a smaller map, I would suggest ‘zooming in’ so that the map covers a smaller area.

Because these maps are custom made to order, we can make you a map that looks great at at any size, from very small (8x10in/20x25cm) all the way to a few metres. If you are looking for a very large map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 18x24in (45x60cm) version of this map.

Every map can be personalised or customised, for example if you want to mark your house or street on the map. The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.

This personalised map would make a wonderful housewarming, birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, Mother’s Day, wedding anniversary or work leaving gift for someone from Forest Hill, or someone who works there.

This map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or on artist’s cotton canvas. Several frame choices are available for free, or custom framing is available for an additional fee. Please get in touch if you’re looking to order a very large map for a hotel or office, or if you’re looking for a size that isn’t available on my shop.