Kevan James

October 2024

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Who, or what, is Kingsborough?

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There are (at least as far as I know) two cities or towns in the world, called Kingsborough.

Now, there is a third - and its fictional.

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My Father, the late Terry James, was a broadcaster with the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS). A producer and presenter of radio programmes, in his day BFBS was based at King's Buildings, Westminster, just down the road from the Houses of Parliament and as some might say the very beating heart of London (It is in Chalfont, near Gerrard's Cross today, a move that happened long after he retired). Dad however spent most of his career in foreign fields, keeping the serving members of Her Majesty's Armed Forces entertained and informed - Cyprus (where I came along and quite late in his life, courtesy of the British Military Hospital, Nicosia), Germany and Libya being three. Throughout the late 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, BFBS could be found wherever there was a permanent station of UK Forces, like Belize, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

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Dad retired early, at just 50, in 1978 and spent most of the the remainder of his days with his feet up. He did work again however, perhaps surprisingly as Night Manager at two hotels - he left the first when it closed and was quickly snapped up by the second. Obviously he had more to him than spinning records and he further demonstrated this with a minor interest in maps.

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He wasn't a huge collector of them, but would spend time poring over those he did have and whenever I went anywhere he had not, I always got a map of it for him. Places like Dallas and Washington DC in the USA for example. He was also a huge fan of the French capital Paris and would spend a weekend there at the drop of a hat. Curiously and despite being something of a Francophile, he never went anywhere else unless passing through and never learnt to speak French either. But he did like Paris.

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Maps however did capture him somewhat and in 1986 he decided to draw one. Not of anywhere in particular but from his own imagination. Using only a ruler and pencils, he bought A3 drawing pads and let his mind run free.

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He had no set plan or idea for what would be on his map and drew just as he felt like, starting with a big city and extending well into the countryside. And he didn't stop until he had drawn 203 individual A3 sheets - to view it all means an extremely large, flat surface or room to do so and only twice has his map ever been laid out to look at at completely because of its size. 

 

What dad was not however, was a cartographer. He was no maths expert (neither am I...) and he had no training or experience of cartography. He was just an enthusiast but he did have some some artistic talent. That manifested itself primarily with his broadcasting but although I wouldn't describe his map as a work of genius, it does go some way towards it. 

 

Alright I'm biased - but consider again that all he used was pencil, ruler and pad, this map is a remarkable piece of work. One has to wonder how his drawing might have developed had the bug really bitten. Another of his limitations was not being able to work out scale properly - as I said, Dad was no mathematician and as a consequence, there is no set scale to his map and some details are dramatically under-sized, athletics stadiums and racecourses being good examples. Even so, given the limits with what he knew and worked with, his map is a work of art. 

 

Something else Dad did not have was the internet, google maps and other modern methods of finding out things, which is an advantage I do have. At least I do now - dad of course died well before the rise of the 'net, in June 1999, at only 73. 

 

Dad was also no aviation expert so asked me to draw airports for him. I added a number of these; some older, more traditionally designed air fields as well as an up-to-date and modern mega-airport to serve the big city. The other airports drawn represented older facilities that had been expanded to accommodate the rapid rise of air transport, with big jets like the Boeing 747 meaning (as in real life) airports became cramped and overcrowded. At least until the revolution in airport design and reconstruction that heralded the modern day era. There are also a couple of military air bases included.

 

Dad never added to his map after 1990 so for thirty-two years, it remained untouched. I kept it in its packaging, occasionally having a look at certain sheets, including those airports and wondered how they might look now, over three decades on. 

 

Maps of course play an integral part of my work as an aviation writer and in the course of this, I have visited and taken advantage of various museums. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London for example, has a significant collection of maps including fictional versions. Some of these have been featured in books and films (Lord of the Rings being a good example) so it set me wondering... 

 

Remembering that dad did have some limits, could I restore his map, put right some of the scale imperfections and use a 'bendy ruler' - something else dad did not have - to present the curves found in railway lines and other aspects better? 

 

So nearly three years ago I set to it. My aim was firstly to bring dad's work to the next level as they say - to do what I think dad himself would have done, had he the tools and the know-how to do so. Some of the sheets were a little worn so need some TLC to restore them to their former glory - and it wasn't quick with all those sheets to work through. It took dad over four years to draw what he did. 

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The main section covers those 203 A3 sheets already mentioned plus an additional 48 A3 sheets which represent 'the south', about 230 miles from the big city. So the map is in two sections; the larger north section, and a smaller south section. 

 

The restoration work is now complete, as of the end of September 2024. The second aim is to see if I can find a museum to accept it and, from time to time, display it, either in part or in full. Whether that is actually do-able remains to be seen, but dad's map seems worthy of a greater audience, if at all possible. 

 

With dad's work starting in 1986 and ending in 1990, the map is dated by splitting the difference at 1988. Restoration began at the southernmost point, and starting with the airport (me being me, an airport was an obvious starting point).

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Location:

Dad set his map on fictional islands, giving some places equally fictional names, and the islands are located on the Mid-Atlantic ridge, a little way north of the Azores, which sit on the same ridge. As mentioned already, the main section is about 230 miles from the southern end of the islands. 

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The Name

The city as a whole didn't have a name however, as my Father never gave it one. I was for some time, of two minds - do I give it a name or leave it without? Given that Dad did use some names, giving it a name seemed logical. For the city as a whole, the most ancient part Dad called 'King's' as in the King's Borough. So a simple extension of that made sense. At least to me, hence 'Kingsborough', especially since there aren't many with the same name.  As I worked my way through the sheets, further names were added; Terrbridge and Jamesbury, two smaller cities, are obvious in their origin.

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There are, now, two versions of the map; the original paper version and a partially coloured digital version.

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The four sheets shown here represent the centre of his city; the first four A3 sheets Dad drew.

'North' is as usual on maps, to the top.

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These four sheets, as originally drawn and joined together, show the historic quarter, the area around the castle and to the north of it. To the west (on the left) is the business quarter with tall buildings and north of that, the entertainment quarter - called Camden Lock - with its clubs and bars. And in the middle, the big city park.

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The digital version:

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On the subject of names, some were quite imaginative, others less so. Dad was a Londoner, born and bred, proudly British, so it's not a surprise to find some influence there. 'Wellesley Plaza' complete with the 'Wellington Monument' in the centre, just along the road from 'Waterloo' and it's mainline railway station is one example. He was also very fond of Paris so there is a heavy input of French names also. He also named some streets and places after a few of the people he worked with at the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS). There is 'McDonagh House' and 'Parsons Hall' to name just two - there are others. He meant no slight to anybody not named, I think it was more a case of those that sprang to mind.

 

One copy of the digital city centre map has been printed and it is quite large at 30" x 20". It is in a frame, on my office wall and I'm really rather pleased with it. Dad would have loved it!

 

The temptation to add to this is quite strong but also a little impractical due to the size. One possibility is to create a Wallpaper Map with the size of each sheet reduced accordingly. Reducing the size would mean some of the detail becomes less clear of course - it will be much smaller - but I don't think that would be too big a price to pay for what would be a spectacular wall covering.

 

One usually finds such wallpaper maps in estate agents but they do have other uses...

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The header image at the top is a schematic Dad drew to show where the city of Kingsborough is in relation to all the other sheets drawn, and digitally enhanced with all the names added. The vertical and horizontal lines represent each individual A3 sheet of paper.

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​As I scan more sheets, I'll add more images, so watch this space...

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All images © Terry James 1986-1990 / Kevan James 2024

 

 

Snapshot # 1

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The King's Borough - the very first sheet drawn:

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