Fake Britain: A Map Of Fictional Locations In England, Scotland And Wales

M@
By M@ Last edited 21 months ago
Fake Britain: A Map Of Fictional Locations In England, Scotland And Wales

Like this? Prints are now available. And the map has now been expanded to an award-winning world atlas of 5,000 fictional places.

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  • Ever wondered where to find Midsomer, Holby City, Emmerdale or Broadchurch?
  • Where are Hogwarts, Bleak House and the 100 Aker Wood?
  • Do you know where Postman Pat, Trumpton, Fireman Sam and Thomas the Tank Engine are set?

We've put together a map of fictional locations from film, TV, literature and other sources. Take a look around this alternative nation and see how many places you recognise. From Judge Dredd to Vanity Fair, it's all here.

The vast majority of entries are well defined geographically. Some — such as Beanotown and Blackadder's Dunny on the Wold — are a little more nebulous, but we've added them for fun. Hogwarts is an unmappable location (unless it's a Marauder's Map you're looking at), but we've had a go anyway.

Can you help?

Any map like this cannot be complete. The realm of fiction is vast, and we'll never capture a fraction of the possibilities. But we'd love to hear suggestions for additions or corrections. Please leave ideas in the comments or email matt@londonist.com. We'll list your name in an acknowledgements section, which we'll add below.

Is there an index to places?

Yes! It took bloody ages, but we now have a full list of locations and their inspirations. You can find it as a Google document here. We will adjust the list to reflect new changes to the map. Of course, somebody is now going to ask for every location to be grid-referenced. Damn you.

Who helped?

First, a special mention to two people. Rhys Davies sent in an extensive list of locations (dozens of suggestions) that helped fill in some of the quieter corners of the map. We've since granted him co-creator status for the sheer depth of his ongoing involvement. Eva Snyder, meanwhile, kindly put together a written list of all the locations mapped up to version 3, which has evolved into the full index.


We started off with about 200 locations (see original), but the map has since been improved immeasurably by suggestions from many others. The tally now stands at about more than 891 locations, so most of the map is crowdsourced.

We'd like to thank, in alphabetical order: Lupin Addams 2.0, Barry Arrowsmith, Lesley Arrowsmith, Kathy Austin, Fabio Paolo Barbieri, Nick Barlow, Ian Barnett, Gordon Bartlett, Fleur Bateman, Piers Beckley, S Bisson, Patricia Bracewell, R Brite, Kim Burns, Carmen Carter, Justin Cavernelis-Frost, Andrew Chadwick, John Chance, Philippa Chapman, Jacqui Collier, Chris Comley, davelostdave, Rhys Davies, Oliver Drake, Chris Edwards, Lord Effington, Paul Ellinson, Michael Ewart, David Fathers, Paul Ferguson, FlintPaper577, Andrew Forrester, Greg Forster, Johnny Fox,  Amanda Nichole Franquet, Gabrielle Fuller, 'Danny', 'The Ghost of a Trophy Hunted's Child', Dave Gillen, Fiona Gillian, David Goffin, Wayne Gooderham, Jan Gray, Andrew J Green, Kelly Green, Alan Hakim, Tim Hill, Tom Hopkins, Valentine Hunecke, Vicky Inglis, 'Kev', Karen James, Lyndsey Johnston, Tom Jones, Martin Jubb, James Kabala, Joe Kerr, Andy Kinnear, Craig Lauro, David Lee, Charlotte Li, Toby Litt, David Long, Dan Looker, Lori, Linda MacDonald, Lee Malcolmson, Mark the Plant, Janusz Marszewski, Tyler McChantelle, Pauline Meek, Martyn Mellodew, Steven Melville, Martyn Mellodew, Mark Murphy, Bruce Murray, Hendrix Nash, Mim Newland, Esther Ng, Colin Noble, Frank Norman, McTavish O'Moonah, Jitensha Oni, Heather Owen, Richard William Parker, Ed Pendrous, Ian Pidgley, David Riffkin, Wayne Robinson, Natalia Romero, David S, Andy Sale, Laurence Scales, Danny Scroggins, David Sharp, Caroline Shenton, 'Silverwhistle', Robin Simpson, Mike Sizemore, Colin Smith, James Smith, Eva Snyder, David Somerlinck and the Extreme Pedantry Facebook group, Miguel Sousa, 'Steven', Heather Stewart, Trevor Stone, Abi Sutherland, Jo Tacon, Graeme Keith Talboys, Adam Tandy, Karen Tate, Steven Tayler, Neil Taylor, James Thatcher, Jan Vanhove, 'Vicky the Labrat', Gerben Vos, Sarah Waldock, Angelika Walker, Chad Walters, Becca Walton, Graham Ward, Andy Webb, John Wetherell, David Whittaker, Dave Whittam, Den Whitton, Barbara Williams, Simon Williams, Chris Wirth, Keith Wood and Spencer Woodcock. Apologies to those who made suggestions but are not listed above; you may have been beaten to it by somebody else.

Like this? Prints are now available.

Last Updated 23 June 2022